Will the GOP ever nominate another moderate for President?

[elperromagico]

Poll question: Will the GOP ever nominate another moderate for President?

[babylon_system]

1. That would make him/her a Democrat n/t

[elperromagico]

3. I suspect the GOP might have to implode before it picks a moderate.

There are, in fact, social moderates in the Republican Party. But they're drowned out by the conservatives, and have been for many years.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. That depends, do you consider Tom Delay a "moderate"?

:crazy:

[PDittie]

4. No reason for them to consider it

unless Bush loses and we retake the Senate and the House and DeLay is defeated by Richard Morrison.

Then they may have to do a little rethinking.

[Warpy]

5. There are too many "Repuglicans for Kerry" groups out there

for them to ignore. Putting moderates on the stage at the fascist tent meeting will not convince anyone that Bush has suddenly turned decent. If they don't figure out how to eliminate the worst of the extremism (and extremists) from the party, they risk losing their moderates completely.

They are marginalizing themselves as quickly as they can. Eventually they will have to turn away from extremism. How long that will take is anyone's guess. Their long term survival depends on it, though.

[Lefty48197]

6. They think Dumbyah IS a moderate.

morans.

[sendero]

12. Dim Son....

... campaigned as a moderate. I think a lot of people, Dems and Reps alike, were surprised at how fast he made his hard right turn.

Frankly, I hope they do keep nominating wingnuts. Because we can beat them like someone who owes us money :)

[OHswingvoter]

7. people say that McCain

would like to run. He would be much more moderate than the republicans that have been running since the Goldwater era. But he is still not a democrat. He may steal lots of crossover support and win though. he would be dangerous if his congress is republican they would control him. If we take the congress back, he may be ok he probably would work with us and compromise. Not as good as a democrat in office, but he would be better than most republicans.

[elperromagico]

10. It was mentioned on MTP this morning that Pataki might run in '08.

Would he win the nomination? Not if Bush wins this year. But if Bush goes down in flames, someone like Pataki might seem far more palatable.

I'm not sure, though; the Republicans would first have to shake off the Christian right, and they're so entrenched with that group that shaking them would be a damned difficult thing.

[Warpy]

14. Pataki might even have a chance of winning, but

you can bet that the Bush family will want to run Jebbie instead, and launch a character assassination that would make what they do to Vietnam vets seem tame in comparison.

[Yupster]

15. Pataki would never win the GOP nomination

The strength of the GOP is in the south and the west.

A northeastern pro-choice Republican will be ourside the mainstream of GOP primary voters. Even before Reagan that was true. Nelson Rockefeller was always going to win, and he never won anything outside of New York.

[elperromagico]

17. But imagine what the election of 1964 would have been like

if Rockefeller had won the nomination. A far more interesting contest, to be sure; instead, it was a rout for LBJ.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

13. I disagree 100%.

McCain has one of the top 5 most conservative voting records in the U.S. Senate. Further to the right than Santorum. He talks a good game but he's very right wing.

[comradebillyboy]

8. if kerry wins

there will be a civil war in the pukester party, the old style greed heads, vs the fundies vs the unindicted neo-cons

it will be lots of fun watching the recriminations, the only down side is hil may have to wait till 2012

[krkaufman]

9. They *will* lose in Nov; and they *will* eventually have to change.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure how long it will take. Kerry will win in November, but he may take the blame for the economic collapse that is now almost inevitable -- which may cause a temporary return to insanity of the voting public.

[Nite Owl]

11. The party has been thouroughly

hi-jacked by the right wing fundies. They would have to move pretty far left and try to capture centrist dems. Then we could call them Dem Lites.

[Mz Pip]

16. If they lose big time this year

they will have to.

If the country really is more moderate than we are led to believe by the talking heads then a big GOP loss will definitely signal a return to the middle.

If they win, they'll move even farther to the Right.

MzPip
:dem:

[TSIAS]

18. Depends on how you define moderate

My sense is that the GOP will NEVER nominate a pro-choice candidate for President. The misconception is that someone like McCain is moderate. In reality, he's in line with mainstream conservative thought on the majority of issues.

I don't think the GOP would ever nominate someone who shared the views of a Lincoln Chafee or Olympia Snowe.

[Cleita]

19. I don't think there is a GOP anymore.

It's a peculiar coalition of moonies, fundies, white supremists, corporatists, fascists war hawks and some old fashioned Republicans who don't have anywhere else to go. Oh yeah and a few token minorities. Why are they in power? I think besides us taking America back, the Republicans seriously need to take their party back.