As the Financial Times notes (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32e19f68-7ff9-11dc-b075-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1), Schwarzenegger is actually right about what the GOP needs to do if it wants to avoid a potential blood bath in November, 2008. However, the Party has trapped itself from being able to take such an approach inasmuch as the primaries give undue power to the "grass roots" Christianists, who vote in primaries and often assist in campaigns. As a result, the GOP candidates have almost been in competition to out Christianist each. Should a subsequent change in tactics be made, the candidate will be accused of flip-flopping or worse. The moral is that sometimes you need to think twice about who you are getting into bed with. Now the GOP is stuck with the Christianists. Here are some highlights:
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, has urged Republican presidential candidates to capture the political centre ground ahead of next year’s election by focusing on healthcare reform and education. As the campaign has unfolded, leading candidates have drifted to the right to win support from social conservatives.
Shifting the debates to centre-ground topics would be a positive move, he added. “Being somewhat in the centre . . . is not a detriment. If you sell [your ideas] well and if you explain it well, that’s what leadership is all about, bringing people along.” The California governor was one of his party’s few successes in last year’s mid-term elections, winning a second term in spite of Republicans losing control of the US Senate and Congress.
He has implemented new climate-change legislation and proposed sweeping reform to the state’s health insurance system. His “post-partisan” stance on these issues was justified by the mandate he won, he said. “I feel because I have good approval ratings, and because I won a Democrat state with 57 per cent of the votes, that . . . I can get people to cross party lines.
No comments:
Post a Comment