The extreme lurch of the right in America is being echoed by Sarkozy in France as he goes crazy to save his own hide by embracing the fringe who are the supporters of Le Pen’s National Front which got 18% of the vote that he desperately needs to win reelection.
In the last week, Sarkozy has repeatedly declared that there are too many foreigners in France and vowed to reduce legal immigration. Echoing a Le Pen proposal, he has called for police to be given greater license to shoot fleeing crime suspects.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Sound familiar?
To shrink the gap, Romney, who vowed to veto the Dream Act, went on the campaign trail Monday with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who favors some legal status for those who would be covered by the act. Romney’s campaign says his claim during a primary debate that the Arizona law was a “model” for the nation referred only to the electronic verification of immigration status. (Alas for Romney, he endorsed the Arizona law more than once.) His campaign also tried recently to disown Kris Kobach, an immigration hard-liner, before admitting that the Kansas secretary of state is an “informal adviser.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Though members of his centrist party are expressing dismay and doubts publicly and privately questioning the “morality and effectiveness of the strategy”, they are saying they need to support him no matter what to win the election.
Sound familiar? Except for the morality part anyway...don’t see any conservatives in this country doing that or they would change parties.
Raffarin hinted at his distaste in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde last week, saying: "If I were to express reservations today, it would weaken my own side ... but I remain attached to the humanitarian values of our program."
I told in a comment here one time that I read a story in Mark Twain's autobiography in which he tells about an election when the conservative candidate was someone no one expected or liked and the papers had all run down in the primary. He told his friends they should not vote for him. People did anyway out of “party loyalty”. This is what happens. Think people won’t vote for Mitt because he is out of touch, part of the one percent, or they just don’t like him? Think again. People will vote for him out of hate and party loyalty. We can not let down our guard and think Pres. Obama has it in the bag.
Asked whether the strategy drawn up by Sarkozy's political guru Patrick Buisson, a former extreme-right newspaper editor, had not strengthened the far right, Raffarin said the time for analysis would come after May 6.
"We are in a battle now, and in a battle, the honorable thing is to be loyal," he said.
So when you start to think sane people will not vote for insane policies that are propagated by the lunatic fringe, think again. But hopefully it will prove to be a short term strategy for all conservatives, whether here or in France, who chose red meat issues over bread and butter issues.
Privately, some ministers and pro-government lawmakers say Sarkozy would do better to stress reviving economic growth and employment, investment and training - themes on which Hollande is dominating the debate for the moment.
Opinion pollster Gael Sliman of the BVA institute said there was no sign that Sarkozy's approach was paying off in voting intentions.
"The latest poll is 54.5 percent (for Hollande) to 45.5 percent. Transfers from Le Pen are still very unsatisfactory, indeed they are down since last Sunday, as if running after this electorate too blatantly were counter-productive ... Clearly, it isn't working," Sliman told Reuters.
But the president is unrepentant about his strategy.
"stress reviving economic growth and employment, investment and training - themes on which Hollande is dominating the debate for the moment."
A good lesson for all Democrats going forward in this important campaign season. Romney has embraced extreme positions in the primary which he is trying hard to run away from right now to woe Independents.
Now that he's the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Romney is shifting away from the "red-meat" issues of abortion and immigration and instead holding more events highlighting his appeal as a regular guy.
From The Detroit News:
http://www.detroitnews.com/...
Will his etch a sketch work? Not if we don't let his words be erased in the minds of the voters.