In what is almost surely a lost cause, former GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani is promising Florida voters pretty much anything to win today's Republican primary. Philip Klein reports on the politics of pandering in the Sunshine State.
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Comments to "New at Reason":
Pro Libertate | January 29, 2008, 5:04pm | #
Oh, I don't know about pandering. If candidates want to promise me a tax-free haven, with free access to a space elevator and a special exemption from 90% of all federal laws and regulations, well, the heck with the rest of you.Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 5:12pm | #
While the Labour party in Australia is getting more sane the Republican Party in the USA is getting more insane. Damn I wish the LP had a chance of actually winning an election.Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 5:13pm | #
By LP I mean Libertarian Party (USA) not Labour PartyBrandybuck | January 29, 2008, 5:14pm | #
...former GOP frontrunner Rudy GiulianiDid Dondero write that blurb or something? That bozo was NEVER the front runner. Just check the primary results. Geez, even Reason is spinning the news.
Pro Libertate | January 29, 2008, 5:17pm | #
As usual, all the talk, hype, and pre-primary polls were wrong. Why we have to go through all this crap is beyond me.I'd like to be the first to thank the Mayor of 9/11 for playing.
Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 5:22pm | #
Pro Libertate, I'M not sure I would count Mr. G. out yet. The setup for this whole primary season is different than ever before in modern American history. If people get pissed off enough at McCain and Romney he might be able to pull it off. I think I would rather have Mr. G. than Romney or McCain.Pro Libertate | January 29, 2008, 5:28pm | #
It looks like he's about to lose Florida in a big way. If so, he can't claim that he wasn't trying, and he'll be perceived--correctly--as being a non-contender. Ron Paul is doing better than Captain 9/11, after all. People tend to want to vote for someone they think can win, rightly or wrongly.Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 5:39pm | #
If you want the elction results after the polls close tonight you can get them here:http://enight.dos.state.fl.us/
Paste that URL and you will get the Florida Department of State Division of Elections
Isaac Bartram | January 29, 2008, 5:43pm | #
While the Labour party in Australia...Actually the correct spelling is Labor party in Australia thanks to a colorful character named King O'Malley who tried to introduce American spelling to Australia and whose only success was the name of the party he was so influential in.
O'Malley also stumped for prohibition and while it had some success for the most part it explains why he was sometimes not overly popular with his Labor Party mates. I'm willing to bet that the miners from Queenstown weren't thinking about his stand on prohibition when they gave him enough votes to get him elected as a Senator from Tasmania. But their wives might have been.
As you can see I could not care less who wins the Florida primary. So I have lots of time to correct someone else's spelling. :)
T | January 29, 2008, 5:49pm | #
So I have lots of time to correct someone else's spelling. :)And the biodorks are the ones who need lives?
Cesar | January 29, 2008, 5:49pm | #
enough votes to get him elected as a Senator from Tasmania.From Tasmania? Tasmania is part of Australia? I'm pretty damned good at geography but I always thought it was a separate country. Learn something new every day, I guess.
bigbigslacker | January 29, 2008, 5:51pm | #
See how well the recount is going in New Hampshire. Suprise, Hillary "won" again.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQEQ7qHvgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHL_YMBolRs
Can't wait for the Florida recount.
Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 5:54pm | #
Thanks Issac! Are you Australian or did you spend a lot of time there? It is interesting. I just assumed it was spelled with a "u" because only four countries on Earth use standard US spelling. The USA, the Phillipines, the Federated States of Micronesia and Liberia. I will have to look him up.Isaac Bartram | January 29, 2008, 6:12pm | #
Yahoo AnswererJust spent a lot of time there.
"Labor" as in "Party" is the only word where Australia deviates from standard British spelling. The word on its own is spelled "labour".
Happy to help, Cesar.
Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 6:12pm | #
7 sounds correct but don't forget about the panhandle. Some of the panhandle is in another time zone.Rudy Giuliani | January 29, 2008, 6:13pm | #
This is not pandering. In taking the time to go and talk to the great people of Florida I have learned things that I was not previously aware of and this has caused me to have an opinion on these important topics. If this Philip were to take the time to visit Florida he too would see the vital importance of these issues. The insinuation that I am talking about these vital issues solely to get votes in Florida and that I do not really believe it reminds me of things that happened to me while I was mayor of New York during 9/11.In conclusion God Bless America and nobody else.
Pro Libertate | January 29, 2008, 6:15pm | #
I'll vote for whomever says we'll invade Cuba to save the mojito.Chris Potter | January 29, 2008, 6:15pm | #
Answerer,You mean only 4 English-speaking countries, right? I would be very surprised if everyone in non-Anglophone countries learning English was learning the British variant. Probably a sizeable proportion, but I doubt it's everyone.
Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 6:18pm | #
Sorry Pro Libertate but Dennis Kucinich dropped out of the race. He was the only pro-mojito candidate. He was also the only candidate with experience in intergalactic relations.Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 6:24pm | #
Yes Chris, you are correct. I was only talking about English speaking countries. I was also not counting US territories as independent countries. Of course everyone knows that they use standard US spelling on Wake Island, Navassa Island and on the Palmyra Atoll.Pro Libertate | January 29, 2008, 6:26pm | #
Well, his intergalactic contacts can't be denied. He made them before witnesses. Warren Beatty's sister was one.Thoughtcriminal,
I've heard that the trend is away from British English to American English for the second-languagers. Slowly, our hegemony grows.
Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job | January 29, 2008, 6:39pm | #
So Romney is really going in a more Huckabee / Edwards direction on economics? Weren't his old economic positions the only ones he'd held that he hadn't changed since he decided he was running for President? Weren't they also the only reason why certain conservatives threw him their support?Yahoo Answerer | January 29, 2008, 6:51pm | #
I am not sure there are a majority of fiscal conservatives in the OGP (Once Grand Party) anymore. McCain is certainly not a fiscal conservative either. Conservative talk show host Glen Beck has said that if McCain gets the nomination he does not think he could bring himself to vote for the senator. He would seriously consider voting for a third party or independent candidate.Vincent Gigante | January 29, 2008, 6:55pm | #
We know he knows he is doing really bad when he tries to get the space junkie vote. I will enjoy his 3rd place finish today.Danny | January 29, 2008, 7:01pm | #
Vincent Gigante: I'd more enjoy a 4th place finish... behind RP.tarran | January 29, 2008, 7:10pm | #
The bulk of the voters want to be pandered to with offers of a chicken in every pot, a job guaranteed for life and free pony rides every 4th of july.They have no conception of how they are forced to pay for these extravagances.
If the bulk of the voters were libertarian, Mitt Romney would be currying favor by promising to limit taxes and slash spending and the like.
If people insist on buying Yugo's, that's what the car sellers will stock.
Kolohe | January 29, 2008, 7:10pm | #
And we're going to reestablish our space program and eliminate that gap, so we can get our people up to the space station ourselvesWow, he is actually campaigning on a 'missle gap.' Take that, Obama, you JFK-wannabe!
Plant Immigration Rights Supporter | January 29, 2008, 7:22pm | #
I am not advocating his position here but if they HAVE to spend my stollen money on SOMETHING I would rather it be NASA than a bridge to nowhere, HUD houses or subsidies to poorly run comanies that are failing because of their own mistakes or because they caved into the demands of union thugs.Plant Immigration Rights Supporter | January 29, 2008, 7:28pm | #
It is early yet but acording to that website someone gave us above it looks like Issue 1 is passing by over 70%. It needs 60% to pass acording to another law that was passed in Florida by a vote of less than 60%. Florida is a wierd state. But it may be passing as well as it is because a lot of Democrats are staying home because their delagates will not count.Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job | January 29, 2008, 7:33pm | #
tarran:Yeah, I don't expect that going more handout-heavy will turn off voters or anything, I just don't see how it'll wind up being a net plus for Romney unless he thinks Florida is really the end of the race. I was guessing in my comment that all of the pundits who went Romney so far will drop him (with the obvious exception). As far as I can tell his strict adherence to conservative dogma (at least since 2007) was all he had going for him in their eyes other than the family fortune up to this point.
If he strays from their "conservative checklist" in the election and he can't be relied upon to retain his stated positions, why will they continue supporting him? He'd have to do as they want in at least one of these ways, right? I'd imagine they would shift from Romney for some other choice (one they'd still find objectionable) now that the main thing he had going for him in their eyes is gone.
Of course, maybe he thinks Florida will wrap it up and so losing talk show host endorsements won't matter after that...
Mariner | January 29, 2008, 8:10pm | #
it does sound better than the alternatives, PIRS, but I am personally a fan of not having my money promised or given away for the purpose of gaining idjit votes.Has their been a worse campaign in modern history than Rudy??? The only one that comes close is Katherine Harris' run for senate that I can think of...
Kolohe | January 29, 2008, 11:09pm | #
Alan Keyes against Obama for Il senate was worse than Rudy and Harris combinedJumbie | January 29, 2008, 11:25pm | #
Fred Thompson?sv | January 30, 2008, 10:29am | #
even in a conciliatory 'loser' speech after the devastating failure of his hail-mary in florida, giuliani can't help but mock ron paul while ostensibly praising him and the other candidates:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp33FJlJG9Q
it's around 2:10. giuliani, always a prick. yeah he actually DID win all the debates, and even if he had tons of people gaming the internet/phone-in polls, he also beat giuliani in ACTUAL votes gained! admit that republicans like him better than they like you, prick.