Bust Open the GOP Presidential Race

Yesterday Richard Viguerie wrote an excellent piece where he called for conservatives to consider opening up the Republican presidential race by bringing in a new candidate--someone who can unite economic, social, and nation-security conservatives and lead us to victory in November.

Here are a few of Viguerie’s thoughts, “The discombobulated state of the Republican presidential campaign means that it is still possible for someone to jump into the race. Such a candidate could serve as a kingmaker at the Republican convention in September, or even – yes, it’s possible – could become the party’s nominee.

“Currently, Republicans are split among the various candidates; most conservatives are undecided, or ambivalent, or support one candidate or another because the alternatives are worse. Having been betrayed by a Republican establishment – by a president and members of Congress who pretended to be conservatives in order to get elected – grassroots conservatives are justifiably wary of the present contenders for leadership. All the remaining GOP presidential candidates have good qualities; all are flawed.

* McCain has Reagan’s toughness, is a Vietnam War hero, supports a strong military, and opposes pork-barrel spending, but sides with liberals on immigration, freedom of speech, taxes, environmental extremism, and other important issues.

* Huckabee is a Reagan-style populist and a conservative on social issues, but is sympathetic to Goreism, and he fought conservatives on taxes, spending, immigration, and other issues when he was governor.

* Romney has adopted a mostly-Reaganite platform, but he is suspect because he converted to conservatism only after serving as governor, and, besides, many conservatives see him as a probable loser in November.

* Ron Paul is the real straight-talker in the race, the one who stays truest to the libertarian beliefs that are, as Reagan said, “the heart of conservatism.” He is the one candidate who doesn’t confuse a strong defense with the failed policy of nation-building. But most conservatives want a powerful U.S. presence in world affairs and will never support Paul’s defense and foreign policy. In any event, Paul’s chance of getting elected, or even nominated, is infinitesimal.

“No one stands credibly on the three-legged stool that makes up the conservative movement and the heart of a successful Republican campaign – the coalition of economic conservatives, national security conservatives, and social conservatives . . .”

You can read the full article here.

Read a related article on AGC . . .

I really like where Richard Viguerie is going with this line of thinking. He is right, none of the current crop of GOP candidates are the complete package, or anywhere near it. The closest is Mike Huckabee who is strong on the most important issues of all – the preservation of life and marriage. But he, too, is suspect on immigration, education and big government expansion.

I do hope that we come out of Super Tuesday with a three-way tie with no clear winner or runaway frontrunner. I would like to see the conservative element draft a George Allen to unite the conservatives behind one strong conservative like himself.