My Case for an '08 Thompson/Thompson ticket
By pilgrim Posted in 2008 — Comments (21) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
The upper Mississippi valley region of the USA has for many years been strategic area of electoral votes.here is a table of the states and their electoral votes from 1960-2004:
Minnesota 10EV
Wisconsin 10EV
Iowa 7EV
Illinois 21EV
Missouri 11EV
Kentucky 8EV
Tennessee 11EV
Arkansas 6EV
Total Electoral Votes=84 (2008)
1960 4D 4R (59-43)
1964 8D (95-0)
1968 1D 6R 1I (10-79-6)
1972 8R (0-92)
1976 6D 2R (58-34)
1980 1D 7R (10-81)
1984 1D 7R (10-80)
1988 3D 5R (29-61)
1992 8D (86-0)
1996 8D (86-0)
2000 4D 4R (50-36)
2004 3D 5R (40-43-1)
I want to especially call to your attention that in the 90's the Democrats had a President and Vice-President who were from this region. There are many independent voters in this region who swing in the center between the Democrats and the GOP.
We have an opportunity in 2008 for the Republicans to put 2 people from this region on the ticket. Coincidentally they both have the same last name:
Fred Thompson - Tennessee
Tommy Thompson - Wisconsin
I hope the Republican Party will give this strategy some serious consideration. I know there will be some who think because they both have the same last name that this is a joke. I am not joking. I want Republicans to win, and I think they need to get a majority of votes from this part of the country to do it.
Already this morning on Washington Journal callers were talking about how Fred Thompson's wife is young enough to be his daughter. I've heard the stories about Tommy too. I just hope when the election draws nearer this kind of talk does not grow louder.
You’re a persistent cuss, pilgrim.
John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
my favorite ticket is still Mitt-Newt (though neither hails from that region, Mitt's Michigander roots might put the upper midwest into play), and I wouldn't mind seeing Jeb or Condi in the veep slot, though that's probably pretty unlikely. McCain-Pawlenty would also probably do quite well here. but Fred and Tommy might be a darn good ticket.
...we're already placing wagers on his veep?! This is funny. I just hope we aren't getting ourselves all worked up just to be let down.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a "Fred-head" too. But he hasn't declared yet.
According to Bob Novak, "...he privately assures friends that this is for real. His performance on ''Fox News Sunday'' was no accident. He went on the program for the purpose of unveiling his possible candidacy."
and...
"Friends bet Thompson will run. He clearly wants to try, and his wife, Jeri, is all for it. Seeking the best timing, he wants to avoid the pitfalls encountered by Democrat Barack Obama, who may have damaged himself by starting his campaign too quickly."
Smart move although I admit to being a little anxious here. We are starving for conservative leadership and if Fred isn't the guy, we want to know if anyone else will step up to the plate. If Fred IS the guy, then we want to know that too!
from 102 electoral votes in 1960 to 84 in 2008.
Still, the GOP must do better in the Midwest, West and Northeast.
have gradually been increasing in electoral votes as the midwest has been decreasing. However, you can't win POTUS election with just winning the south alone. I think the northeast and west coasts are more difficult for Republicans to pick up votes than the midwest.
You’re a persistent cuss, pilgrim.
John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
state ANY Republican is likely to carry in the foreseeable future is Alaska - and that isn't a certainty for much longer. Ecotopia (CA, OR, WA west of the mountains) is as far politically from the South and Midwest as Massachuesetts was from South Carolina in 1860. Have no illusions, the majority of the citizens of Ecotopia would very much prefer not to be associated with any of the rest of the US except perhaps Boston and New York.
In Vino Veritas
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
and the Rockies is becoming more and more Purple due to "Californication." As that state becomes less and less habitable for anyone not on welfare, they move into the inter-mountain west and Alaska and bring all their proclivities with them.
In Vino Veritas
when they fled NYC for NJ in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Thanks largely to this invasion, NJ went from a great state -- with no income tax, fairly strong protection for Second Amendment rights, an entrepreneurial culture, capital punishment for first-degree murderers, etc. -- to just another socialist, multicultural, soft-on-crime Northeastern mess.
Speaking of Californication, we're going to have a tough time electing even a moderately conservative President once the Left Coast refugees have tipped Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona into the Dem column. All four states are headed that way, to varying degrees. How do we stop this?
I think property tax implications play a part in any strategy at the state and local level; clueless about the national level. Most of the "refugees," myself among them, are retirees; they can't just make more money anymore. So, at the taxing level, state and local, all you have to do is show them what it will do to their standard of living. The federal level is just so far away and the impact so diffuse, I don't have any idea how you counter their influence.
I must confess it has required a real transition in thinking for me. I'm done with 200 inches of snow and sub-zero weather, my wife retires in October, so what do I do? I have old family property in Georgia, but Georgia has an income tax and our retirement income is several multiples of the GA median income; I'd just be a cash cow for them. That's the way you have to think.
So, I can come up with a conservative strategy at the local level and state level, but I don't know that it would change a lot of thinking at the national level.
What's going on now is different from what was essentially "white flight" from NY, though since they're Yankees they'd never admit that's why they left. What's going on now is Boomer Age retirees cashing out in Ecotopia and going to lower cost areas. My three bedroom ranch in JNU buys Tara in Georgia, for example, or the better part of a section in much of the rural intermountain West - if I were foolish enought to think I wanted to take care of that much land.
So, don't have any solutions, but there's some definition of the issues.
In Vino Veritas
Pawlenty would be a better choice than Thompson. Tommy Thompson's record is certainly more mixed on things like taxes and spending.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
report card on Tommy Thompson. I think CFG will give him better marks than they gave to Huckabee and McCain. I would also expect that Pawlenty would be fine with CFG too.
You’re a persistent cuss, pilgrim.
John Wayne to Jimmy Stewart in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
you would certainly save money on bumper stickers.
http://michiganformccain.blogspot.com/
"In war, my dear friends, there's no such thing as compromise. You either win or you lose."
-John McCain
It's not official, of course. The folks at Slate have produced a video that RedStaters might find amusing and mostly unoffensive.
I see the point you are making and thin the EV bit makes sense until you consider Tommy Thompson. My only question would be, on the campaign trail, will he have his mistress and wife along with him?