Susan molinari’s convention gop society
AP PhotoRepublican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.,
talks with voters outside Tom’s Diner with his wife Cindy, center, and
his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov., Sarah Palin, right,
in Pittsburgh, Pa. Palin’s daughter, Piper, stands next to her.
After a week of wall-to-wall coverage of the historic nomination of
Sen. Barack Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, the
GOP will gather in Minneapolis-St. Paul beginning tomorrow to tap Sen.
John McCain as their candidate for the White House.
“We are going to nominate the next president of the United States,”
said GOP congressional hopeful Robert Straniere, who is planning to
attend the four-day event in the Twin Cities. “We have a united party.
We have a winning candidate.”
Republicans also have an out-of-the-box vice presidential candidate in
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who has added some sizzle to the GOP campaign.
The first woman named to a GOP ticket, she is expected to help
reassure conservatives who still have doubts about McCain, while also
drawing female voters, including those who backed Democratic Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, to the Republican column.
The maverick McCain has angered the right wing of the party with his
stances on campaign finance and other issues. Others never forgave him
for running against George W. Bush in 2000.
But the selection of the staunchly anti-abortion and pro-gun Ms. Palin
is already drawing praise from the right wing of the party,
particularly from evangelical Christians.
“I was one of those conservatives who wasn’t overly impressed with
McCain,” said City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore), who
like many Staten Island officials supported former Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani’s White House bid but now backs McCain. “Sarah Palin is a
person of unquestioned conservative credentials. I’m excited about
it.”
“There’s a whole new level of excitement to the campaign,” said
Councilman James Oddo (R-Mid-Island). “It stops the momentum that the
Democratic convention was creating. The [GOP] base is ecstatic about
this pick.”
“I don’t see that being a problem,” said Molinari, who is McCain’s New
York co-chair this year and also worked on McCain’s presidential bid
in 2000. “The fact of the matter is, this election comes down to two
people: Obama and McCain.”
Pointing to his own conservative bona fides, Molinari said, “If we are
conservatives and we have a problem accepting John McCain, we have
problems. John McCain is clearly a conservative.”
McCain won big on Staten Island during the Feb. 5 presidential
primary, and is expected to do well here in the general election.
The GOP will roll out its big guns immediately at the Xcel Energy
Center convention site, with President George Bush, Vice President
Dick Cheney and first lady Laura Bush set to address the delegates
tomorrow night.
While there has been some talk that the GOP might delay the convention
or that Bush or others might not appear because of Hurricane Gustav,
organizers are still holding to the schedule.
In addition to the fact that top administration officials may need to
skip the convention in order to manage what could be an emergency
situation, Republicans are keeping a close eye on the storm as it
might remind voters of Bush’s widely maligned response to Hurricane
Katrina three years ago.
Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson, who also sought the GOP
nomination this year, will also speak during the week, as will a
number of other Republican luminaries. Ms. Palin will address the
convention on Wednesday, and McCain is set to accept the GOP
nomination on Thursday. Unlike Obama, McCain will not move his
acceptance speech to a site outside the convention hall.
Island Republicans are looking forward in particular to hearing
Giuliani give the convention’s keynote address on Tuesday night.
Molinari, who was a top advisor to Giuliani’s 2008 presidential bid,
said he didn’t know what topic Giuliani would address in his speech.
While some might assume that Giuliani, who was lauded for his handling
of the city following the 9/11 attacks, would focus on national
security issues, Molinari said, “Rudy will sometimes fool people.”
Giuliani’s top slot at the convention also reminded Molinari of 1996,
when his daughter, then-Rep. Susan Molinari, gave the keynote address
at the GOP convention in San Diego. “First my daughter, and now my
dear friend,” Molinari said. “That’s pretty cool.”
Molinari said the Democrats had “a pretty good convention” in Denver
last week, even if he felt that, strategically, they didn’t do enough
to take on McCain. Much of the week in Denver was taken up by the
fence-mending between the Obama and Clinton camps.
“There were a lot of deep negotiations, a lot of tension,” Molinari
said. “Given what they had going it, they came out all right.”
While Democrats bashed Bush and the GOP for driving the country into
an economic recession, Island Republicans said the Dems dropped the
ball by not mentioning national security issues more.
“If you listened to them, you’d think there was no global war on
terrorism going on,” said Ignizio.
“I never want to see 9/11 get politicized,” said Oddo. “But have these
people forgotten? I think you’ll hear more about security issues this
week, maybe from Rudy.”
“Michelle Obama’s speech was like one of her husband’s,” he said.
“There was a lot of empty rhetoric. Hillary Clinton did herself proud,
but she didn’t do enough to eradicate the doubts about Barack Obama.”
Straniere said he didn’t expect McCain to go on the attack in
Minnesota this week, even though Obama went after the Arizona senator
hard during his Democratic acceptance speech at Invesco Field on
Thursday.
“John McCain is doing very well being John McCain,” he said. “He is a
gentleman, an adult, and is sure of himself.”
While a contingent of McCain delegates will represent the Island at
the convention this week, Island elected officials will not be making
the trip to Minnesota. That includes Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten
Island/Brooklyn), who could have attended the convention as a party
superdelegate.
“He just decided not to go this year,” said Fossella chief of staff
Vicki Hook. “There was no particular reason.”
Go Rudy! Rudy isn’t perfect but he took the city and SI ten steps
forward when we were used to slipping backwards. I love local heroes.
“He just decided not to go this year,” said Fossella chief of staff
Vicki Hook. “There was no particular reason.”
Are women really that gullible? Because Hillary lost does not mean
that women will turn around and vote for a conservative republican.
That would be a giant step backwards for womens rights. Same goes for
women who are thinking of voting for McMahon?
What are they thinking? The National Organization of Women
specifically endorsed Harrison because McMahon voted against a core
womens issue (providing birth control information.)
Obama spoke about equal pay and equal rights for women which may mean
that the ERA may finally get ratified during his Presidency.
A McCain Presidency along with it’s corresponding Supreme court
appointments could set womens rights back over 50 years.
The women of America really need to understand how exploited and
demeaned, and abused women are in other countries where they are
forced to undergo female genital mutilations and are forced to marry
older men when they are barely teens.
Please women of America do not vote for McCain or McMahon because it
will be a step towards losing all your rights and eventually women
won’t be able to vote again and will be forced to wear burkhas.
The United States had done more for women and minorities than any
other country in the world. It has gotten to the point that white men
are the ones who are being discriminated against.
Standards for fire department and police department recruits have been
lowered in order to allow women to pass the physical tests even though
they may not be physically capable of doing what they have to do in
the line of duty.
As far as “the right to choose”, this right was made up by a liberal
Supreme Court based upon the right to privacy, which right is not set
forth in the Constitution. This is a state’s rights issue, and each
state should decide whether or not a woman should have the ability to
have an abortion, under what conditions, and when. Society needs to
protect the unborn baby as well as the woman.
Obama cannot even answer a simple question as to when he thinks life
begins because he doesn’t want to offend the abortion rights groups.
Anyone who is in favor of late term abortions is a baby killer.
If women want to lose all of their rights, then vote Democrat. The
Democrats are the ones who let all of these minorities, including
Muslims, into this country. The more political clout that Muslims
have, the more they would want Sharia law imposed upon us. It’s
already happening in England.
As far as imposing equal pay upon employers, if that is done, then
employers will not hire women. It’s the same thing that happened when
the disability act was instituted, Employers did not want to comply
with the act, so they hired less disabled people. Let the market
determine a person’s pay. Laws like this only make the trial lawyers
rich.
There are terrible things done to women in other countries. However,
when was the last time you saw a NOW protest about this on television?
How much effort is NOW giving toward this?
NOW is not a woman’s rights organization, its a radical liberal
organization. Where were they when Bill Clinton was being accused of
raping and sexually abusing women? Why weren’t they behind these
victims?
There are many problems in the world but your bigoted views are not
going to help solve a thing.
First “the right to choose is” is a personal and private issue which
is none of your business so if by “liberal” you mean a Supreme Court
which favors freedom fro persecution by religious fanatics, personal
rights and equality as well as the fairness in the opportunity to work
and earn a salary for doing the equivalent job then “liberal” is by
far an improvement over “Conservative which in these political times
is comparable to a right wing religious fundamentalist mentality which
has no real basis except for a religious perspective based on the
Bible.
“As far as “the right to choose”, this right was made up by a liberal
Supreme Court based upon the right to privacy, which right is not set
forth in the Constitution. This is a state’s rights issue, and each
state should decide whether or not a woman should have the ability to
have an abortion, under what conditions, and when. Society needs to
protect the unborn baby as well as the woman.”
Unfortunately there are hundreds of religions in the world and it is
commonly viewed by most of our scientifically educated society that in
the current age of enlightenment religion is an artifact of the stone
age. I know you have a superiority complex already but most humans do
especially when they compare themselves to the rest of the worlds
living creatures.
Humans have cruelly hunted the Bison to near extinction, as well as
the whales of the sea which are still used as target practice for Navy
submarines and destroyers. Human society has given us genocide,
holocaust, and endless warfare and our disregard for our environment
even during peacetime is atrocious. Did you ever hear of
overpopulation? Well it’s because of people like you and the other
religious fanatics that want to have as many children as possible even
though the conditions on our planet are giving us the message to
lessen our ranks. This reduction of population will happen whether
it’s through war, disease, famine, and disaster, or through birth
control, planned parenthood, and yes abortions. Women who choose not
to have children and who are pregnant have the personal right to end
their pregnancy because it is their body.
Do you get that Mr USfirst. You might think it’s not right and it
doesn’t matter if I think it’s right or wrong because it is not our
decision to make it is the personal decision of the pregnant woman
along with her physician.
As are strongman to the stone age so is your conceptualization of our
current society where you think that women are unfit to perform tasks
like the physical endurance and strength required by police and fire
personnel. What you fail t understand is that those requirements were
designed by men for men and that there are men who are of slighter
build who probably cannot pass some of the requirements that some
stronger women are passing. Regardless of this the majority of strong
white firemen that died in the 9/11 attacks died because they were
firemen not because of their gender or physical prowess. A well
trained team of firefighters of whatever size can competently handle
any job that is necessary.
Perhaps you would like the requirements to be even stricter and
require height and weight and intelligence tests that eliminate 99% of
society so that you can feel that your Fire Department is superior
because of their Male 6′8″ 260-300 lb genius IQ make-up.
Well guess what? A fire department made up of dedicated professionals
well trained and representative of the community that are basically
physically fit are all I expect, not a team of supermen but ordinary
men and women rising to the challenge to be the best firefighters that
they can be.
Regarding the employment of the disabled may I remind you that
President Harry Truman was a paraplegic due to Polio and that
Superstar Musician Stevie Wonder was blind? Remember also that the
Nazi’s in designing and implementing their idea for a perfect race not
only decided to wipe out the Jewish population but also decided that
the disabled, blind, retarded, or elderly and infirm also were not
worth having as part of society.
In conclusion I do not support the spread of Sharia law nor do I
support your interpretation of what our Country should stand for which
as I see it is not much better.
Please Mr.USfirst before you try and educate others please seek out
the wisdom and truth that is required to utilize any education and
knowledge properly. Your argument stinks as much as the argument of
any bigot and it is plainly apparent though you do cleverly try and
cloak it in a virtuous light. I suggest you pal up with the rob2trade
guy who is outraged by gays and go seek out a hate group to join then
at least you will have some company in the the sick and perverse views
of society that you both harbor.
Tags: alaska gov, barack obama, city councilman, councilman james oddo, daughter piper, evangelical christians, gop campaign, gop ticket, hillary rodham clinton, island officials, john mccain, mayor rudolph giuliani, minneapolis st paul, republican column, rudolph giuliani, running mate, sarah palin, sen hillary rodham clinton, sen john mccain, wife cindy