in the wrong era. Soundly refuting
liberals online since 2000.
| Heritage | 0 | |
| Reuters | 2012 Watch: Mitt Romney’s message from GOP: Step it up |
0 |
| Fox News | Hmm: Obama to give 10 states a pass on No Child Left Behind deadline |
0 |
| CBS LA | Wha? LA County OKs $1,000 Fine For Throwing Football, Frisbee On Beaches |
0 |
| Ballot Box | AZ: Aide injured in Giffords shooting will run to replace her in House |
0 |
Audacity of Truth
Gaffetastic:
Vice President Joe Biden had his “oops” moment Wednesday speaking in a 49er-crazed SF when he told a crowd at a city political fundraiser that “the Giants are on their way to the Super Bowl.” - SF Chronicle, 1-18-12
What’s up with McCain?
I don’t quite understand what’s going on here:
Facing a loss at a 2008 straw poll event this weekend, Senator John McCain of Arizona told his supporters to write in President Bush [?] as a sign of support, leaving many sputtering.
“For the next three years, with our country at war, he’s our president and the only one who needs our support,” McCain told nearly 2,000 party activists from 26 states gathered in Memphis.
McCain, realizing the national political media had descended on the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, moved to discredit the straw poll by asking delegates to vote for Bush, insiders claim.
Instead of stopping the momentum of Majority Leader Bill Frist – widely anticipated to win the straw poll – the move seemed to expose the McCain camp’s insincerity about its position with the base.
One activist said, “McCain voted against all the Bush tax cuts… maybe he should have voted for the president then, instead of waiting for a political stunt to try and distract.”
Would someone please enlighten me with some speculation as to why he would have done this?
Elephants in Academia says:
This wasn’t the noble act of a uniter–it was the cold, calculated maneuver of someone who wasn’t the presumed front-runner and wanted to scuttle the actual front-runner and score points with the base at the same time.
Ouch. As the media-appointed “maverick” of the Republican party (something over which conservatives have long expressed irritation), McCain definitely needs to work on scoring points with the base in order to have a shot at making it past the primaries (this, of course, is assuming he’d run). But I’m not so sure this is the way to go about scoring points with the base.
Tom Bevan at Real Clear Politics has more on McCain at last night’s SRLC.
More: The SF Chronicle reports:
After a full-throated defense of President Bush’s policies on Iraq, Iran and even port security, Sen. John McCain shrugged his shoulders and explained why: “It’s easy to be loyal when the guy is at 65 percent.”
“I’m not going to kick him while he’s down.”
[...]
McCain, the early front-runner for 2008, epitomizes how Republican candidates are judiciously handling their approach to Bush.
While praising the president for the fight against terrorism, the Arizona senator denounced the free-spending habits of Congress and noted that President Reagan vetoed a bill with 152 special spending projects. Without mentioning Bush or the president’s unused veto pen, McCain told delegates in his Friday night address that a spending bill recently was signed into law with more than 6,000 such project.
“My friends, that’s your money. We cannot do that with American tax dollars,” McCain said, slashing the air with his finger as he raised his voice to a shout. “We cannot do that!”
Delegates praised McCain on Saturday for being both fiscally conservative and loyal to Bush who, despite sagging poll numbers, is still supported by three-fourths of Republicans. McCain has been trying to curry favor with conservatives since his failed 2000 campaign against Bush.
“You don’t hear McCain defend the president very often and I found that very encouraging,” said Adair Schippers, a delegate from Cheatam County, Tenn.
Hmmmm.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
12 Responses to “What’s up with McCain?”
Comments
Blogads
Disclaimer: The views expressed on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of ST's advertisers, nor do their opinions necessarily reflect ST's. Island of Misfit Bloggers
Stats
I’m not as politcally savvy as you are, but here’s my take. I heard some others at this event say the same thing, forget about the straw poll and support Bush. I think with the hubbub from the ports deal, it appears to the public the president and republicans are going in seperate directions,and with mid-term elections coming up they are trying to make it look as though there is no rift and everthing is a-ok.
If it comes down to McCain versus a Democrat for the Presidency, I will vote for McCain. Other than that, I do not trust the man.
He’s calculating, and far too cozy with Leftist Democrats.
“Would someone please enlighten me with some speculation as to why he would have done this?”
McCain’s ego can’t stand losing. He figures the ’08 nomination is his for the taking. He thought he’d sweep in there and find a McCain love fest going on. That was the real reason the media was present in force. But when he realised Frist was getting all the votes, McCain tried to reposition himself so as not to look like a loser, and it didn’t work.
>If it comes down to McCain versus a
>Democrat for the Presidency, I will vote
>for McCain
More than likely, I’ll stay home. I don’t really see the difference between McCain and most Democrats.
What’s up with McCain?
I’m working on the theory that when he ejected from his plane during the Vietnam war he landed on his head.
McCain wants to be the President so he needs bush. He needs his money sources and he needs him not to make cracks about his “black children”, especially in North Carolina. bush is now a lame-duck so McCain can begin to fill the power vacuum. He also knows that because he is a hawk his support is declining with everybody to the Left of Cheney. Everybody to the Right of Attila the Hun hates him already so he really has no natural constituency. Ergo, say nice things about the boss. He is also standing in Frist’s house in Tenn. so he can embarass Frist if bush wins the straw poll.Peace
McCain was playing two hands here. His team found out he was going to be beaten by Frist and maybe even others from this poll of the grassroots. McCain’s team couldn’t let a clean vote go on with that set of cards on the table. He also FINALLY realized he is too far to the left of the grassroots Republicans AND the conserative base. He simply is a moderate with little following in the majority of the active base.
So, he intended to pollute the poll by throwing in the vote for Bush deal… hence making the poll about supporting the one figure not running for President (Bush) since his team realized it was not all about him. No one wins and he does not get beaten out of the box. He attempted to reset the date of this battle and on better ground. Good military logic, not sure it works here.
The other hand in play is that McCain tried to pull himself right by being both a Bush guy and a party/team guy through his statements. He has a long ways to go if any of the polls run by the party are a refelection.
As grassroots polls and events crawl closer towards 2008, McCain’s team may have finally heard what most of the day to day activists have been saying since 2004; McCain may be able to win the general election but he’ll never get past the primaries being who he has been the last 15 or so years. MSNBC & CNN polls and reports are hurting his campaign. His picture of where he stands is jaded by MSM accounts of his stature in the groups who will pick him as the Presidential candidate.
Without Bush, Rove, some valuable grassroots support, truckloads of cash, the conservative base AND the party’s political machine that is already in place, he won’t get past the first month of primaries.
So, he tried to stink up the place with perfume and it is starting to smell more like manure. Talk radio and the blogs will skewer him on Monday and Tuesday. The weekly conservative pubs will deal with him too.
Good points, Dave. While I’m sure McCain is a nice guy, he’s someone who doesn’t strike me as being very decisive. And, in the land of political opportunists (I know DC is full of that, among other things) he seems to be more politically oportunistic than most.
One thing that surprised me was him throwing his support behind the Prez on the UAE port deal. He’s got nothing whatsoever to gain by doing so.
Had a mix on that UAE deal, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, (Ex-presidents and president on both sides of the isle agreeing this is a good thing).
I don’t know much about McCain but I don’t overly like him for the image he puts forth. He find he is one of the worst media whores around and if there is a camera rolling I find he has to put himself in front of it.
If this was a calculated move to pollute the poll and kill support for Frist, it may backfire on him, as Dave says people are not stupid and will see through this bit of smoke screen.
As for Frist, I don’t see him having a snowballs chance in hell.
At this point I really don’t see a good Republican candidate that really jumps out at me, and that is not something good getting this close to 2008.
Say what you like about Democrats, but our own house isn’t in the best of order either, especially if we have no real strong candidates to even consider.
They ended up giving McCain the middle finger. Let the games begin. Peace
Mr. Daudi, My theory is that when McCain was tortured by the North Vietnamese that he developed mental problems that he can no longer control.
McCain is making the rounds of Iowa now. He’s appearing at a fundraiser for a local State Senator, Steve Lukan, in April. McCain insists that this event be not only open to the “Grassroots” GOP activists, but he really wants to meet us.
John Edwards is having an event a week earlier locally. Since the event is being held at a local lawyer’s office that I don’t like, I’m not going. I also think it speaks volumes that Edwards is playing to the shyster crowd.