McCain Emergent

by Charles

Because the president has been an Occasional Communicator, he has painted himself into a political corner, especially now that he has lost degrees of support from conservatives, myself included.  Harriet Miers was the latest ratchet in my movement of separation from George W. Bush.  He gets some credit for recently standing up and defending himself against the "Bush lied" charges by elected Democrats, but that should have been done months--if not years--ago.  He also didn't need to start this pushback on Veterans Day.  Fluent and articulate communication is too much to ask, but regular and consistent and coherent is not.  That's the only way Bush is going to recover from his self-created political malaise.  That, and being right (read conservative) on the issues.

The situation has not only allowed Democrats opportunities to gain political advantage, a few Republicans are in that same position, the most prominent being John Sidney McCain III .

By joining the Gang of 14, McCain sacrificed a few conservative jurists but he paved the way for Roberts and most likely Alito, not to mention scores of appointees for lower federal court positions.  McCain gets credit for that.

McCain is right on federal spending.  McCain is right on winning in Iraq.  And on the current hot-button issue, McCain is right on the treatment of detainees.  His amendment will likely attach to the Graham-Levin compromise, and if Bush exercises his first-ever veto on this piece of legislation, the president will not reverse his downward spiral.  McCain was wrong on campaign finance reform, but that's a push because Bush signed the goddam bill.  All in all, if asked to choose sides between Bush and McCain, I have to go with the Senator from Arizona.

Since he's just written his own version of Profiles in Courage, McCain is sending clear signals that he's going to make a run for president in 2008.  And why not.  This year, he's been a better leader than our present commander-in-chief. Yes, he'll be really old in 2008, but as the saying goes, with today's technology, 72 is the new 62.

Comments

[Bruce Baugh]

I'm thoroughly unconvinced there's much of a constituency for McCain among people inclined to vote Republican in the first place. I think it's like outside interest in Joe Lieberman - the candidate looks most appealing to people who...won't vote for a candidate of that party anyway.

[Gary Farber]

"Rudy will be 64 years old in 2008. His wild youth is behind him. Rudy is now happily married...."

What, his "wild youth" of four years ago? He got remarried (third wife; but I'm sure no Catholics will mind) in May of 2003. We shouldn't pay attention to what he was doing in the days of his "wild youth" when he was living with gay men?

Okay.

He was living with gay men in that "wild youth" we shouldn't pay to in September, 2001.

So I guess we should only pay attention to stuff Rudy has done since his moderate middle age -- you know, since mid-2002.

And I'm sure his GOP opponents couldn't possibly make any use of these pictures. (Good thing he's only done the drag thing once. Oh, wait....)

Here is one view:

Giuliani is completely pro-abortion, and even supports the barbaric practice known as partial birth abortion.

But that is just the beginning of his extreme left-wing positions: Giuliani is pro-Sodomite, pro-Third World immigration and anti-Second Amendment.

Every year as New York's mayor, Giuliani marched in the Sodomite parade down Fifth Avenue with all of the transvestites, the sadomasochistic freaks wearing Nazi helmets, and the child molesters of the National Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).

Giuliani himself dressed in "drag" - he wore a dress, a wig, makeup and lipstick - on more than one occasion.

Giuliani's sexual escapades are as bad as those of Bill Clinton.

Giuliani married his first cousin and then pulled all types of strings to get the marriage annulled by the Catholic Church. (Catholics are not allowed to divorce, and so "annulment" of a marriage is sometimes used to end an unwanted union.)

Giuliani then married his second wife, Donna Hanover, who starred in the evil pornographic and child-molesting play, The Vagina Monologues. In the play, a grown woman has a lesbian, child-molesting relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

Giuliani then openly cheated on his second wife, parading around the city with his adulterous mate, Judith Nathan. Giuliani even wanted to bring his adulterous mate into the Mayor's official residence in Gracie Mansion to openly live with him. He did not care that his young son Andrew was living there and would have seen his father together with his adulterous partner every day.

Finally, Giuliani sought to divorce his second wife. This time, he did not seek an "annulment," he openly sought a divorce.

When the Giulianis separated, he moved into the apartment of an AIDS-infected homosexual "couple" whom he had befriended.

So, yeah, I'm sure he'll be accepted entirely smoothly.

[Gary Farber]

"e)She's blacker than Powell, but somehow more popular in the GOP."

Possibly the fact that her political/domestic policy opinions are even more unknown than his might be somehow connected.

[dmbeaster]

Gary Farber:

Love your quoted material that knocks Rudi -- it should wake people up to why Rudi has no chance in today's GOP. I was wondering if people were going to mention the issues that will plague any Rudi candidacy, but it makes the point better to see the vicious attack line in the flesh. That will be the talking points in any anti-Rudi effort in GOP primaries. Frankly, he has to be a little nutty to think he has a chance.

The author of your quote does the same sort of smear job on McCain, and its another example of the negatives McCain will encounter in any effort. What's important to note is that McCain's maverick tendencies will not play well in GOP primaries -- he looks out of step with a group that does not value independent thinking, and I assume will be punished for it by GOP primary voters.

The JTF guy says McCain voted against all of the Bush tax cuts. Assuming that is correct, other GOP hopefuls will crown him on that one, and I can't imagine GOP voters saying that he was right to vote that way.

[John Thullen]

The Guiliani stuff is interesting.

I might vote for him, but I'd like to hear more about his tax policy.

He would restore some fashion flair in the White House, though I suspect visible back hair might turn off the base and make them stay home, which I hope is far away.

Also, I have it on deep background that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania on 9/11 was headed for the AIDS sufferers' apartment. We don't yet know whether the flight plan was issued from a cave in Afghanistan or a cave in Fresh Meadows, New York.

[Dana]

Well, I agree that Jindahl lost a little support because of his race. However, I think that that says more about LA than about the GOP. My GOP senatrices, Collins and Snowe, preceded by the GOP's Bill Cohen, show a different GOP world in New England.
Of course politicians speak to the lazy ways of thinking of the vulgar voting mobs. Jesse Helms with his famous "Black Hands" ad. Buchanan said he'd put up signs on the border reading "no way, Jose."
But let's not forget Schumer grilling judge Pryor re: his views on abortion. He drove home the implication to his secular New York audience that this Alabaman Catholic guy couldn't separate his personal views from his jurisprudence. Maybe there is an objective case against Pryor's clarity of judgement, but when the cameras were on, all that was necessary for Schumer to say was that Pryor's strongly held personal views were a great cause for concern.
All politicians play to the people's preconceived notions for political gain -- that's how you win in the court of public opinion when the public is, at best, only slightly interested in politics.
Thanks for your magnanimous posts.

[Gary Farber]

"My GOP senatrices, Collins and Snowe, preceded by the GOP's Bill Cohen, show a different GOP world in New England."

I think Maine is a lovely and very fine state, but they do indeed tend to have a very white Christmas.

[Dana]

Yep. The Northern New England States play musical chairs, vying for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd whitest states in the union. Over the past decade, Maine has actually enjoyed quite a burst of immigration in the form of Somalian refugees. Our cities finally have blacks, although they're all Muslim immigrants, and so don't behave politically in just the same way as do descendents of Southern slaves.

Bringing this all back to the GOP primaries of 2008: you don't have to be born-again to win the nomination (we all know that Jimmy Carter is an evangelical, and the enemy of all right-thinking conservatives), you just have to respect those who are and show a disdain for elite secularists.
McCain will have to trumpet his conservative voting record on abortion and judges, and can fight a respectable battle to win religious support.

McCain's real opposition will come not from Bible-thumpers, but from GOP elites in smoke-filled back rooms, who will try to end the contest before it starts by agreeing to crown a front-runner like they did in 2000. Whoever wins this smoke-filled room of elites, months before Iowa, will have the best chance of gaining the nomination.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Dana:

I like NE Republicans, and would welcome a Party led by them. (I have a bizarre crush on Weld, for example.) But name the five most important Northern Republicans in the last five years, and match them up with a list of the five most important Republicans of the last five years.

You are the tail trying to wag the dog. But its a good tail.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Jeebus. OK, that last sentence came out wierdly sexual. Not intended that way.

[hilzoy]

SCMT: not nearly as odd as having a crush on Weld, if you ask me.

[Gary Farber]

Weld looking a bit stained, by the way. Although compared to many leading Republicans today, he looks nearly like a saintly genuis, I'll admit.