By Kevin Foley
Barry Goldwater, the late Arizona senator with the itchy trigger finger who once famously said, "extremism in defense of liberty is no vice" would have loved the final GOP primary debate held in his home state last night, where the four candidates tried to out duel each other as "the most conservative."
Mitt Romney fired the first salvo: "We’ve never had an attack on religious freedom like we’ve had under Obama."
"Repeal civil service laws," shot back Newt Gingrich before adding, "The teacher’s union doesn’t care about kids only protecting bad teachers."
Rick Santorum blasted public schools, "Get the federal government and states out of education."
Ron Paul targeted Obamacare, "When you provide (healthcare) services you move toward tyranny."
The president is "afraid" of Iran, huffed Romney, warning of a nuclear holocaust if Obama is re-elected. The "Massachusetts Moderate" said he’ll be man enough to throw down with the Iranian mullahs when he gets to the White House.
"With this administration, as long as you’re America’s enemy, you’re safe," sniped Gingrich.
With the economy on the mend and President Obama’s poll numbers surging, the GOP is desperately searching for a way to win the White House. There must be GOP strategists somewhere who believe the "shellacking" Obama received in the midterm elections can be repeated if candidates revive the crazy talk of 2009-2010.
Thus, the far right rhetoric heard of late and in Arizona is eerily reminiscent of the screwy chatter at faux grass roots Tea Party rallies orchestrated and funded by the Koch brothers’ FreedomWorks public relations firm.
The difference is these aren’t ignorant rubes down from the sticks, but four men who aspire to lead the free world.
Santorum this week attacked prenatal care for women, called public schools "factories," and compared Obama to Hitler. He is already on the record as wanting to outlaw contraception.
Romney bizarrely declared he was a "severely conservative" governor of Massachusetts.
Then, while campaigning in his home state of Michigan, said the successful bailout of the auto industry was a mistake even as GM posted a record profit.
Gingrich claims the "food stamp president" will "never describe accurately the people who want to kill us," suggesting the disgraced former Speaker believes Obama is in cahoots with Iran and the Taliban.
It’s all conclusive evidence that reactionaries have successfully hijacked the GOP, silenced reasonable voices, and run the Republican party of Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and, yes, Ronald Reagan into a ditch.
The tin foil head gear crowd might be eating it up, but it’s difficult to imagine tens of millions of women, moderate, independent and undecided voters looking at the GOP field and believing a viable president can emerge from such an unholy mess.
Obama is wisely keeping his powder dry and staying focused on the economy and jobs.
While the GOP’s fearsome foursome dig the ditch still deeper, the president’s re-election campaign is collecting a massive war chest along with juicy sound bites for its September ads lest the electorate forget the primary loony tunes.
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Kevin
Foley is president of KEF
Media Associates, an Atlanta-based producer and distributor
of sponsored news content to television and radio media. |
Joe Honick, GMA Internatiional Ltd (2/23):
Kevin, you have misstepped on the matter of the late Senator Goldwater. He was my first mentor in DC when I was a rosy cheeked young college graduate. While he and disagreed on 99 out of a hundred political matters, he was a gracious and honest guy, always available on how to make it through the government jungle without falling on my face.
You may also have missed that he was one of the early campaigners to permit gays to serve openly in the military in an article he wrote perhaps 40 years ago, then declaring: "I don't care if you're gay or straight so long as you can shoot straight." He was chewed up pretty badly by his party for that. As to Arizona being monophilosophically to the right, please remember the very popular and hardly conservative Gabby Gifford. The state is a mixture of demographics that has suffered harshly from the housing collapse as have others.
While there is a powerful conservative element, you really should not put the brand on the place.
The most unfortunate reality of this year's election campaign is that we face a bipartisan absence of clarity and leadership when the nation needs it so much. Finally, the media's inability to ask cogent questions and the candidates' inability to recognize there is also a war going on all produce a confused electorate and a dismal image for us around the world.
Kevin Foley (2/24):
Joe - When I wrote this I was thinking of you when you used the word "reactionary" in one of your posts. It's an apt description for what we're seeing in the GOP right now. It's gotten so bad, Jeb Bush is now warning that they will lose undecided and moderates if they keep it up (I think they have already). Arthur - I'm not sure what Obama is supposed to do about Iran other than sanctions, which seem to be working.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (2/28):
Kevin, I agree with your characterization of the GOP candidates. BTW did you know what separates liberals, conservatives and reactionaries?
Liberals want to do everything regardless of time, money etc; conservatives want to do the same things, just not right away; reactionaries never want to do anything for the first time...so they have a very low birth rate!
[email protected] (2/23):
Kevin, GOP national strategists are probably pulling their hair out (if they have any left) about the debates. Not exactly a winning formula by talking to so little a base. It will be difficult for all, but Ron Paul, to explain to the broad electorate why in 2012 contraception is still considered a winning issue. And Paul has as much a chance of being elected to the White House as does the president of the PRSA.
Nevertheless, I think that there is no certainty that President Obama will be re-elected. The main problem with Obama, as I see it, is his leadership style. He is too willing to waste time seeking to compromise with those who have no interest in compromising. He wasted a full year trying to find middle ground with his health care bill, giving the GOP months to mis-characterize it before he fought back. His record on civil liberties echoes the man who was responsible for Obama's election -- Bush.
He's been very soft on Iran (not that we need another wa r), but, I believe, as another president said many years ago, "To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington, Speech to both Houses of Congress, Jan. 8, 1790. Instead Obama is eliminating boots on the ground at a time when they are needed more than big bombs, of which we have plenty. His approach to foreign policy reminds me of those who insisted that Hitler didn't mean what he said.
That has me worried.
Wes Pedersen (2/23):
Jerry Falwell would embrace all all of these candidates. Remember him and Barry Goldwater? Goldwater nailed it with: "I think every Christian ought to kick Falwell in the ass!" Goldwater, by the way, not only said: "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice," he added: "And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." That is advice that should be not be dismissed lightly.
[email protected] (2/24):
Joe and Kevin -- I, too, had some dealing with Barry Goldwater,(and also Nixon) when my first PR job was with a small political PR firm, though not nearly as much as Joe. Unlike Nixon, who reminds me of Romney --he also couldn't connect with people-- Goldwater could and did. In my very limited engagement with him, Goldwater was gracious and friendly. Those were different political parties, Kevin. Today, both Goldwater and Nixon would probably be booted out of the Republican party for being too liberal. And today's Democratic party is not nearly as liberal as it was during the days of Goldwater and Nixon. Today's Democratic party, in my opinion, resembles what was known as the Rockefeller wing of the GOP, maybe not even as liberal on certain matters.
Joe Honick, GMA International Ltd (2/28):
Arthur, there were no liberal bones in Nixon who, as a Senator, lived in whst used to be called a "RESTRICTED"(IN CAPS) neighborhood, meaning no Jews, Blacks, Italians et al. He was a cold fish, period.
Wes Pedersen (3/01):
Joe, Nixon did indeed live in a restricted neighborhood. I was a neighbor, up the street in a new apartment building that was not restricted. Nixon put on a good show. He kept an old Olds and drove Pat and the girls to church every Sunday, giving me a salute as he drove by. He'd arrive at the church to the "Oohs" and "Ahs" of onlookers who often marveled aloud how he acted just like an ordinary man. He was vice president at the time. His house was a beauty; its announced cost was $75,000, but even in those days, that was clearly too low. Nixon traveled in official limos, of course, and Pat made the rounds in one, too. The restricted area covered a good portion of DC. The brothers who owned it also owned a segment of "farm" land in Maryland, across the line. It, too, was restricted for years.
[email protected] (2/29):
Joe, I know Nixon was a bigot. But some of his legislation proposals were liberal, and that is what I was writing about. Like wanting a national health plan* and the EPA. *Nixon's health plan was killed by Ted Kennedy because he didn't want Nixon to get credit for it. In later years, Kennedy said and wrote that his not cooperating with Nixon on health was one of his biggest mistakes.
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