Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Gilmore Update

The Real Sporer was able to attend Gov. Jim Gilmore’s formal announcement at RPI headquarters today. I’ve said good things about Gov. Gilmore before and I continue to be impressed.

Gov. Gilmore’s announcement speech focused on security and responsibility, traditional Republican themes. The campaign is focusing on security, particularly in the WOT; immigration enforcement and energy diversity.

The Gilmore campaign is trying a new underdog strategy, an internet based campaign. It will be interesting to see how such a campaign works. It allowed Howard Dean to generate a lot of attention and raised a ton of money in 03. The internet certainly allows a candidate’s message, particularly a Republican conservative’s message, to be heard without passing the increasingly celebrity focused and factually challenged national news media. (Remember; up to 70% of Democrats rely on John Stewart for their news.) Maybe the
JimGilmore08.com strategy will make Jim Gilmore the primal scream free internet candidate of 2007.

It will be interesting to see how all of the campaigns begin to embody the more skeletal recitations of needs and goals. For example, how will the border enforcement candidates actually enforce immigration laws? Do our readers think a Republican candidate would prosper if they acknowledged the very significant need to repress the demand for illegal labor through employer sanctions?

Same is true for “energy” independence. Why on earth don’t our candidates embrace the historical success of market based strategies to convert all this glittering blue sky about new energy supplies into a fairly tangible plan that the average voter can understand? We all know that we can no longer rely on oil from the Middle East so I’m going to lean toward the candidates that says how as well as what.

For all the talk of Reagan, and not surprisingly Gov. Gilmore is most unafraid of invoking the Gipper’s image, our current crop misses a key element of President Reagan’s rhetorical genius. Ronald Reagan always had a solution. He didn’t just bitch or point to the blue sky, he proposed solutions that arose from American social, economic and diplomatic traditions.

It’s still early, and we have a lot of ground left to cover. I’ve said it before; Jim Gilmore is solid evidence of our depth and a guy to whom everyone should give a fair ear. Regardless of the outcome of the presidential race, we need Jim Gilmore involved in national policy making in the next ten years.

John McCain is in town tomorrow. The Real Sporer will have a correspondent up close on the trip so we’ll have close impressions of the McCain Des Moines appearance tomorrow night.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Did he announce his staff? I heard Dale Blair may be running the campaign in Iowa which would be very interesting watching a veteran like Dale match up with the young bucks.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

Troy Bishop is his campaign manager I believe.

The Deplorable Old Bulldog said...

Iowa manager-not national.

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