Gildas
Member
GOP 2008 - Rep. Duncan Hunter?
First of all, I appreciate that I might be seen as intruding by posting this topic, since I am not yet a US Citizen, and some would ask what right I have to start a thread talking about a potential POTUS candidate. I have thought about it for a bit and think it is worth the risk of a few flames to do so as I'm curious to know the answer to the question and as the information the post contains may be unknown to a lot of people here who would like to know it, so most humbly and respectfully here goes:
(Oh, second point, I recognise that people often post here assuming everyone is a conservative, when we have people of all stripes here. Please don't think I'm making that assumption, but since this post is ultimately about the GOP primaries, the opinions of political conservatives are fairly central to the discussion).
Threads about 2008 have been appearing here all the time I've been a lurker and then a member. This is true of other websites and forums out there and already a conservative 'conventional wisdom' is starting to form that the GOP field consists of:
McCain
Giuliani
Romney
Gingrich
From an RKBA perspective this is an uninspiring selection. The first three do nothing, or worse than nothing for the political gun owner, other than 'not being the other guy', and Gingrich is more interesting but would probably lose because he has a lot of baggage. Its plain from other 2008 threads what people here think of them, so lets not hash that out any further.
On those kinds of threads people always say something like 'Giuliani/McCain will not make it past the primaries', but that is not what polls of GOP voters show. It is plain to see that both of them are actively courting parts of the conservative movement to overcome this, with differing degrees of success, and trading off their overall electability. If Gun Owners really want to stop them being the nominee they have to a) get involved in the GOP primary process rather than leaving it to the conservatives to do their job for them, b) come up with a viable candidate of their own (or face being left with Romney, who a whole bunch of conservatives are backing as the not-McCain).
So with that preamble in mind, here is the point of this thread:
Just after the mid-terms, it was mentioned that the first declared GOP candidate for 2008 had thrown his hat into the ring. He's Congressman Duncan Hunter. Now, I'm a political junkie, but I'd never heard of him, so that piece of information went into my mind and then I forgot about it. Now today, I came across an actual discussion of him on a conservative website, and took a look at him.
He's a Vietnam Vet.
He's from California.
He's Chairman of the House Armed Services Cttee (until January that is)
He's A rated by GOA, A+ by NRA
In his district he gets more than 50% of the registered Democratic vote
In short, he's conservative, but not so conservative as to be unelectable, and he's pro-gun.
And no one has heard of him, so he doesn't stand a chance of getting the nomination...unless he gets people contacting his exploratory committee, offering money and to volunteer time.
So my question to you folks is - is this someone you could work with (and if you are a Republican, is this someone you could volunteer for to make it happen)?
To the more liberal and libertarian members here: is he someone you could vote for on the basis of the gun issue?
The fact that he is unknown right now is probably his biggest obstacle, but that alone should not be a reason not to try, after all who in 1990 had heard of Bill Clinton?
Edit:
Here's some more info: http://www.peacethroughstrengthpac.com/Home.aspx
First of all, I appreciate that I might be seen as intruding by posting this topic, since I am not yet a US Citizen, and some would ask what right I have to start a thread talking about a potential POTUS candidate. I have thought about it for a bit and think it is worth the risk of a few flames to do so as I'm curious to know the answer to the question and as the information the post contains may be unknown to a lot of people here who would like to know it, so most humbly and respectfully here goes:
(Oh, second point, I recognise that people often post here assuming everyone is a conservative, when we have people of all stripes here. Please don't think I'm making that assumption, but since this post is ultimately about the GOP primaries, the opinions of political conservatives are fairly central to the discussion).
Threads about 2008 have been appearing here all the time I've been a lurker and then a member. This is true of other websites and forums out there and already a conservative 'conventional wisdom' is starting to form that the GOP field consists of:
McCain
Giuliani
Romney
Gingrich
From an RKBA perspective this is an uninspiring selection. The first three do nothing, or worse than nothing for the political gun owner, other than 'not being the other guy', and Gingrich is more interesting but would probably lose because he has a lot of baggage. Its plain from other 2008 threads what people here think of them, so lets not hash that out any further.
On those kinds of threads people always say something like 'Giuliani/McCain will not make it past the primaries', but that is not what polls of GOP voters show. It is plain to see that both of them are actively courting parts of the conservative movement to overcome this, with differing degrees of success, and trading off their overall electability. If Gun Owners really want to stop them being the nominee they have to a) get involved in the GOP primary process rather than leaving it to the conservatives to do their job for them, b) come up with a viable candidate of their own (or face being left with Romney, who a whole bunch of conservatives are backing as the not-McCain).
So with that preamble in mind, here is the point of this thread:
Just after the mid-terms, it was mentioned that the first declared GOP candidate for 2008 had thrown his hat into the ring. He's Congressman Duncan Hunter. Now, I'm a political junkie, but I'd never heard of him, so that piece of information went into my mind and then I forgot about it. Now today, I came across an actual discussion of him on a conservative website, and took a look at him.
He's a Vietnam Vet.
He's from California.
He's Chairman of the House Armed Services Cttee (until January that is)
He's A rated by GOA, A+ by NRA
In his district he gets more than 50% of the registered Democratic vote
In short, he's conservative, but not so conservative as to be unelectable, and he's pro-gun.
And no one has heard of him, so he doesn't stand a chance of getting the nomination...unless he gets people contacting his exploratory committee, offering money and to volunteer time.
So my question to you folks is - is this someone you could work with (and if you are a Republican, is this someone you could volunteer for to make it happen)?
To the more liberal and libertarian members here: is he someone you could vote for on the basis of the gun issue?
The fact that he is unknown right now is probably his biggest obstacle, but that alone should not be a reason not to try, after all who in 1990 had heard of Bill Clinton?
Edit:
Here's some more info: http://www.peacethroughstrengthpac.com/Home.aspx
Last edited:
