Saturday, August 30, 2008

Ron Paul's Rally and the Divided GOP

I shouldn't be surprised, but I have seen no reporting of Ron Paul's "Rally for the Republic" -an event that is being held at the same time as the GOP convention in Minneapolis. Interestingly the rally has sold nearly 10,000 tickets. Contrast that with the media's incessant discussion of divisions among Democrats last week and the coverage of the 50 or so "PUMAs" (Party Unity My Ass) who supported Hillary and refused to vote for Obama.

During the primaries it was clear that it was the GOP that was fundamentally divided between the neocons, the religious right and the economic conservatives. While Romney fared the best among the economic conservatives, Ron Paul did extremely well in many of the contests and has a loyal group of followers.

While its true that there was something of a gender split among white democrats in the democratic primaries --really an Appalachian vs non-Appalachian split-- there was no fundamental difference on the issues between Obama and Clinton (I'm discounting Krugman's hair splitting).

Its clear that one piece of the media narrative will always be "democrats in disarray" (e.g. 90% of NYT's Adam Nagourney columns over the last 10 years) and simply will ignore similar strains in the GOP.

The Palin pick might start to expose some of these rifts as she has clearly fired up the religious right but I doubt that the necons are too happy about McCain picking a foreign policy neophyte given his views on "the transcendental issue of our time" (see David Frum).

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I doubt that the necons are too happy about McCain picking a foreign policy neophyte

Say waht?

Mr Neocon, himself, Bill Kristol enthusiastcally had Palin as his top pick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSy8sNiH9-0

George said...

Picking Palin was a brilliant move. She's a real conservative. If McCain wins, expect some house cleaning in the federal government. haha.. thats awesome...

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah, she is real conservative. She signed into law the highest budget in the history of Alaska. She introduced a "progressive" tax on oil.

And she is bizarre. She faked pregnancy to "protect" her daughter's pregnancy.

lerxst said...

True Kristol is a leading neocon but he is also a total hack, so he will say anything.

For another neocon perspective, see
Krauthammer:

"To gratuitously undercut the remarkably successful "Is he ready to lead" line of attack seems near suicidal."

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Kristol likes to fashion himself as a neocon in his father's mold, but I can't think of a single thing he's written as NYT columnist that opposes Republican talking points. Let's not forget, he was the guy working for Quayle who briefly sold the media on the "new" Dan Quayle--i.e., he really is smart and a true heir to the conservative mantle of Reagan...

George said...

"And she is bizarre. She faked pregnancy to "protect" her daughter's pregnancy."

That is total bullshit and you know it. You forget she's a holy roller Pentecostal. If there's one thing I know about Pentecostal's is they are true believer's in the power of God and to do something like that would totally be out of character for them. Everyone that knows about her knew about her son when he was born and knows this story is nothing more than a weak attempt by the Democrats to discredit her. It's not going to work so forget it.

Anonymous said...

Well George,

A. I am not a democrat.

B.You may know Pentecostals, but you don't know Sarah Palin.

Do you seriously think she went into labor in Texas, then delivered a speech there, then flew eight hours to Alaska to deliver a baby? If so, I have condo in Baghdad I would like to sell you.

George said...

Well Robert, you're going to have to do better than that because I'm not buying it. Give me some real proof.

Anonymous said...

I think there is good chance it will break mainstream, then tears and apologies. We'll have to see.

lerxst said...

I think the pregnancy story is probably total crap --its based on really flimsy evidence and lots of guesswork. It reminds me of Anti-Clinton stuff from the right wing in the 1990s.

Having said that...if this was about a Democrat it would have already been picked up by Drudge, Halperin, Rush and all the rest. If there were really a left-wing media then we would have seen this story front and center by now.

If it were a democrat then even after it was disproved the right wing would still believe it.

George said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080901/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_convention_rdp

Meanwhile, GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, said in a statement that their 17-year-old unmarried daughter was five months pregnant. The campaign said the announcement was made to rebut Internet rumors that Palin's youngest son, born in April, was actually her daughter's.


..enough said.

lerxst said...

It is the daughter that is CURRENTLY pregnant not the baby that the Governor gave birth to...so the conspiracy was wrong and has been disproven.

I actually thought that the daughter missing months of school with "mono' was the most suspicious part of the story not the photos of the gov.

Anonymous said...

George,

Oh great maybe we have two off the normal bell curve pregnancies. Mama at 44 and daughter at 17.


Lerxst,

Kristol knows a fellow traveler when he sees one. Check out the semi-hidden flag in Palin's office. It shows more than her pregnancy :)