John McCain-Disaster?
There seems to be a great deal of angst among conservatives regarding the probability that John McCain will be the GOP nominee. They feel as though the Reagan coalition has been irreparably (at least this year) sundered, and that the GOP is basically doomed. Rush Limbaugh has gone so far as to say that he would consider withholding his support for McCain even into the general election, which is more or less unprecedented for him. Many other prominent conservatives have expressed much the same sentiments.
Of course, maybe McCain wouldn’t be getting so much support if so many conservatives hadn’t thrown their support to Rudy Giuliani early on. Values voters are perhaps the Republican Party’s strongest supporters—did anybody think that they would support the unapologetically pro-abortion Rudy Giuliani?
In any case, John McCain isn’t much worse than conservative favorite Mitt Romney. McCain is weak on taxes. Romney’s health care plan mandated health care for everybody. McCain supports amnesty. So did Romney, till he noticed the polls. McCain believes in global warming. Romney supports stringent gun control laws.
Such a list could go on for a long time. The main difference between the two candidates is: Mitt Romney cares about conservatives enough to pander to them. John McCain won’t even do that. In McCain’s favor, he probably has a better chance of winning a general election than Romney does.
Take your pick—a probable loser who will pander to conservatives, or one who has a real chance who seems to enjoy antagonizing us. There are no good choices.
By the way, I miss Fred. Maybe he will be someone’s running mate?
posted by Daniel Ruwe @ 7:39 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
I'm with you, Daniel, we conservatives have no good candidate left.
I cant believe this is happening either.
How on earth can we re-enlist Fred Thompson?
We already drafted the man and I now consider him AWOL.
Romney has the money for a campaign blitz, but all the endorsements are going to McCain.
Huckabee and Ron (Goofy Ass Paul) might as well bow out now.
How are we going to live with a McCain Presidency?
The only thing I can think of is like what we did with President Bush when that amnesty thing came up and we all yelled and screamed and called our Senator's and Congressman, and made it all stop!
But this is going to be a full time job with McCain!
Oh heaven's, and I have to vote for someone this Teusday!
I'm a real mess.
I couldn't disagree with your assessment more this time around Daniel.
First, in the traditional sense of the word, conservatives didn't support Rudy Giuliani. What you had were a sizable group of the dreaded "Neo"-conservatives getting behind Rudy. Many Neo-conservatives are nothing more than Democrats with a strong foreign policy position. Let's be honest, any true blue conservative would not compromise their principles to go along with a whole host of "Republican" endorsed issues (healthcare mandates, smoking bans, professional sports stadium subsidies, ethanol subsidies, global warming hysteria, etc.).
These my friend are not Conservative positions. Yet these are positions of which a great many of the current crop of Republicans have embraced. This shows proof positive how far removed from conservatism the party has become.
Becuase we've got, and have had for some time, a whole host of Republicans (from Arnold Schwarzenneger, Sonny Purdue, Charley Crist, Charles Grassley, Tim Pawlenty, et al.)who have embraced these very things. These are the sorts of "conservatives" who may have embraced Giuliani early on. The only problem of course is that those very individuals have forsaken practically every principle associated with conservatism. They are not conservatives.
Secondly, anyone who knows presidential politics knows that Republican candidates have traditionally always gone hard right in the primaries where they need to shore up the (what was at once) conservative base of the party. This is precisely why you have them all climbing over each other during these debates for the coveted Reagan mantle. That said, of course Romney is saying the right things and doing a pretty fine job as portraying himself as the most conservative of the bunch.
Once the Republican nominee comes to pass and the general election rolls around, I expect much of that rhetoric to be toned down
sizeably.
Something else to think about here. Where is all the criticism towards John McCain coming from now?? If guessed the right, you'd be right.
Were he to win the White House, where would the criticism come from then? The criticism would come from the left in that McCain wasn't working with them. And, do we not know Senator McCain's tendencies by now? He'd buckle in a New York minute.
I wouldn't criticize Daniel for his remarks, Soapie, there were plenty of conservatives who were all for Rudy early on, including people like Sean Hannity. Plus look at our so-called conservative friend DD2 and his band of merry bloggers? Sure, now that Giuliani is out of the picture, they are backing Romney, the only one left who has the slightest hint of conservatism in him. Where was Hannity back when Thompson, Tancredo and Hunter were in the race?
I would never beat up on Daniel too badly. Of course I could because we all know he is not wont to pop in an post a commentary to the commentary ;-)
But, I've never been sold on Hannity's claim of being a Conservative. What he is is more of what I previously addressed as a Neo-conservative of the big government variety as much as are many of those folks over at FOX News.
True and honest conservatives knew that the party was drifting portside. Our primary goal was not merely defeating Hillary or Obama but rather it was in preserving (or rather) re-establishing the genuine conservative cause. We knew that through this, we would defeat Hillary. Now it's anybody's guess...
And, as for the 'band of merry bloggers'...two words Beth
Smoking Bans.
I rest my case.
lol, Soapster, and you may be right about Hannity, but many think he is a conservative.
And there are "many" who think Elvis is pumping gas at a station in some small town on the outskirts of nowhere.
Cross-posted to the RNI 2008 blog!
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