Republican Presidential Candidates

[Sous-Commandant Marco]

A en croire Karl Rove dans politique internationale, ce n'est pas vraiment ça…

[…] Voilà ça me parait plus réaliste.

Venant de Karl "Dog Turd" Rove, plus rien ne m'étonne.

[Jeeves]

Et un Noir compétent en économie? Thomas Sowell?

Il est républicain? Susceptible de faire la paire avec Mc Cain? Ça m'étonnerait non? un peu vieux peut-être en plus…

[Ash]

Oui, il est Républicain.

[Rincevent]

Mais pas politicien.

Une idée de femme républicaine, ayant une certaine légitimité en économie? Ou un homme noir sinon?

Parmi les femmes républicaines, ont récemment été (en étant toujours vivantes, dans la mesure où je m'aperçois que pas mal d'élues républicaines sont mortes pas si vieilles) ou sont toujours :

Représentantes : Roukema, Johnson, Morella (mais elles sont sans doute trop vieilles), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (très bien : pas trop agée, née à Cuba donc pourrait attirer les Latinos, plus ancienne représentante Républicaine encore en poste, a des ancêtres Juifs donc pourrait attirer une part de l'électorat juif brusqué par Obama, vient de la Floride qui est l'un des plus gros swing states…), Susan Molinari, Deborah Pryce (de l'Ohio, un autre gros swing state, mais trop pro-choice pour attirer la base du GOP, et de toute façon retirée de la vie politique), Barbara Cubin (100 % conservative, mais soupçonnée de racisme), Sue W. Kelly, Sue Wilkins Myrick (née en Ohio), Jo Ann Emerson, Kay Granger (sans doute pas elle, elle était pour Romney), Anne Northup (catholique mais peut-être trop riche pour que les Latinos s'identifient), Mary Bono Mack (jolie, californienne alors que la Californie est plutôt démocrate, mais trop centriste pour attirer la base du GOP), Heather Wilson (trop centriste, fait 15 ans de plus que son âge), Judy Biggert (trop vieille), Shelley Moore Capito (un profil atypique mais qui monte), Susan Davis, Melissa Hart (catholique et conservatrice, jeune, une vraie étoile montante qui a pourtant perdu sa dernière élection), Marsha Blackburn (100 % conservatrice, surnommée "taxpayers hero", mais issue du Tennessee déjà acquis aux Républicains), Ginny Brown-Waite (catholique, de Floride, très alignée sur le GOP, mais pas très jeune), Katherine Harris (de Floride aussi, mais trop impliquée dans les problèmes de recompte des voix en 2000), Candice Miller (mais a soutenu Guiliani), Marilyn Musgrave (très conservatrice, s'occupe surtout de sujets sociaux), Thelma Drake (connue surtout pour son opposition aux jeux d'argent sur Internet), … Si c'est Cathy McMorris Rodgers (39 ans, une des plus jeunes), il faudra espérer que McCain ne cherche pas à se la taper.

Sénatrices : Kay Bailey Hutchison (du Texas, et a déclaré ne pas être intéressée), Olympia Snowe (assez centriste mais très influente, descendante de Grecs, pas trop opposée à de la censure), Susan Collins (centriste aussi), Lisa Murkowski (une modérée de plus, mais anti-écolo - elle est de l'Alaska) et Elizabeth Dole (la femme de Bob, plusieurs fois ministre).

Gouverneurs : Christine Todd Whitman (fâchée avec l'équipe Bush, assez écolo), Jane Dee Hull (sa carrière, bien remplie, est plutôt derrière elle), Jane Swift (qui a démissionné pour que Romney soit élu à sa place), Judy Martz (qui a accumulé les casseroles le long de son mandat), Linda Lingle (juive, mais de Hawaii, bastion républicain), Olene S. Walker (trop agée), Mary Jodi Rell (du Connecticut, un des noms en vue) et Sarah Palin (ex-reine de beauté, jeune, assez conservatrice, elle bénéficie d'une cote de popularité époustouflante, elle est aussi une des mieux placées pour prendre la place, et vient de l'Alaska).

Ma short-list ? Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Olympia Snowe, Linda Lingle, Sarah Palin… Eventuellement Shelley Moore Capito ou Melissa Hart.

Pour ce qui est des hommes noirs, ça fait trop copie conforme du camp d'en face (un vieux et un noir) pour que je le fasse ce soir.

[José]

Ils ont pas de chance les Républicains, si ça se trouve, ils vont se payer un nouvel ouragan à leur convention à la Nouvelle-Orléans :

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_a…l?5day#contents

[LeSanton]

Si cela arrive, on pourra dire que le Ciel a choisi son candidat car une tornade menaçait la convention démocrate de Denver, sans l'atteindre, finalement.

[Philiberal]

A mon avis, si McCain choisit une femme comme colistière, par exemple Condoleezza Rice, l'élection sera définitivement pliée.

Parmi les femmes républicaines, ont récemment été (en étant toujours vivantes, dans la mesure où je m'aperçois que pas mal d'élues républicaines sont mortes pas si vieilles) ou sont toujours :

…Sarah Palin (ex-reine de beauté, jeune, assez conservatrice, elle bénéficie d'une cote de popularité époustouflante, elle est aussi une des mieux placées pour prendre la place, et vient de l'Alaska).

Ma short-list ? Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Olympia Snowe, Linda Lingle, Sarah Palin… Eventuellement Shelley Moore Capito ou Melissa Hart.

(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain has picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, a senior McCain campaign official told CNN on Friday.

Palin, 44, who's in her first term as governor, is a pioneering figure in Alaska, the first woman and the youngest person to hold the state's top political job.

She catapulted to the post with a strong reputation as a political outsider, forged during her stint in local politics. She was mayor and a council member of the small town of Wasila and was chairman of the state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates Alaska's oil and gas resources, in 2003 and 2004.

The conservative Palin defeated two so-called political insiders to win the governor's job -- incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski in the GOP primary and former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles in the 2006 general election.

Palin made her name in part by backing tough ethical standards for politicians. During the first legislative session after her election, her administration passed a state ethics law overhaul.

Palin's term has not been without controversy. A legislative investigation is looking into allegations that Palin fired Alaska's public safety commissioner because he refused to fire the governor's former brother-in-law, a state trooper.

Palin acknowledged that a member of her staff made a call to a trooper in which the staffer suggested he was speaking for the governor.

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Palin has admitted that the call could be interpreted as pressure to fire state trooper Mike Wooten, who was locked in a child-custody battle with Palin's sister.

"I am truly disappointed and disturbed to learn that a member of this administration contacted the Department of Public Safety regarding Trooper Wooten," Palin said. "At no time did I authorize any member of my staff to do so."

Palin suspended the staffer who made the call.

Palin has focused on energy and natural resources policy during her short stint in office, and she is known for her support of drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, a position opposed by McCain but supported by many grass-roots Republicans.

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Her biography on the state governor's Web site says one of the two major pieces of legislation passed during her first legislative session was a competitive process to construct a gas pipeline.

Palin started Alaska's Petroleum Systems Integrity Office, an oversight and maintenance agency for the state's oil and gas equipment, facilities and infrastructure. She created the Climate Change Subcabinet that would forge a climate change strategy, according to the Web site.

At present, Palin chairs the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, a multistate panel "that promotes the conservation and efficient recovery of domestic oil and natural gas resources while protecting health, safety and the environment," the biography says.

She has been named chair of the National Governors Association's Natural Resources Committee. That panel is focused on legislation to ensure that federal policies take state priorities into account in agriculture, energy, environmental protection and natural resource management.

She is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association and takes part in two of Alaska's popular pastimes -- fishing and hunting.

The governor's biography said Palin's other priorities have been "education and workforce development, public health and safety, and transportation and infrastructure development."

The biography touts other achievements during her time as governor -- the investment of $5 billion in state savings, overhaul of educational funding and implementation of a program to help low-income elderly Alaskans.

Born in Idaho, she is a longtime Alaskan and a Protestant. Her biography said she arrived in Alaska in 1964, "when her parents came to teach school in Skagway."

She graduated from Wasila High School in 1982 and received a bachelor of science degree in communications-journalism from the University of Idaho in 1987.

Her husband is Todd Palin, an oil production operator on Alaska's North Slope. They have five children, including a son who enlisted in the Army last year.

Congressional Quarterly notes Sarah Palin's other past occupations, including commercial fishing company owner, outdoor recreational equipment company owner and sports reporter.

Palin also made an unsuccessful run for lieutenant governor in 2002, Congressional Quarterly said

cnn

[Jeeves]

cnn

Et au niveau politique elle donne qui exactement celle gentille dame? Quelles idées? convictions? quelle tendance?

[Jeeves]

Et au niveau politique elle donne qui exactement celle gentille dame? Quelles idées? convictions? quelle tendance?

hum… les milieux pétroliers, la NRA, propriétaire d'entreprises…

Des choses intéressantes pour les libéraux?

Un profil bon pour l'élection et faire gagner Mc Cain (même si e m'en moque)?

[Ronnie Hayek]

hum… les milieux pétroliers, la NRA, propriétaire d'entreprises…

Des choses intéressantes pour les libéraux?

Du para-Salin ?

[Jeeves]

Du para-Salin ?

?

Sinon, j'ai vu qu'elle est aussi pro-life, ce qui n'est pas pour me déplaire.

[Ronnie Hayek]

?

Juste une contrepèterie.

[Jeeves]

hum… les milieux pétroliers, la NRA, propriétaire d'entreprises…

Des choses intéressantes pour les libéraux?

Un profil bon pour l'élection et faire gagner Mc Cain (même si e m'en moque)?

Pour expliquer ce post :

hum… : je n'avais qu'à lire ou chercher les infos plutôt que de poser des questions

les milieux pétroliers, la NRA, propriétaire d'entreprises… : une sorte de synthèse de son profil

Des choses intéressantes pour les libéraux? : sous-entendu , "dans son parcours et ses idées", et non dans le profil ci-avant énoncé.

Juste une contrepèterie.

rroooh… pardon

décidément, je n'ai pas le niveau exigé par ici…

[Rincevent]

cnn

Yes !

[Jeeves]

Yes !

Pourquoi cette réjouissance?

[LeSanton]

Pour le choix de Palin (maintenant officiel), j'imagine, choix d'ailleurs très surprenant et inattendu. J'ai cru à un fake…

[Rincevent]

Pourquoi cette réjouissance?

Parce que :

1. Elle est bonne ;
   
2. elle est jeune (c'est toujours bon à prendre, avec le vieux) ;
   
3. elle vient de l'Alaska, endroit où les esprits sont moins embrumés qu'à WashDC ;
   
4. elle est une ancienne reine de beauté ;
   
5. elle a une image de chasseuse de corruption aux mains propres contre les républicains moyens ;
   
6. elle passe pour indépendante des majors pétrolières ;
   
7. elle passe pour proche du peuple ;
   
8. elle est bonne.
   

C'est la meilleure chose que McCain ait fait durant sa campagne. Je ne suis pas forcément d'accord sur les idées de McCain ou de Palin, mais elle est la meilleure chance que les Républicains aient contre Obama.

[Ash]

Elle a un petit côté MILF non négligeable.

[Rincevent]

Elle a un petit côté MILF non négligeable.

C'était sous-entendu dans mes arguments 1, 4 et 8.

[Taranne]

[*]Elle est bonne

Bof.

[Taranne]

The presidential race

Bring back the real McCain

Aug 28th 2008

From The Economist print edition

The Republican candidate is fighting hard, but he needs to do more to separate himself from George Bush

EPAAMERICA’S Republicans head for the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul this weekend in a position that few of them could have imagined even a month ago. Although voters claim that they prefer Democrats to the representatives of the Grand Old Party by a solid margin of more than ten percentage points, and though it seems that there is hardly a soul in the nation who thinks things are on the right track, by the start of the conventions John McCain was more or less level with Barack Obama in the opinion polls. There is a genuine chance that, even after almost eight years of George Bush’s calamitous presidency, the voters may actually opt for another stint of Republican administration. In part this reflects the weaknesses that lie alongside the charismatic skills paraded by Mr Obama in Denver this week: his inexperience, especially in foreign affairs, at a time when the world looks more and more complex and troubling, and a certain cerebral aloofness that seems to make it hard for him to connect with Middle America. But a big part of the reason is that, in Mr McCain (see article), the Republicans have rallied round the only candidate who could have saved them.

Mr McCain’s fierce patriotism appeals to the security-conscious, while his long history of opposition to the shortcomings of his own party (its hostility to immigrants and its insouciance in the face of climate change, to take two examples) gives him more pull with independent voters than any other Republican could have offered. The Economist particularly likes him for his robust commitment to free trade, and his firmness in the face of American losses in Iraq. Above all, he has often displayed a degree of political courage that Mr Obama has never shown. This at least offers the chance that, as president, Mr McCain would be able to make bipartisan deals with a Congress that looks certain to be heavily Democratic.

But if he is to do the astonishing and win, against the odds and despite the fact that Democratic voters are more fired up than the disconsolate Republicans, Mr McCain still has to surmount some sizeable obstacles. One problem is something that he, like Mr Obama, can do nothing about: his age. At 72, he would be the oldest president ever inaugurated, apart from Ronald Reagan in his second term. But voters can at least be reassured by the cracking pace the candidate has set on the campaign trail. His choice of vice-president, expected on August 29th, will be crucial too, playing a bigger part in the voters’ ultimate decision than Mr Obama’s selection of Joe Biden as his running-mate on the eve of his own convention. Another obstacle is Mr McCain’s legendarily volcanic temper, which the candidate himself admits to: a serious flaw in a man vying to be commander-in-chief. Still, plenty of other politicians share this trait—Bill Clinton was another serial erupter—and it can at least be said that Mr McCain has kept himself entirely under control during the campaign.

A third obstacle is that many Americans see him as a warmonger, a man who would be happy to bomb Iran if that is the only way to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, who is more than ready to confront Russia, and who supported toppling Saddam Hussein before George Bush was elected and New York and Washington were attacked. This fear is surely overdone: even though Mr McCain is presumably more minded than Mr Obama to attack Iran, neither the joint chiefs of staff nor most of his advisers think that is a good idea. But it is not a completely unreasonable worry. Mr McCain needs to find ways of correcting this perception, rather than making jokes about bombing.

Another broad concern, too, needs scotching at the Republican convention and during the election campaign that will follow it. In his desire to get elected, Mr McCain has been prepared to abandon some of the core beliefs that made him so attractive. This is not so much true of foreign policy (Mr McCain has long been a hawk, since the successful NATO campaigns in Bosnia and Kosovo). But even here, he used to talk much more about multilateralism than he does now. On the campaign trail, Mr McCain has tended to stress the more hawkish side of his nature, for instance by promoting his idea for a “league of democracies” that risks being needlessly divisive.

Too polite to the right

But it is on domestic policy that Mr McCain has tacked to the right more disquietingly. Doubtless he feels he needs to shore up his support among the conservatives who mistrust him. But the result is that he could easily alienate the independent supporters who are his great strength. Mr Obama will sensibly hope to woo them away.

Mr McCain used to be a passionate believer in limited government and sound public finances; a man with some distaste for conservative Republicanism and its obsession with reproductive matters. On the stump, though, he has offered big tax cuts for business and the rich that he is unable to pay for, and he is much more polite to the religious right, whom he once called “agents of intolerance”. He has engaged in pretty naked populism, too, for instance in calling for a “gas-tax holiday”. If this is all just a gimmick to keep his party’s right wing happy, it may disappear again. But that is quite a gamble to take.

Two months remain before the election, more than enough time for Mr McCain to allay some of these worries. He needs to spend less time reassuring evangelicals that he agrees with them about abortion and gay marriage, and more time having another look at his tax plans. The old John McCain attacked Mr Bush for his tax cuts, which he said were unaffordable. The new John McCain not only wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent, but wants to add to them by virtually eliminating estate tax (something that would benefit a tiny number of very rich families, like his own). He also proposes to slash corporation tax. People on middle incomes would see little benefit. Independent analysts agree that Mr McCain’s plans would increase an already huge deficit.

Hawkish foreign policy, irresponsible tax cuts, more talk about religion and abortion: all this sounds too much like Bush Three, the label the Democrats are trying to hang around the Republican’s neck. We preferred McCain One.

[Apollon]

Il a finalement pris une femme, la stratégie n'est pas très subtile : les fanatiques de Clinton s'abstiendraient de voter Obama, réduisant la réserve d'Obama, bref la victoire en divisant le camp d'en face.

1/ ça risque de lui retomber dessus, puisque le public visé n'appréciera pas forcément d'être pris pour des connes à travers une manœuvre aussi grossière.

2/ Vu l'âge de McCain, elle a des chances de devenir présidente or elle a peu d'expérience. Ce sera pris en compte : trop vieux + trop jeune.

[Ash]

Je ne crois pas que McCain s'attend à gagner les voix des féministes et autres hystériques de gauche.

[Rincevent]

Bof.

Pour une Républicaine, elle est bonne.

Sinon, d'accord avec Taranne,lui-même d'accord avec The Economist : bring back the real McCain

[john_ross]

Niveau républicaine je préfère Laura Bush.

[Rincevent]

Niveau républicaine je préfère Laura Bush.

Oh, really ? Tu es donc plâtrophile.

Et puis Laura Bush a près de 20 ans de plus. On peut aimer les MILFs, mais tout de même…

[Taranne]

Niveau républicaine je préfère Laura Bush.

+ 1

La vraie classe et la meilleure First Lady depuis bien longtemps. Elle va me manquer, surtout quand on voit les deux prétendantes au titre.

[john_ross]

Je lui trouve un petit coté Nadine de Rothschild qui n'est pas pour me déplaire.

[Apollon]

Je ne crois pas que McCain s'attend à gagner les voix des féministes et autres hystériques de gauche.

Justement le but c'est juste qu'elles ne votent pas Obama.

[Ash]

Un Démocrate ça vote toujours, non ?