A
Conservative of Conscience
Jim
Gilmore can win the GOP nomination for president
because he embraces the conservative positions
that appeal to Republican voters.
James
Gilmore announced his exploratory committee for
the Presidency. The MSM yawns. They don’t get
it. He can be president of the United States of
America because he fills the vacuum on the Right.
The former Governor of the Commonwealth of
Virginia can win the Republican nomination as the
strongest conservative. Jim Gilmore can win
the presidency in a close election, like 2000,
because the contrast with the opposition –
whether it’s Hillary and Obama or any liberal
Democrat, will run hope against despair. Hope
always wins with Americans.
Gilmore
fills the void Sen. George Allen left after he
self-destructed this fall. Moreover, he stands
taller than the few fellows running now who share
the Right.
The
primary-voting majority in the Republican Party is
conservative, and not compromising, on economic,
defense and social issues.
Rudy
Guiliani is too liberal with too messy a personal
life.
John
McCain’s swings from loose cannon to anti-free
speech liberal overcome his war hero credentials.
Chuck
Hagel is McCain’s loose cannon clone and weak on
illegal immigration.
Sam
Brownback voted for the "shamnesty" bill
to reward illegal aliens.
David
Huckabee is a solid conservative, but unknown on
illegal immigration. The MSM will make this
ordained Baptist minister scarier than the Grand
Inquisitor Torguemada.
Duncan
Hunter is a good conservative, but career
Congressman doesn’t compare to CEO of the 12th
largest state.
Newt
Gingrich is Mr. Great Ideas, but his personal life
and failures as Speaker make him damaged goods.
Tommy
Thompson would have to have an idea that separates
him from the Big Government Republicanism of
President Bush.
Which
brings us to the front-running Conservative
wannabe, Mitt Romney. This political chameleon
gives politics a bad name. A grown man, who is
over 50 and claims a deep religious faith in a
sect that opposes abortion but suddenly sees the
light on the immorality of killing unborn babies,
is either a liar or a fool. Neither should be
knowingly elected to president.
Furthermore,
the President should have greater powers of
discernment, at least enough to have converted
from a Christian cult to orthodoxy a long time
ago. Romney has the freedom to be a Mormon. There
is no political test for Federal Office. A
candidate can be Mormon, Muslim, Moonie,
Scientologist, Human Secularist, Wiccan, Atheist,
etc. But, like any one, say a Wiccan running for
President, his personal beliefs call into question
his judgment, discernment and wisdom. George
Bush's judgment was questioned severely, and is,
for saying he 'talks and listens' to God as a more
Evangelical Methodist. The same evaluation applies
here.
Since
Jim Gilmore is none of the above, then who is he
and why should he be elected President?
James
Gilmore is really Reaganesque in his conservative
thinking. Every candidate claims the mantle. He
earns it. Gilmore is Trumanesque in his inner man.
He is a self-made public servant. He is not born
to wealth and privilege, except the high honor of
being born a Virginian, and comes from a solid,
Christian family. He might look like staid
Eisenhower to Romney’s faux Kennedy, but flash
won’t win the primaries with Republicans.
Gilmore has the intellectual weight of a
University of Virginia Law School graduate - well
grounded in practical experience as a prosecutor
and Attorney General.
Gov.
Gilmore has all the right enemies in Virginia.
Every big government goof, Republican or Democrat,
blames him for the Clinton/9-11 Recession (00-02).
The Good People of Virginia remember promises made
and promises kept. Gilmore reduced the hated
personal property tax, "No Car Tax". The
Democrat Governors failed to finish the job and
blame him, like Bush, for any and every woe.
Gilmore
has been a national leader on Homeland Security.
He gets it. He served in the Army during the
Vietnam Era. He learned about the military from
the low end of the stick where America’s youth
serves and suffers. He gained insights on the
Communists in the Cold War and their threat.
Gilmore
is the only candidate who is right on lowering
taxes, reducing government spending, fighting the
long, long WW IV against Islamists, fixing Social
Security and Medicare, stopping illegal
immigration cold, promoting life and the family,
and nominating strict constructionist judges.
If
Gilmore articulates the choices like Reagan did,
and gets his message through an indifferent but
soon-to-be hostile MSM, he will connect with
Republican voters across the country like he did
with Virginia’s faithful Republicans. No one
else compares as a conservative candidate. That
wins the Republican nomination. The conservative
third of the nation isn’t ready to surrender the
momentum of change to Republicans running as
liberals, moderates or disingenuous conservatives
of convenience when a conservative of conscience,
practice, conviction, and promise is available.
--
January 22, 2007
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