Brooks on Florida: " [T]he big conservative issues did not bark, once again. Can we please stop pretending that immigration is a good issue for Republicans? The restrictionist side can’t even produce a victory for their man in a Republican primary. Rudy Giuliani promised gigantic tax cuts. Got him nowhere. Romney also promised big tax cuts. Nada. Romney hit McCain for being soft on social issues. Goose egg."

Which raises the question: what is the selling point for the eventual nominee?

Comments

[Bill Fisher]

The only thing the nominee will be unfraid to sell is fear itself (I'm afraid).

[Jeffrey Sykes]

Well if McCain is the nominee he can sell experience and bi-partisan leadership and initiative. Not to mention the fact that as the only candidate with military command experience, tempered by the taste of torture, imprisonment and suffering, he might be in a good position to lead us beyond fear to security, without selling out the bill of rights in the process.

[Debra]

That they're not Hillary?

[John G]

How true that is Debra! As I have been preaching in the past; the two major parties are as two peas in a pod, both want to turn our republic into a socialistic society.
I am still hoping and backing The Huckster. Please close our borders, and send the illegals packing!

[Ian McDowell]

Yeah, that's going to work, all right.

If Hillary follows her husband's lead, she won't exactly be a friend to immigrants; after all, her husband screwed them over considerably more than Bush ever did. Whatever considerable sins can be laid at her feet, the idea that she'll be "soft" on this fear-mongering issue is amongst the least convincing. She hasn't been very vocal on the subject, as she knows that working-class Latinos are more likely to vote for a white woman than a black man unless she actively pisses them off, but that will likely change if she gets the nomination and ends up running against Romney or Huckabee.

One the things I liked about Rudy was that (like McCain), he's not a member of what Orson Scott Card calls the "insane Right" when it comes to immigration. Fortunately, neither is McCain.

[Fec]

I liked Rudy's moderate positions on gays, abortion and immigration. But when he brought the neocon Podhoretz on board, I bailed. McCain is just the next best moderate. Maybe I'm not such a GOP anomaly after all.