Right now my vote is for Chris Christie? Is he perfect? No. Do I agree with him on a whole host of social issues? No. But he has a bigger set of brass balls than any Republican in the primary (with the possible exception of Bachman) and he would be serious about cutting entitlements. He is charismatic, no BS and no afraid to mix it up to achieve a goal. Politics is a contact sport and this guy has the right temperment for it. To use a football metaphor he isn't afriad to hit or to get hit. That's what we need right now. You couple Christie with an even more Tea Party house and and a Republican controlled senate and it will be a fiscal conservative's dream. Real entitlement reform. Real cuts to discretionary spending. Real moves towards a pro-business tax reform agenda (cut loopholes and lower top marginal rates).

All that being said, I don't know if he passes the test on things like the second ammendment or gay marriage or abortion. And in a perfect world that would matter. But if we don't get our fiscal house in order and I mean soon then it won't matter if a public school is teaching 4th graders about Johnnie's two mommies or not. First things first and that means getting the federal government on a sound fiscal footing.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on Christie as well as the people you feel would be better.

I'm not a fan anymore.  Tom Marr sums it up a little for me...

http://www.therightscoop.com/chris-christie-is-a-fake-phony-and-a-fraud/




My favorites right now are Bachmann and Cain, still.

I could get excited about Bachman too. And while I really like Herman Cain and Ron Paul, I don't think either is gonna have a realistic shot of getting elected.

Biggest thing that spooks me about Perry is his premissive record on illegal aliens. Would that stop me from voting for the man? No. But that bothers me more than Christie's stance on social issues.

And Mitt seems like a man without a political center to me. He will be whatever you want him to be. That will work fine so long as we have a strongly conservative congress but it could backfire if we lose congressional control later in his administration.

I checked out your link. I think the pandering to islam accustation is a little dramatic. And I think his immigration stance isn't any worse than that of Rick Perry.

Like I said, it's a trade off. None of these people is everything we want. And I choose to focus on getting a fiscal conservative with the big brass balls needed to get things done.

Quote from: Dan on August 24, 2011, 10:29:42 AM
I checked out your link. I think the pandering to islam accustation is a little dramatic. And I think his immigration stance isn't any worse than that of Rick Perry.

Like I said, it's a trade off. None of these people is everything we want. And I choose to focus on getting a fiscal conservative with the big brass balls needed to get things done.

I agree we won't get a pure conservative in there, but Christie, Perry, and Romney are too far left for me.  We will just be getting back to square one.


I'm holding out for Bachmann.  She is aggressive, and we really need that....

Quote from: taxed on August 24, 2011, 10:37:43 AM

I agree we won't get a pure conservative in there, but Christie, Perry, and Romney are too far left for me.  We will just be getting back to square one.


I'm holding out for Bachmann.  She is aggressive, and we really need that....

Do you doubt that Christie has the stomach, pardon the pun, for a fight on real entitlement reform?

Quote from: Dan on August 24, 2011, 10:40:07 AM

Do you doubt that Christie has the stomach, pardon the pun, for a fight on real entitlement reform?

He is tough enough, but I am not sure what his motive is to take on the unions.  Did he just have them in his sights, and now in a position to take them on?  Or, is he fighting them because it's the right thing to do?  I just don't know.  I feel like if conservatives and tea partiers are totally for it, Christie may be against it.  But for stomach to take it on if it is in his sights, absolutely.  He has proven beyond doubt to me that he can take on the deeply entrenched.

When the unions got in the way of his balancing the New Jersey budget he took them on with a vengance. His taking on the teachers unions of New Jersey is pretty much his signature move as govenor. I would contend that Christie and Scott Walker have done more to fight public sector unions than anyone in politics today.

As for the tea party, it's a big, amorphous group. But fiscal discipline and shrinking the size of government are their key platform issues and Christie's record is solid. That's not to say he won't smack guys on the right for going too far to prove a point either. From what I can tell he is all about getting real results and if that upsets someone on the right who is trying to prove a point while other people are trying to fix things than so be it.

Quote from: Dan on August 24, 2011, 10:59:20 AM
When the unions got in the way of his balancing the New Jersey budget he took them on with a vengance. His taking on the teachers unions of New Jersey is pretty much his signature move as govenor. I would contend that Christie and Scott Walker have done more to fight public sector unions than anyone in politics today.

Without question...

Quote
As for the tea party, it's a big, amorphous group. But fiscal discipline and shrinking the size of government are their key platform issues and Christie's record is solid. That's not to say he won't smack guys on the right for going too far to prove a point either. From what I can tell he is all about getting real results and if that upsets someone on the right who is trying to prove a point while other people are trying to fix things than so be it.

The topic of Christie is tough for me, because he has been an incredible Governor for NJ.  But someone who believes in global warming and Co2 as a pollutant -- I just can't get past stuff like that.  I only keep hope alive that he doesn't really believe it, and is just giving himself political cover in NJ.

Rubio.

We'll end up saddled with either Perry, or Romney.

Quote from: Dan on August 24, 2011, 10:26:53 AM
I could get excited about Bachman too. And while I really like Herman Cain and Ron Paul, I don't think either is gonna have a realistic shot of getting elected.

Biggest thing that spooks me about Perry is his premissive record on illegal aliens. Would that stop me from voting for the man? No. But that bothers me more than Christie's stance on social issues.

And Mitt seems like a man without a political center to me. He will be whatever you want him to be. That will work fine so long as we have a strongly conservative congress but it could backfire if we lose congressional control later in his administration.

Dan, with all due respect, Sir. If it is fiscal conservatism, ( and I agree, it must be ) then The Keebler Elf is the only way to go.

BTW, 'tis really great to see you posting again.

Christie is weak on Second Amendment issues, which is enough to disqualify him in my book.

Taxed, i think he is just playing politics with NJ. But even if he is a true believer there isn't much he can do over the objections of a Republican congress.

Shooterman, my objection to Paul has always been his electibility and his pecan sandies. Too dry. But recent gallup polls put his electibility issues to rest. If he can make a serious run then I would vote for him over Romney or Perry in the Louisiana primary. Toss up between him and Bachman to me right now.

Perry has to get something of a pass for his stance on immigration. Half the people in the state he governs have Hispanic last names. His policy decisions create wrinkles on BOTH sides of a VERY contentious border.

But he also has to get full credit for what he's done in Texas, and for what he proposes to do in DC. I'd like him to have more of a Bachmann view of some things, more of a Paul view on others, but I'd also like to put up a candidate who can win.

Three years ago, we put up a Bob Dole sock puppet named McCain, and as a result, the most spectacularly unqualified individual ever to hold the office of president now holds the office of president -- when he's not playing golf on Martha's Vineyard. I think there's a lot to learn from that.

We don't need the purest conservative to run; we don't yet have the power and the message to get a pure conservative elected. We need a GOOD conservative to WIN.

The goal here, kids, is to unseat Dear Leader. There is a LOT more than that to do, but that one thing MUST happen first, or we're all screwed six ways from Sunday.

When the house is burning because the fire code didn't protect it, our first priority is not to rewrite the fire code. Our priority is to kill the flames. The code can be rewritten over time, but the fire is RTF NOW.

Quote from: tbone0106 on August 24, 2011, 05:06:30 PM
Perry has to get something of a pass for his stance on immigration. Half the people in the state he governs have Hispanic last names. His policy decisions create wrinkles on BOTH sides of a VERY contentious border.

Sorry T, but we can't excuse him allowing the 3rd world culture and diseases to funnel into our country.

Quote
But he also has to get full credit for what he's done in Texas, and for what he proposes to do in DC. I'd like him to have more of a Bachmann view of some things, more of a Paul view on others, but I'd also like to put up a candidate who can win.

Texas was Texas before Perry, and his push for projects like the Texas Corridor weren't exactly conservative.

Quote
Three years ago, we put up a Bob Dole sock puppet named McCain, and as a result, the most spectacularly unqualified individual ever to hold the office of president now holds the office of president -- when he's not playing golf on Martha's Vineyard. I think there's a lot to learn from that.

It would have been the same story if McCain won.

Quote
We don't need the purest conservative to run; we don't yet have the power and the message to get a pure conservative elected. We need a GOOD conservative to WIN.

There are certain issues we can't budge on.

Quote
The goal here, kids, is to unseat Dear Leader. There is a LOT more than that to do, but that one thing MUST happen first, or we're all screwed six ways from Sunday.

That isn't the goal.  The goal is to fix and save the country.

Quote
When the house is burning because the fire code didn't protect it, our first priority is not to rewrite the fire code. Our priority is to kill the flames. The code can be rewritten over time, but the fire is RTF NOW.

Bringing in a Perry, or other RINO, is not fixing or saving the country.  The fire is burning because we keep allowing in RINOs to stop the previous burning.  We need someone to come in and just rebuild the house.