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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 1, 2008 / 25 Shevat 5768

GOP — Stronger or Broader?

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Florida was big. Florida Republicans not only went for John McCain over Mitt Romney, but also, when you add the McCain vote (36 percent) to the now-withdrawn Rudy Giuliani vote (15 percent), you see a shift: A majority of Republican voters are straying outside the ever-pure conservative base. While conservative talk-show hosts and a slice of the GOP base demand all-or-nothing from GOP candidates, Republican voters in general clearly understand that, in a democracy, the all-or-nothing equation has only one sure outcome: You get nothing.


Especially when your party does not represent the majority of voters. In his gracious victory speech Tuesday night, Sen. McCain told Team Romney that "the margin that separated us tonight surely isn't big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair."


Wednesday night's CNN-hosted Republican presidential candidates' debate was more combative. At the heart of it lies a divide on how far a party should go. Asked which type of Supreme Court justices he would nominate, McCain picked two of President Bush's nominees, John Roberts and Sam Alito. Romney then trumped McCain's mention of Roberts and Alito by adding two more combative conservative picks, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Once again, Romney was conservative squared.


Looking on were Republicans who don't want to lose their iron grip on the GOP. Jon Fleischman, publisher of the influential conservative blog, the Flash Report, told me Romney has to "define this race as a conservative versus a moderate" race. And for Fleischman, only the most conservative conservative wins.


But doesn't Romney have to appeal to centrists? I asked Romney's California campaign Chairman, Tony Strickland, before the debate. Strickland countered that Romney does appeal to voters outside the GOP. "He was governor of Massachusetts, which is not exactly a bastion of conservatism," said Strickland, reciting the Romney mantra that the Mittster would be the best nominee because he has shown he can win in a blue state.


I've heard Romnulans say that before. And it sounds great, if you forget that Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts when he was a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights Republican.


On the McCain side are Republicans who want to expand the GOP by reaching outside the party's base. When he endorsed McCain before the debate, Giuliani praised McCain as a candidate who can help build "a stronger and broader Republican Party" that reaches out to new voters.


From the perch of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library stirs a fond memory: Reagan Democrats. McCain's problem is that his rhetoric has served to inflame some conservatives, who see the Arizona senator as imperious and dismissive of their concerns. They don't like the way he confronted Bush on tax cuts and Iraq troop numbers — and they especially don't like the way McCain denigrated those who disagreed with his pro-amnesty immigration bill.


That doesn't mean the McCainiacs are pushing him to make nice. Asked if McCain has to make it up to the base, his California campaign Chairman, Bill Jones, answered that McCain has to have a "consistent message."


And: "If you don't have their respect, you don't get their vote." As it is, among a resentful segment of the GOP base, McCain has neither.


In part, the McCain haters resent mostly that McCain can work with Democrats. They would rather lose the election than see him win.


Florida, however, shows that many Republicans have come to understand that when you aren't willing to bend, when you view compromise as disgraceful — not a necessary part of democracy — when you insist on all or nothing, then you get nothing.

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