Thread: The Case for GOP Optimism in 2008

National Review Online
the campaign spot
Jim Geraghty Reporting
Wednesday, November 07, 2007

HORSERACE

The Case for GOP Optimism in 2008

It is probably fate that on a grim morning, when Republicans find themselves groaning after another glum Election Night, that a piece that had been percolating for a while runs...

My friends, all is not lost for the GOP. In today's NRO column, I lay out all the data suggesting good opportunities for candidates on the right in 2008. And despite what I said about the mild response from the illegal immigration issue in New York and Virginia below, I think the section on securing the border holds up well:

[b][i]Immigration: This is an issue that has only gotten bigger and more passionate for the past five years. It mobilizes the Republican base like nothing else — witness the grassroots efforts against the amnesty deal this year — and the Democrats are absolutely split on this; Democratic pollsters/strategists Stan Greenberg, Al Quinlan, and James Carville call it “a real wedge issue.â€

Immigration IS the issue of the 2008 Elections.

Related story also from the NRO here:

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Virginia Is for Democrats? [Mark Krikorian]

Democrats yesterday took control of Virginia’s state senate, despite Republican attempts to use the immigration issue to resist the state’s ongoing Democratic drift. I thought this was especially telling: “Republicans were noticeably less organized in the final weeks of the campaign, with fewer and smaller rallies across the state and with their top leaders, including party chairman John H. Hager, Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, barely in public view in the final days.â€

Why did Hillary equivocate and dance so much when she was asked about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer’s plan to offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants? Because she knows the issue is political nitroglycerin, and she and Spitzer are on the wrong side of three quarters of Americans.

This is exactly why I think Hellary will not win. Too many citizens who have moved to the right on the illegal immigration issue. The democratic frontrunners are all mistaken about this and they are sadly out of step with the nation's issues with regard to what the American citizens want, which is closed borders with a fence and no amnesty..deportation by attrition fueled by law enforcement in the workplace. In other words..a much needed element of protectionism. Anyone who tells you protectionism is B-B-B-B-BAAADDDD for America has an alternative agenda..namely the North American Union.