John McCain for President

[Charlotte_native]

I've been thinking it more and more lately, so I'll just express it here - I think this is all a well orchestrated plan (that appears to be working) to push McCain back up enough to get elected. The right wingers and other GOP'ers who don't like him are only making him look more attractive to voters who are on the fence and will subconsciously see this as evidence that he is a viable moderate alternative to Dem candidates they are not in love with (Hillary and Obama). Never mind that we know logically he is a panderer and a flip-flopper, there is still that subtle bent that makes him look better because of attacks from within his own party. And I think that these dissentions have a rhythm to them that feels planned.

[Gusterfell]

^But doesn't that risk driving the far-right GOP base away from McCain? These voters tend to take everything Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. say as gospel truth, and McCain can't afford to lose their votes, either in the primaries or the general election.

[Justadude]

It doesn't make sense to tear a candidate apart in the primary, only to try and build him back up in the presidential election.

A more accurate description of what is happening, is that McCain is strongly disliked by the far-right segment of the GOP because he has a record of stepping away from the party line.

[monsoon]

It doesn't make sense to tear a candidate apart in the primary, only to try and build him back up in the presidential election,

[Charlotteman]

A footnote to this. I just realized if this becomes a McCain vs Clinton race, then what we have is a repeat of the Clinton vs Bob Dole race of 1996. Bob Dole was an old man that "inherited" the position and the Clinton machine chewed him up as irrelevant, out of touch, too old...

[nowensone]

^But doesn't that risk driving the far-right GOP base away from McCain? These voters tend to take everything Limbaugh, Coulter, etc. say as gospel truth, and McCain can't afford to lose their votes, either in the primaries or the general election.

[monsoon]

.....

Huckabee just took all of WVA, so perhaps McCain's nomination isn't really a done deal.

[Charlotte_native]

Actually it sounds as if all of the McCain supporters voted for Huckabee to keep Romney from getting the delegates.

[Raintree21]

McCain won California, New York, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey and Oklahoma yesterday.

[monsoon]

What is interesting about that however is that he failed to deliver the knockout blow against the others that he had hoped to deliver. While McCain is ahead in delegates Romney and Huckabee also won a number of states.

[Justadude]

I don't think it does, because ultimately they will vote for him before Hillary and Obama, and he appears to have secured the primaries (barring something very odd happening with a fringe candidate). And I don't think the right-wingers will stay home on voting day either. It's too bad they wouldn't back Obama because of his own strong religious beliefs...

[Charlotteman]

I think any realistic Republican knows that this election is going to be difficult to win. Therefore, the only shot McCain has (assuming he goes on to take the nomination) is to get conservatives mobilized en masse and out to the polls. Even given the short-memory phenomenon, I'm sure there are already plenty of right-wingers who have decided not to vote for McCain under any circumstance (much the way pro-lifers get blackballed by the right, and therefore never win anything regardless of how conservative they are on other issues).

If there really is some kind of conspiracy to attract moderates by ripping McCain in the press, it's going to end up sacrificing at least as much as it gains for his campaign. Not only is he going to end up blackballed by talk-radio junkies, but it's now impossible for prominent conservatives like Buchanan to give him a convincing endorsment -- and he's going to have to deal with a lot of flak from the Dem nominee for failing to inspire even his own party members. Whatever small gains he would make with a reverse-psychology technique on the undecided voter, will be outweighed by his losses among hardcore conservatives... who are the ones his campaign needs to mobilize if he wants to win in the end.

I really don't think this is a complex psychological technique; the criticism from Rush and Buchanan seems real, and doesn't bode well for his performance in the final election (yay America).

[nowensone]

I think any realistic Republican knows that this election is going to be difficult to win. Therefore, the only shot McCain has (assuming he goes on to take the nomination) is to get conservatives mobilized en masse and out to the polls. Even given the short-memory phenomenon, I'm sure there are already plenty of right-wingers who have decided not to vote for McCain under any circumstance (much the way pro-lifers get blackballed by the right, and therefore never win anything regardless of how conservative they are on other issues).

If there really is some kind of conspiracy to attract moderates by ripping McCain in the press, it's going to end up sacrificing at least as much as it gains for his campaign. Not only is he going to end up blackballed by talk-radio junkies, but it's now impossible for prominent conservatives like Buchanan to give him a convincing endorsment -- and he's going to have to deal with a lot of flak from the Dem nominee for failing to inspire even his own party members. Whatever small gains he would make with a reverse-psychology technique on the undecided voter, will be outweighed by his losses among hardcore conservatives... who are the ones his campaign needs to mobilize if he wants to win in the end.

I really don't think this is a complex psychological technique; the criticism from Rush and Buchanan seems real, and doesn't bode well for his performance in the final election (yay America).

[JDC]

I guess it's not a failed candidacy after all?

[Charlotteman]

I guess it's not a failed candidacy after all?

[monsoon]

I guess it's not a failed candidacy after all?

[Charlotteman]

Rush Limbaugh is now threatening to avoid endorsing McCain "if he doesn't put Huckabee on the ticket".

I just can't imagine for the life of me a man like John McCain being told what to do. Especially by a blowhard moron like Rush that backs up all his supposed knowledge with a high school diploma.......

Tom Delay, R-Hell, was on Hardball last night saying global warming is a myth. And he railed on McCain over and over because McCain wants to outlaw gun shows. He also is withholding his endorsement "until serious questions are answered."

The Right Wing Whackos vs. John McCain.

[Captain Worley]

McCain strikes me as the type not to take Huckabee just because of Rush's threats. I'm still thinking he'll want Thompson as VP.

[Charlotteman]

McCain strikes me as the type not to take Huckabee just because of Rush's threats. I'm still thinking he'll want Thompson as VP.

[Charlotte_native]

Last night Faux News was up to it again...they had a clip of John McCain speaking behind a podium and listed him with a 'D' beside his name. Like the Foley scandal, they claim it was an accident. Strange how those typos show up behind anyone they decide they don't like.

[monsoon]

The thing about the conservative radio and TV pundits like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, is that their ratings will be decidedly higher if they have Hillary in office rather than McCain. This is why the lack of support from this quarter. It also doesn't help their cause that nobody listened to them when they told the GOPers how to vote.

[Charlotte_native]

It also doesn't help their cause that nobody listened to them when they told the GOPers how to vote.

[Justadude]

^ I've noticed a similar trend in my family and among my politically-conservative friends. The Republican base is beginning to fragment, especially around the notion of fiscal vs. social conservatism. IMO, this has to do with the simple passage of time; if you think about it, the past 8 years have been the heyday of those who were born in the 1940s and early 50s, and therefore grew up in a time of political and social extremes. In the Republican Party, this includes Bush (born 1951), Cheney (1941), Delay (1947), Gingrich (1943), Romney (1947), Giuliani (1944), and Hastert (1942). It's no big surprise that the party took such a turn for the extreme in the past decade, when you consider the version of conservatism that these men experienced during their formative years. Younger Republicans, and even older ones such as Dole and McCain, are noticeably different in their tone and philosophy.

In 20 years almost the entire pre-Civil Rights generation will have passed away, and the few remaining will be too old to possess much political power. I think we're seeing the beginnings of that process today, as the base of younger voters swells. It's clear that the Republican leadership put too much emphasis on divisive social issues like abortion and gay rights, and have become detached from the values and priorities of mainstream conservatism. This reminds me very much of the Democratic Party in the late '70s and '80s, when special interest groups took over the party and opened the door for 20+ years of Republican dominance in Congress and the White House. We may be seeing the start of a similar process, with the roles reversed.

[monsoon]

After yesterday's election it appears that McCain is not uniting the party given that he lost at least 2 of the 3 races last night and the Kansas loss has to be particularly embarrassing for him as he had the entire GOP establishment there stumping for him. He will win the nomination and will lose the presidential race. My guess is that a country that is starving for change like it is, is not going to vote for a 72 year old man that has lived the last 3rd of his life involved in Washington politics. I do believe that after last nights disastrous results for McCain there is going to be a lot of pressure on Huckabee to get out of the race because if McCain continues to lose race after race in the primaries to come (21 more states) it is really going to make him look bad.

[Charlotteman]

Is John McCain uniting the GOP? Absolutely not.

Underreported was the fact that McCain won the Washington State GOP caucuses by a razor thin 200 votes. Obviously lots of Republicans are not ready to go under the McCain tent. Hucklebury had an amazingly good showing for the state, especially considering how far Washington is from the South.