Duncan is up in both the latest CNN and Fox News polls showing him as now the top of the lower tier and on his way up towards Huckabee. Is the day we have been waiting for upon us soon?  Time will tell. Keep up the good work everyone!!!

—-Fox News:—–

If the 2008 Republican presidential primary were held today, for whom would
you vote if the candidates were: (RANDOMIZE)

——————- Rep —————–
23-24  9-10   11-12  21-22  17-18  26-27    5-6   15-16   17-18
Oct 07 Oct 07 Sep 07 Aug 07 Jul 07 Jun 07   Jun 07 May 07  Apr 07
Rudy Giuliani  31% 29% 34% 30% 27% 31%  24% 25%  36%
Fred Thompson  17  16  22  15  17  18   14   9    9
John McCain   12  12  16   7  17  18   15  18   17
Mitt Romney    7  11   8  12  10   8   12  10   11
Mike Huckabee   5   5   2   3   3   3    3   1    1
Duncan Hunter   3   1   3   -   -   1    1   1    2
Tom Tancredo   2   2   1   1   1   1    1   1   na
Ron Paul     1   2   2   3   2   -    2   1    -
Sam Brownback  na   2   1   1   1   1    -   2    2
Chuck Hagel   na  na   1   -   -   1    1   -    -
Jim Gilmore   na  na  na  na  na   -    1   1    1
Tommy Thompson  na  na  na  na   1   2    3   2    4
(Other)     2   1   1   2   2   1    -   2    2
(Don’t know)  16  17  11  24  20  12   21  26   14
(Would not vote
in GOP primary)  4   3   1   3   2   3    3   2    -
———-

Go here (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/16/schneider.poll/index.html ) to read an article about the recent CNN poll with similar results.

(and here are the current results of the latest FreeRepublic poll:)

10/23) Who would you vote for if you were not afraid that your candidate might not win?

“Beating Hilary Clinton 101 or The Confessions of a Hunterite”

by S.K. Johnson           10-19-07

In less than a month, I will be 18 years old. That day, November 2nd, 2007, is a day that I have been looking forward to and dreading for a long time. On that day, I will put behind me one of the most important parts of my life, childhood, and take my first big step into the world as an adult. Within a few days of turning 18, I will do something I have been looking forward to doing for many years. I will register to vote.

I grew up in a politically involved family, and have grown up with other politically involved and aware friends. I have been raised to understand the importance of our privilege, our responsibility, to vote. It is a responsibility that I do not plan to take lightly, and it is that determination that has inspired my renewed obsession with politics and my interest in the upcoming 2008 election. I want my first vote to count, I want to take hold of the responsibility that I have and become a greater part of this great country. I want to honor those who have died fighting for everything that this country is, everything that I am because of her, the men who died to give me the right to cast this vote.

Realizing the importance of the responsibility I would soon gain, I began researching the upcoming election with keen interest and determination; I was virtually obsessed for many weeks. I wanted my first vote to go towards someone and something that I believed in. I must say that I was not particularly enthusiastic about any of the candidates or potential candidates that I saw running, especially the front-runners who were the first ones I researched. Around that time, rumors began circulating that Fred Thompson was going to announce that he was running for President.

I am from Tennessee, where Fred Thompson once served as a senator. My parents knew a little bit about him, and I started reading his columns and downloading his podcasts. I have to say, I loved what I heard. I was electrified. Here was a conservative who stood for what I believed in, he was a hero. A good friend of mine who has spent much of her life politically active in a nearby state was at a Republican convention and brought me back some bumper stickers and yard signs for Fred Thompson. I was about to set them up the signs and put the stickers on my car when something held me back. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but I just felt unsure of my choice of candidate. I determined that after all, I hadn’t thoroughly investigated some of the lower-tier candidates and decided they would at least be worth a look.

Suffice it to say, a few weeks later I was running a website, www.dhgrassrevolt.wordpress.com attempting to raise support for Congressman Duncan Hunter by providing news, my own articles, and helpful tips on how to raise support for Hunter and prepare informed grassroot supporters. What caused me to switch from the ‘conservative hero,’ ‘the next Ronald Reagan,’ ‘the articulate,’ the behemoth, Fred D. Thompson?

The question of why I switched candidates did not begin with a growing hate or disenchantment towards Fred Thompson, but a new excitement that I received from watching Duncan Hunter at one of the debates that had already taken place. I was astonished at his obvious passion, conviction, intelligence, and his confidence. Unlike with most other candidates, the more I researched Duncan Hunter, the more excited I was about him. He had spent 25 years in congress standing up for things I believed in, instead of 25 years just trying to get reelected or pandering to the party line. He was a hero for the pro-life movement with his ‘Life at conception’ bill which had over 100 co-sponsors. He was a hero of religious freedom when he stuck his neck out to save a war memorial that the ACLU wanted to take down because it had a cross on it. He was a hero of national security by standing up for missile defense programs when others were apathetic about them. He was a hero of jobs when he spoke out against our bad trade deals with China and predicted the current problems we have. He was a hero of immigration when he stood up to Ronald Reagan (although he was Ronald Reagan’s congressional go-for for many years) against amnesty (which Ronald himself regretted in later years) and has done the same ever since, as well as fighting to build the border fence. He is my hero.

I continued to look into Fred Thompson as a possible back up. I fell into a light case of the syndrome many others have been suffering from called the ‘Duncan Hunter’ can’t win syndrome. I believed in him, and I hoped I could help make a difference so he could win… but I didn’t think I could. Yet, the more I looked at Fred Thompson, the more I respected and became excited about Duncan Hunter. While Fred Thompson was voting for amnesty, against worker verification, against penalties for companies that hire illegals, Duncan Hunter was building the new border fence in his district and fighting for it to be built across the rest of the country. While Fred Thompson was voting for increased free trade with China, Hunter was accurately predicting the loss of jobs and trade deficit it would create. While Fred Thompson was voting for minimum wage increases, affirmative action, and campaign finance reform, Duncan Hunter was standing up for Reaganomics. Less taxes, less spending, more revenue and more prosperity for everyone. While Fred Thompson was sitting smoking cigars while talking about Michael Moore, Duncan Hunter was shaking hands in Iowa and getting out his message of secure borders, strong national defense, and high paying manufacturing jobs for our country. Duncan Hunter is my hero.

I have had discussions with many people about the differences between Fred and Duncan and usually come up with the same result. People normally won’t deny the facts that I present, they will not deny some blemishes in Fred’s voting record and they don’t deny how many great things there are about Duncan Hunter. Yet, they always say that this is all about beating Hilary Clinton and that ‘electability’ is more important than who’s the most conservative, the most consistent, and the one with the most integrity. To but it bluntly, I believe that’s wrong. Sort of.

Hilary Clinton will be a disaster to our country, and I am with you in wanting to do everything I can to stop her. Her socialized medicine program could put my family into desperate times because of medical situations that we have. It could do the same to close friends of mine who have other difficulties. Her foreign policies could invite an attack. Her economic policies will merely shrink the middle class and force them all into the lower class. I join with you in wanting to defeat Hilary Clinton. And since defeating Hilary is obviously so important to us, we should be extra careful in the primaries where we have a chance to pick a candidate that can truly beat her, and if possible, someone who will not only beat her but also stand up for what we believe in. Isn’t it worth some intelligent thought to determine what candidate truly could beat Hilary Clinton? Is it name recognition, charisma, and ‘electability’, or is it something else? Is Fred the most conservative winner that we have?

The mainstream media has been feeding us lies for the past 8 years. The media talks constantly about ‘a nation divided’ and will bring up the electoral college map from the last election and show how close the vote was and suggest that we are almost evenly split between conservative and liberal. As a result, many people have determined that the most moderate candidate will win. This is false. The reason the election was so close was because George W. Bush did not come across as conservative as he needed to be, especially after his first term. The more conservative the candidate is, the better they do. Look at the results of some elections over the past few years:

In 1976–Ford (a moderate) lost.
In 1980–Reagan (“too conservative for America”) won a landslide.
In 1984–Reagan won another landslide.
In 1988–Bush (41) won because America thought he was Reagan, Jr.
In 1992–Bush lost after he violated his pledge on taxes and America knew he
was a moderate.
In 1996–Dole (a moderate) lost.
In 2000–Bush (43) ran as a pro-life conservative and won.
In 2004–Bush won again.

The one who will win this election is the one who will appear the most conservative, or the one the most like Ronald Reagan in policy. When moderates run, conservatives vote for third party candidates because of their conviction, determination, and integrity. I wouldn’t want them to do anything different.

In an earlier article on my website (The Duncan Hunter Grass Revolt) I quoted parts of a study that indicated that conservatism is still the vast majority in this country. In fact, according to the study, if the Republican party garnered every single conservative vote they would win by a landslide unprecedented in American history. The article can be found here: http://dhgrassrevolt.wordpress.com/2007/07/27/read-this-to-anyone-who-thinks-we-should-elect-a-moderate/

A candidate that can rally the libertarian vote is also very important, the libertarian vote could easily be the swing vote. Anti-war sentiments are popular among many libertarians, but their hatred for Hilary Clinton will likely be greater because of her economic policies and her obvious flip-flops on the war in the first place. If the Republican candidate is not conservative enough for them, they will vote third party. If the candidate nominated by the Republicans is able to garner at least some libertarian support, that will help them a lot.
Furthermore, what helped Ronald Reagan was his focus on the middle class and fair trade deals which won him the support of ‘Reagan Democrats’ (conservative democrats).
A candidate that can rally conservatives, libertarians, and Reagan democrats will win.

So, can’t Fred Thompson fulfill that role?

I contend that he can’t.

1. The democrats and the mainstream media know the statistics and know the popularity of conservatism. Every moderate blemish on Fred’s record will come back to bite him, including his failures at border security (his ratings on border security are similar to John McCain), his support of minimum wage hikes, affirmative action, and campaign finance reform. The most consistent conservative will win. If you look at Duncan Hunter’s record, he has stood the most firmly on conservative issues of everyone in the race. He has perfect ratings from every important conservative grassroot group. Alexander J. Madison has written a series of articles about Duncan Hunter’s voting record as well as the records of other candidates; something he has spent countless hours researching. His articles can be read at my website, but are more easily accessed at www.newswhichcannotlose.blogspot.com

2. The same reasons cited above will hurt Fred’s chances with libertarians. Duncan Hunter, on the other hand, has had moderate to good support from libertarians. These were the results of a recent straw poll of mostly libertarian voters at a recent conservative convention in Nevada (the CLC)

1. Ron Paul 32.80%
2. Mitt Romney 16.13%
3. Duncan Hunter 14.52%
4. Undecided 11.29%
5. Fred Thompson 7.53%
6. Rudy Giuliani 6.45%
7. Alan Keyes 3.76%
8. Mike Huckabee 3.23%
9. Tom Tancredo 1.61%
10. John McCain 1.08%
11. Other 1.08%
12. Sam Brownback 0.54%

(This was not an entirely libertarian outfit, which accounts for Mitt Romney’s showing)

3. Duncan Hunter has been rallying support in the midwest, and is currently in 4th place in Michigan according to a state-wide poll. This is because of his message about standing up for jobs that are being sent to China, about fair trade deals instead of unfair trade deals. When Fred Thompson was challenged by Duncan by his earlier support of our current trade deals with China all Fred could say was that ‘free trade has been good for this country’ Hunter will gain the votes of the Reagan conservatives.

Beyond this, Hunter has the Iraq plan that people support. Several polls have been taken about what Iraq strategy most people would support and a vast majority (I believe around 69%) supported Mr. Hunter’s Iraq policy of standing up the Iraqi military so that we can leave soon, but leave in victory.

Michael Reagan (son of Ronald Reagan) has already said Fred Thompson is not like his father, and that Duncan Hunter is the candidate most like his father.

My friends, ‘electability’ IS an important factor. But the facts don’t lie. The facts are that ELECTABILITY AND CONSERVATIVE CONVICTION go hand in hand. They are nearly synonymous.

I hope you will join me in standing up for a conservative hero, not just because it’s the right thing to do based upon our common convictions, but because it will be the best way we can beat Hilary Clinton or any other liberal democrat.

In the places that this article is posted, I know I will still receive the same message that Hunter doesn’t have the name recognition, and that he just still can’t win. In every conversation I have had about Duncan Hunter I have always heard, ‘but he just can’t win!’

I want to pull the curtain back very briefly. There is one person that is to blame for Duncan Hunter’s current standing in the polls, and I believe with all my heart that there is only ONE thing holding Hunter back from tracking ahead in this race. Only one thing. This may come as a shock to many of you, but I have kept to myself the secret of this one thing for quite a while and I hope this revelation will help you come to a clear decision and help break down this low-poll problem that Hunter is suffering. The person to blame is YOU.

Saying that Duncan Hunter can not win is a self fulfilling prophecy, entirely, with little exception. If I had a penny for everyone I have heard say, ‘Duncan is the best candidate but he just can’t win’ I could buy hours of television spots for Duncan Hunter. I make no apologies and I will not handle this diplomatically, everyone who says that Hunter can’t win is the person to blame for this problem. I blame them.

Of course, the fact that Duncan Hunter is not a governor or an actor is a factor, but it is a factor that could have been easily remedied by breaking down the lies that Hunter can not win. Just like people such as Howard Dean, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton who had extremely low name recognition until weeks before the election, name recognition is a fixable problem. Will you help me fix it?

Will you vote for the only candidate that can really win? Or will you not? Will you join me by standing on principle, or face Hilary Clinton for president? Will you continue to be part of the problem instead of the solution, or will you not?

The choice is yours.

This in from my friend Michael,

—-

Michael Gallops <superman69_ww@yahoo.com> wrote:

Reader’s Digest poll is allowing write in – and the left out the winner of the Texas Straw Poll!!!!

Go here and write in Duncan Hunter:

http://www.rd.com/gradeTheCandidates.do

—–

Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Hunter Takes an Honest Start in Iowa to Nevada and the South

The straw poll in Ames was a great beginning to our campaign in Iowa! We are the only campaign that did not buy a single vote! Voting took place largely before the speeches began. But, what a great response we generated after Iowans heard Duncan Hunter’s message. Crowds came into our area after the voting and started signing up to be county chairs and precinct chairs! Our campaign heads into the Iowa Caucuses full steam ahead!

With the Ames straw poll over, we find that another state has emerged as important this cycle. Nevada. Duncan Hunter spent a great day campaigning in Las Vegas this week with back to back events from morning ’til night including an address to several border security organizations whose members know that Duncan Hunter was strong on border security before it was popular and that his sounding of the alarm by building a border fence in California was proven right.

After our time in Nevada we will be heading down South where a couple of straw polls are coming up that will be a test of strength in Alabama and Texas. Duncan Hunter will participate on Saturday August 18th in a straw poll of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies of Alabama and then head toward the August 30th Texas State GOP Straw Poll where nearly 30,000 delegates are qualified to vote!

If you find yourself in the Dallas-Fort Worth part Texas on August 15th, you can hear Duncan Hunter at the Lakewood Assembly of God in Garland, Texas at 7:00 PM.

On August 16th, those early birds that would like to have a cup of coffee while listening to Duncan, he can be found at Luigi’s Italian Restaurant in Rockwall, Texas starting at 8:00 AM. Those who miss having their first cup of coffee with him, can catch Duncan at 10:00 AM at the Greenville old office (Rotary building) in Greenville, Texas. Any who have the early afternoon free will find Duncan at the new Smith County Republican Headquarters on Broadway in Tyler, Texas at 2:00 PM. Finally, you can wrap up the day with Duncan Hunter over dinner in Terrell, Texas at the Holiday Inn Express meeting room for $10 which includes the cost of the food.

http://www.gohunter08.com/shownews.asp?artid=53

My friends, tomorrow morning begins the Iowa straw poll.  It has something we hav been anticipating and dreading for months.  Hunter has worked hard this past week to raise a lot of support with only 6 days to do it.  I am very busy this weekend, and having computer issues, so I may not be able to update until Sunday or Monday.  Though I will be watching the speeches and commentary on C-Span, and may be able to update once or twice at that point. 

My friends, there are so many things that could be said, or that could have been done in the past weeks.  I feel somewhat frustrated that maybe enough wasn’t done for Hunter before this straw poll.  That may or may not be the case.  But I do firmly believe what is taught in James chapter 1.  If we do not have faith in God, we are like a wave blown by the wind or people who are double-minded in all that they do.  I have faith that God will do amazing things if it is his will for Hunter to be president.  I firmly believe that Duncan Hunter is clearly the best candidate and will make a fantastic president.  If the Lord wills it, it can happen despite our inability to do everything we wish we could.

 I hope you will join me in prayer tonight and all day tomorrow for Hunter, and for open ears to hear his message.  Our prayers will join together and we hope they will hold him up to raise our leader to victory, God-willing.  This is the night of the Hunter.

Keep on Hunting,

SK Johnson

It’s been said by many people that most of the current 2nd tier candidates don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the nomination, including Duncan Hunter………

I guess we’re going to have to get a really big snowball.

My friends, the avalanche has begun.  On my blog, I am increasingly getting more and more hits from people searching for Duncan Hunter.  More and more people are sitting down at their computer asking, “Who is Duncan Hunter?” He is being mentioned more on talk radio every day, he’s doing more interviews, and he’s walking down the streets of Iowan towns meeting 1000 people a day for these last few days before the Iowa straw poll.  The snowball is rolling.

….and it’s a team effort.

Keep on hunting!

-SK Johnson

 Cross posted from Elephant Biz (http://www.elephantbiz.com/2007/08/fred_is_the_conservative_barac.html )
—————–

John Hawkins at Right Wing News provides an analysis of his latest survey of bloggers, this one on their most and least desired 2008 Republican nominee. Here’s the info on the top four:

1) Fred Thompson: Fred Thompson is generating enormous grassroots enthusiasm on the right, which is a pretty good trick given that conservatives in general seems to be dispirited and angry. In other words, Fred is the conservative Barack Obama, but unlike Barack, Thompson is essentially even with Giuliani in most polls that don’t include Newt Gingrich. If Fred can keep the momentum going once he gets in the race, he’ll be hard to stop, but there’s no guarantee he can pull it off at this point.

2) Duncan Hunter: Duncan Hunter started the race with his name recognition somewhere around 10% or so and unfortunately, because a lot of voters just aren’t tuned in this time of year, he has had trouble gaining ground. On the other hand, bloggers are always paying attention and because of that, he has managed to quickly add a lot of fans online. In the blogosphere, Hunter is a top tier candidate, but with Fred overshadowing him, it has been very hard to leverage blog support into real world support in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The base — the ones that know about him at least — definitely like what he’s selling, but will enough of them find out what he’s all about before the primaries in early 2008? Time will tell and the clock is ticking…

3) Rudy Giuliani: Given that Rudy is not a conservative and that bloggers are very aware of that fact, this is an excellent finish for him. What it means is that there are a lot of conservatives who are willing to overlook his deficiencies in a number of areas because they think he’s charismatic, electable, and is saying all the right things in the fight against radical Islam.

Rudy has proven that he has staying power and a significant base of support, but the question is whether it will be enough when the field starts to winnow and voters supporting lesser candidates have to decide where to go. Will they move to Rudy [or] stay to his right? The answer to that question may decide who the Republican nominee is in 2008.

4) Mitt Romney: Make no mistake about it, Mitt is smooth, polished, he has proven he can raise money, and he has an excellent campaign strategy (Spend lots of money to win in Iowa and New Hampshire and then hope that slingshots him to victory). That being said, whether it’s because he’s a Mormon, because he’s a little to slick, or because he strikes a lot of people as a Johnny-Come-Lately to conservatism, his support is staying relatively flat nationally and he’s having a lot of trouble winning the base over. Ultimately, if he’s going to win, he’s going to have to find a way to pull in a bigger slice of the conservative pie across the country.

—————–

From a poll on Right Wing News (http://www.rightwingnews.com/mt331/2007/08/rightofcenter_bloggers_select_1.php )

11) Tommy Thompson (5)
10) Sam Brownback (5)
9) Ron Paul (9.5)
Newt Gingrich (15.0)
7) John McCain (17.0)
6) Tom Tancredo (27.5)
5) Mike Huckabee (31.25)
4) Mitt Romney (56.25)
3) Duncan Hunter (60.0)
2) Rudy Giuliani (70.0)
1) Fred Thompson (86.5)

It was a very interesting debate. However, the candidates did not get equal time and it merely provided an opportunity for the candidates to give mini-speeches on things they’ve all been saying. However, the format had a little less structure than usual which provided more of a ‘debate’ feel. It allowed a little more actual discussion between the candidates. All of the candidates stepped up their performance a lot, and as far as charisma and clarity, all did a fantastic job. Here’s a breakdown of how I think it went for everyone:

-Rudy Giuliani: His performance felt like nothing special and I don’t think it will have much affect on his poll numbers except to start leaving him in the dust. His pro-choice position is beginning to frustrate the people and it went over like a lead balloon at the debate.

Mitt Romney: Although as a Hunter supporter it hurts me to say it, but Romney may have ‘won’ the debate. However, the reason for this is because he got the most airtime and had the best rhetoric. Not many things on his policies or rhetoric changed, he just continued to throw Reaganesque lines in his arguments. He certainly confirmed his base’s support and may have gained a few supporters. My prediction is that he will soon start pulling ahead Giuliani and F. Thompson

Mike Huckabee He also continued to keep his base, and probably grew some support. I did not find his performance terribly engaging, or brilliant. I think he will continue to move ahead, and he will do well in Iowa.

Tom Tancredo Unfortunately, Tancredo’s line on Mecca that he continues to stand by is going to hurt him terribly. There are a lot of things I like about Tancredo, but there are certain things that I don’t like. I think him losing steam over his non-immigration related stances will start to help Hunter.

Sam Brownback He was definitely the poorest performer on the stage. He didn’t do terribly, but I don’t think he gained much of anything and his take on Iraq is still not popular. Though, his line about Roe v. Wade went over well.

Tommy Thompson He did surprisingly better than I expected, but I don’t think he gained much support. However, he has done well in Iowa and may continue to do so well for a little while.

John McCain John McCain is stilll polling decently in a few places, however I think the majority of people are sick of his immigration problems. And the flip-flopping in the past few days aren’t going to help Much. McCain looked and sounded terrible during the debate, I’m pretty sure he’s not feeling well. I hope he feels better.

Ron Paul Several of his points I’m sure went over fairly well. However his talk about the war did not, except for the Ron Paul supporters that were present. ABC did not give him much time, which I expected. They also did not give Hunter much time either, and they made sure to use a poll that put him and Duncan Hunter in the last two places. The media does not like either of them and gave them both the least time.

Duncan Hunter He gained a lot of attention early on in the debate when he tackled Ron Paul’s view of the war and received massive applause. He continued to do well, he maintained charisma and rhetoric, and also articularly supported his policies. I think it went very well for him, and it was great that he had the last word. My local station cut out for a local show right after the debate but I was told that for those that had the coverage continue, Hunter was arguing with several people afterwards. If anyone knows anything about what happened, let me know!

What this all means: Iowa is still up in the air. Mitt Romney is almost certainly going to take 1st place, with Ron Paul likely to take second or third depending on how Fred Thompson does. Huckabee also has a chance to do well. However I don’t think Hunter will poll below Brownback, Tancredo, or T. Thompson. Hopefully he’ll surpass Huckabee. This is an important week, and could be very good to us Hunter supporters. Keep on Hunting! Go over previous posts and head over to the meet up group (link on the right) so you can get involved in helping Hunter!

(Note: I found it interesting that the moderators did not bring up Immigration at all. They stuck to Democrat issues, the war and healthcare. )

The Iowa GOP Debate is this morning on ABC, starting at 9 eastern. Go Hunter Go!

I’ll see you guys after church!

Edit: Feel free to use this post as a live discussion during the debate if you want.
There is very likely to be a poll on ABC after the debate asking who people think won the debate, let’s be sure to hit it!