If it was on the ballot in Iowa, New Hampshire, or anywhere in the country, None of the Above would win in a laugher.

Three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Republicans voters across the country appear uninspired by their field of presidential candidates, with a vast majority saying they have not made a final decision about who to support, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

None of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half of the Republican electorate, the poll found. In a sign of the fluidity of the race, one candidate who had barely registered in early polls several months ago, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is now locked in a tight contest nationally with Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Here’s my favorite part:

Libby Bass, 67, a Republican poll respondent from Woodbine, Georgia, said in a follow-up interview that she was weary of hearing the Republicans argue with one another, and that she was not ready to make a decision. “They’re not telling us what their plans or goals are; they’re just mimicking each other,” she said. “I’m waiting to see if someone comes up with something that will change my mind.

Keep waiting, Libby. In fact, the race is about to enter the nasty phase, as the opportunity afforded by no clear frontrunner will yield all sorts of negative attacks. I’m eagerly anticipating the attack ad on “None of the above.”

“None of the Above CLAIMS to be the candidate that unites all Republicans. But where does he REALLY stand on the issues? Aren’t people supporting nobody simply because they don’t like anybody else? None of the Above: wrong for America.”

Other Candidates, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani | No Comments »

Last week, comedian Stephen Colbert announced his intention to run in both the Republican and Democratic primaries, only in his native state of South Carolina. Colbert instructed faithful fans in the state to organize a petition seeking enough signatures to be on the ballot next year.

Yesterday, he appeared on NBC News’ Meet the Press with Tim Russert and let the cat out of the bag that his goal is really to obtain at least one delegate at either convention.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza looks at national polling with Stephen Colbert’s name with both parties. Not surprisingly, Colbert performs much better among Democrats than Republicans. On the Democratic ticket, Colbert received 2.7 percent of the vote, good enough to be ahead of Senator Joe Biden, Governor Bill Richardson, Representative Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Mike Gravel.

He was less lucky in the Republican field, where he took less than 1 percent of the vote behind even longshot candidates like Reps. Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani led the Republican field with 29 percent, followed by former Gov. Mitt Romney at 12 percent, former Sen. Fred Thompson (11 percent) and Sen. John McCain (10 percent).

Joshua Green of The Atlantic dissected the potential army of Colbert supporters in South Carolina.

Colbert’s viewers tend to be young, white, educated, and male. Their median age is 37 and there’s a 60/40 male-female split. So far this year, he’s drawn a nightly audience that averages 1.3 million viewers nationwide, 874,000 of them in the 18-49 year-old demographic. (Research leaked to me by Will Feltus, a national ad buyer, shows that Colbert’s viewers are the same demographic targeted by beer marketers: men ages 18 to 34 who are “above-average consumers of adult beverages.”) How many of them live in South Carolina? The U.S. Census bureau says South Carolina has about 1.4 percent of the nation’s population, which would suggest that Colbert has about 12,200 viewers there. […]

Good sport that he is, Graham crunched the numbers anyway. About 2.4 million people voted in the last presidential election, only a fraction of whom will vote in the primaries. Graham estimated that about 600,000 will turn out for the Republican primary and about 350,000 for the Democratic primary. Colbert’s focus is on younger voters. Graham made a back-of-the-envelope calculation that 260,000 people between the ages of 18 and 44 will vote in both primaries: 169,000 in the Republican primary and 91,000 in the Democratic primary. That’s Colbert’s target.

Read the full article.

Other Candidates | 2 Comments »

Christian conservatives met in Salt Lake City on Saturday to discuss the possibility of backing a third-party candidate should the Republican Party nominate a pro-choice candidate, namely Rudy Giuliani.

The group making the threat, which came together Saturday in Salt Lake City during a break-away gathering during a meeting of the secretive Council for National Policy, includes Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, who is perhaps the most influential of the group, as well as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, the direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and dozens of other politically-oriented conservative Christians, participants said. Almost everyone present expressed support for a written resolution that “if the Republican Party nominates a pro-abortion candidate we will consider running a third party candidate.”

However, not everyone in the Christian Right are firmly behind running a third-party candidate — yet.

Rev. Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcast Network, for example, has provided relatively generous coverage to Mr. Giuliani and his campaign. Gary Bauer, a Christian conservative political advocate and a Republican primary candidate eight years ago, said that, speaking by phone to the meeting, he urged the group to proceed with caution. “I can’t think of a bigger disaster for social conservatives, defense conservatives, and economic conservatives than Hillary Clinton in the White House,” Mr. Bauer said.

Still, he added, “But I do believe there are certain core issues for the Republican Party—low taxes, strong defense and pro life— and if we nominate some who is hostile on one of those three thing it will blow up the GOP.”

Other Candidates, Rudy Giuliani | 6 Comments »

… and it ain’t Fred Thompson, now on his third campaign manager, either. No, this candidate comes jumps into the fray leading in the polls!

Other Candidates | No Comments »

RedState diarist AcademicElephant has a recommended diary up laying out the full details for why a Donald Rumsfeld-John Bolton 2008 presidential ticket is the tonic that will cure all of the GOP’s ills. An elixir sent forth from the bowels of the earth, this pair of rejected Bush officials will be a shining point of light for the Republican base amidst a field that, in the words of Erick Erickson, sucks. AcademicElephant writes, “Let’s dare to dream for a moment, shall we?” and dream he does!

We need a president and a vice president who are cool under fire. Who function in the real world but who are not strangers to idealism. Who have a clear vision of where this country needs to be 10, 20, even 50 years out and form their policy accordingly—not with an eye to the next election cycle. Who think like CEOs but understand that they are the servants, not the corporate head honchos, of the American taxpayer. Who are singularly unimpressed by the pretensions of our enemies—and many of our so-called allies—but who are profoundly humble before the greatness of our nation. Who see our country as larger than themselves.

And who are Republicans so dyed in the wool that the Democrats respond with appalled horror at the very mention of their names.

Well, he’s right on that last part. I am appalled that any sober political commentator would look to the two most reviled Bush administration officials (no longer in office) and see dreams of hope and glory.

Leaving aside all potential avenues for humor that this proposed ticket affords us, what is telling about AcademicElephant’s very serious and thoughtful (even if unrealistic) post is the way in which the Republican field completely lacks candidates who will provide what dyed-in-the-wool activists are looking for. McCain, Romney, and Giuliani just won’t cut it, which leaves both an opening for whoever is behind Door #4 and begs the question, “well who is behind Door #4?”

This question becomes one about the health of the Republican, conservative movement. This is a movement that has effectively dominated presidential politics since the election of Richard Nixon. Yet they are poised to enter an election cycle without a candidate with solid movement credentials. Yes, Brownback, Huckabee, Tancredo, and Hunter might fit closer to the Right’s ideal than the current front runners, but for those men to become viable they must generate a movement behind them. If the conservative movement can’t do better than social moderates like Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney (well, depending on the day of the week), let alone a pariah like John McCain, then it will be clear that the American Right no longer has real control over the interests of the Republican Party.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton

Other Candidates | No Comments »

Right-wing radio host Michael Savage (real surname: Weiner) says he may leave his show to run for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. (That was so last week and Al Franken-y.)

Michael Savage, the nation’s third-most listened to radio talk-show host, says he may leave his top rated show to make a bid for the GOP nomination for president.

“I know it sounds bizarre but when you consider the people running for the presidency, none . . . seems to be qualified,” Savage told NewsMax in an exclusive interview. [emphasis added]

That is about the most ridiculous reasoning for a political neophyte to run on: “They’re all unqualified, so vote for me, who is even less qualified!”

Crackpot Conservatism for America

“[The U.S.] is being taken over by the freaks, the cripples, the perverts and the mental defectives.”

-San Francisco Bay Guardian, September 20, 2000

“Oh, you’re one of the sodomites! You should only get AIDS and die, you pig! How’s that? Why don’t you see if you can sue me, you pig? You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage? You got nothing to do today? Go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get trichinosis. Okay, got another nice caller here who’s busy because he didn’t have a nice night in the bath house and is angry at me today?”

-Bauder, David. “MSNBC fires Savage on anti-gay remarks.” Associated Press: July 7, 2003

“To fight only the al-Qaida scum is to miss the terrorist network operating within our own borders… Who are these traitors? Every rotten radical left-winger in this country, that’s who.

-From his book, Savage Nation, January, 2003

“I’m beginning to think that women should be denied the vote. Their hormones rage; they are too emotional.”

-San Jose Mercury News, November 6, 1998

Funny party ticket alert: Brownback-Weiner ‘08!

Other Candidates | 4 Comments »

Guess who:

When I win the Oval Office I will rule by Executive Order under the War Powers Act as is befitting a strong President since I will be continuing My war against the devil and all of his perverted leftist devils and demons in order to bring an end to war, poverty, disease, hunger, ignorance, religious persecution, leftist political slavery and taxation worldwide using against these evils Our United Domains Of Heaven Heavenly Currency which is Universal Legal Tender For All Debts, Backed By The Riches Of Heaven and tied to the virtually infinite and ever-increasing deposits of gold, silver and platinum in the heavens and on Earth.

George W. Bush? Duncan Hunter? Tom Tancredo? Someone from South Park?

No, though we’re certainly close. These are the inspirational words of yet another Republican contender for their Party’s presidential nomination, courtesy of Michael Jesus Archangel, candidate since July 2004.

Who needs sanity when America’s on the platinum standard?

Other Candidates | No Comments »

We at The Right’s Field have been remiss to note the announcement of three other Republican presidential candidates. We apologize for the delay and will now give you information that you probably won’t get anywhere else.

Michael Charles Smith (Oregon)
http://www.smithforpresident.com/

Michael Smith is a Hewlett-Packard employee, having gotten his MBA five years ago. He has never held a public office. He is running the One State Strategy (I’m not joking), hoping to do well enough in his home state of Oregon to go to the Republican National Convention as a delegate. Smith’s site has a blog, which is really authored by the candidate himself (no shocker there). Smith officially filed his candidacy in March 2006. MC Smith passes the Mike Gravel Test, as he has a wikipedia entry on him. A Google News search returns one article referencing him.

Richard Michael Smith (Texas)
http://www.rmsmith2008.com/

Michael Smith is an employee of RadioShack. Smith has never held a public office, though he is active in his church community. His defining qualification for office, it seems, is that he shook hands with Ronald Reagan in 1987. RM Smith announced his candidacy in April of 2006, but a Google News search on him fails to return any articles. Sadly, Smith fails the Mike Gravel Test - there is no wikipedia entry on him.

James Shurm Stewart Jr. (Virginia)
http://www.jamesforpresident.com/

I have no clue who Stewart is. His website returns “Not Found: The requested URL / was not found on this server.” There is no wikipedia entry on him, so he fails the Mike Gravel Test. There have been no news articles on him on Google News in any permutation of his name. How do I even know he’s a candidate? He’s listed in the wikipedia entry for potential Republican presidential candidates, which says he announced his candidacy in January 2007. As far as I can tell, that announcement came in the GOP candidate wikipedia entry.

I don’t know that any of these three candidates will ever merit mention again on this blog, outside of purely humorous contexts. If other candidates whose chances hinge on successful terrorist attacks on successive rounds of Republican presidential debates emerge, we’ll be sure to eventually mention them here too.

Technorati Tags: James Shurm Stewart Jr., Michael Charles Smith, Richard Michael Smith

Other Candidates | 8 Comments »