How far will Bob Corker reach out?
Bob Corker has lately been attempting to "reach out" to some of the folks who opposed him in the Primary by calling them up (or at least having his aides do so) and offering to have coffee and lunch with them. He has had lunch with Rob Huddleston, who has been among his harshest critics, and he apparently made quite an impression. Corker had coffee with Jay Bush and has at least convinced Jay that he has seen the light on the pro-life issue-or at least that he'll vote right on it to keep us all pacified about it, one or the other.I am glad that Corker is being good enough to come after some of those who were his critics during the Primary, especially when some criticised him so harshly (he deserved every last word of it). I do think his outreach efforts are selective, however. As far as I know, Corker has yet to put in a call to Bill Hobbs, who let him have it a number of times during the Primary campaign and told him not to expect Hobbs to jump through hoops for him. I dropped the John 8:44 bomb on Corker after Corker ran ads that didn't just twist the truth, but told outright lies about his two Primary opponents. I meant every word of what I said-every last syllable. I think Corker out to reach out to people like Hobbs and myself. I can't speak personally for Bill Hobbs, but in my life, conservative principles are not things that are mere matters of politics, they are principles that are lived out every hour of every day. Everything that we profess to believe, we live those beliefs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in our home-I suspect the same is true for Bill Hobbs. It is because I try to live as I believe that I have had such a problem with Bob Corker the candidate. The people in the conservative movement that most need to be convinced are the hard-core true believers who hold to conservatism not merely as a set of political beliefs, but as a way of life.
I have yet to receive a call from Mayor Corker. I am not suggesting that I am owed a lunch or coffee session as others have gotten. A personal e-mail, a note, or even a lengthy comment on this blog would be just as good in my eyes.
I do not expect to get attention from Corker, and I suspect that Hobbs and others like him won't either. Why? We will ask serious questions. We will be listening for his answers. I somehow suspect that he doesn't want that kind of scrutiny. If he is willing to be scrutinized, however, and finds my vote and the votes of other true believers valuable, I'll be glad to listen to him. The question remains: Does Bob Corker even care about our votes?
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 7:32 AM
6 Comments:
David,
I wouldn't expect lunch, email or anything other than a generic campaign ppmphlet from Mr Corker if I was you.
Mr. Corker's outreach will involve several things:
1) How much actual influence does the blogger in question really have?
2) How much effort will it take to swing that particular blogger?
3) How strong will that bloggers support actually be once swung?
IMHO you, Bill Hobbs and several others come up short. Mr. Corker will simply count on you and the others to do two things:
1) Vote for Corker because alternative is Harold Ford Jr.
2) Not say anything bad about Corker because the alternative is Harold Ford Jr.
Hate to be a bum kick but you're stuck. Dated Bryant, married Corker, woke up with ... ??
SteveMule
Steve;
I sure as Hades am not "married" to Bob Corker.
David,
I'm sorry, I think you missed my joke. Back in the '04 Presidential Primary and Election many made the comment "Dated Dean, married Kerry, woke up with Bush" and darned if we didn't. I see many parallels between that situation and the whole Bryant/Corker thing. Personally, I think Ford will win, not because Corker is that bad, or because he's not all that "conservative" but because Ford is a better campaigner and better on the stump. Also, the mood of the Country is changing, how much is open to debate but Iraq is only going to get worse and that's going to drag all things conservative down.
SteveMule
Steve;
I don't think Iraq will drag down "all things conservative" because people in Middle America (and ESPECIALLY in the South)are conservative by nature, and I mean that in ways that go well beyond politics.
I do agree that the situation in Iraq is going to reflect in the results of this year's election. People have a right to be upset about what is happening there (I know that I am, and I am a conservative) and it is going to show in the results of the election.
David,
Yes, it will drag all things conservative down. However, and I confess I wasn't very clear on this point, not all things to the same degree. Some things a lot, somethings not so much. If Iraq continues as it is going between now and late October look for many conservative defeats. The anti-gay marriage amendment may still pass but not by as much as many now think it will. On the other hand Iraq blows up (and it easily could) look for stunning, spectacular defeats. Fair or not, it comes back to credibility - if they could be this wrong about some thing this big and so impportant can we really trust them with the little stuff?
Also, we're getting off-thread here and off into another totally different subject.
To get back on thread let draw another anology with the '04 Democratic Primary. After Kerry's Primary win, those that supported the other primary candidates quickly switched our support to him. The alternatives - staying at home, voting for Bush - were so unplatable that Kerry had to do very little in the way of fence mending. That isn't the case here in Tennessee. For folks like you, Bill Hobbs and some others nothing Ford will say or do will cause you all to cross over, but you might stay home. However, there is much that Ford can say and do that may cause the less partisan, typically conservative Tennessean to cross over. Ford is not as unpalatable to them as Bush was to us.
SteveMule
I think the marriage amendment will pass by a very wide margins. This is an issue that polls indicated had wide appeal across party lines in the 11 states that passed similar amendments in 2004.
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