Redstate

Posted at 3:39am on Jan. 27, 2008 Find a role for Obama in the Republican party (seriously)

By SmallGovt

If Obama loses the primary, many of his supporters will stay home. (Not just blacks; I'll bet the same applies to young enthusiasts.) However, the Republican candidate may also have a segment of voters stay home, so a defensive strategy may not be enough.

Us small govt. types believe that blacks would be better off under a free market, and there's also a natural overlap on many social issues. So, go for broke. Find a role for Obama. Sure, he's a lefty who doesn't have enough resume to run for President, but maybe he would seize the chance to be a real agent of change. Perhaps put him in charge of school choice, or a Milton Friedman type "welfare" program. Surely there are strategies that advance freedom and provide relatively short-term benefits at the same time.

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Posted at 1:44am on Jan. 21, 2008 Are Fred and Mitt splitting the AllCon vote?

By SmallGovt

Mitt is campaigning as a full-spectrum conservative (except in MI) and Fred actually is one. Adding their votes together gives a "conservative coalition" win in IA with 38% over Huckabee's 34%, and (ignoring any possible momentum) a narrow second in SC with 31% over Huckabee's 30%.

i.e. that's a second scenario in which the Reagan coalition could have won with slightly different candidates: a

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Posted at 3:32am on Jan. 20, 2008 SC: Huckabee's single-issue voters only temporarily killed the conservative coalition

By SmallGovt

If conservatives can't win SC, where can they win? Is the party moving left? I don't think so. Instead, I think it was just a bad combination in 2008.

Until I see data that shows otherwise, I'm not convinced that Huckabee got many votes for his populist message. (Some, but not enough to really matter.) Instead, evangelical voters have felt taken for granted in the past -- so they rushed to embrace one of their own. If Huckabee would have reached out to the rest of the coalition, he'd be the clear favorite. Instead, he ran hard AGAINST other portions of the conservative base: fiscal ("club for greed"), defense ("arrogant foreign policy"), and immigration (in-state tuition for illegals).

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Posted at 4:36am on Jan. 10, 2008 527 or PAC for conservatives in SC? If not, create one ASAP?

By SmallGovt

I've been following along for awhile but this is my first blog entry here, so please cut me at least a little slack...

SC seems like a perfect place to run some issue-focussed ads to help people choose the best candidate. The state could play a huge role this year, including turning the tables yet again.

Based on my limited understanding of campaign finance laws, independent groups that do not coordinate with a campaign are not subject to the individual $2,300 limit -- so could potentially get some funding from top-tier conservatives who have hit that limit. (Probably hard to find, though shouldn't be impossible.)

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