Posted on 01/10/2008 10:36:23 PM PST by Plutarch
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Largely untouched after 90 minutes, John McCain left the stage here Thursday night with the same designation he had upon arrival: frontrunner.
For the third debate in less than a week, no candidate not named “Mitt Romney” aggressively went after the ascendant McCain, who leads now in polls taken in both Michigan and South Carolina.
And with Romney apparently not airing negative ads in Michigan, it appears that McCain, whose vulnerabilities in a GOP primary are well documented, now could go into the next two pivotal primary states largely untouched by his intra-party rivals.
Romney took after McCain at the outset of the Fox News-sponsored forum, criticizing the Arizona senator for his statements in Michigan Wednesday that the jobs lost in the economically struggling state were not coming back.
“I disagree,” Romney said. “I'm going to fight for every single job - Michigan, South Carolina, every state in this country.”
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Later, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson both offered only the most glancing shots at McCain – Giuliani on the Arizonan not being the only one to support the surge policy in Iraq and Thompson on McCain’s immigration stance. And they did so with a dose of honey, beginning their salvos by describing McCain as their “friend.”
McCain was helped further by the emergence of a feister Thompson. The former Tennessee senator came prepared to go on the attack – but not against McCain..
Huckabee has his Evangelical voters, and you'd think that the McCain voters would be the most likely to shift to Thompson. But no attack, even when amnesty came up.
Is Thompson trying to win, or is he only trying to help McCain?
If your a McCain supporter,
do you switch because your guy is attacked?
Or because someone else wins you over with their message?
GO FRED!
He is gaining momentum. There was more to gain going after the Huckster.
If he hit McCain hard, he may have come off as a bully.
my 2 cents
Thompson needs to step it up on McPain and Flip , although
I think Fred views the Huckster as his main obstacle in the South .
I don’t think McCain did that great. And I wish more people would have hit him on immigration. McAmnesty and McFeingold are two labels he can’t run from.
McCain didn’t sound that impressive to me. Now if Fred could just keep his mojo going, we might have something!
I wonder if Fred doesn’t see the Huckster as the greater threat to the country if he were nominated.
“McCain didn’t sound that impressive to me. Now if Fred could just keep his mojo going, we might have something!”
Fred CAN do it.
But we ALL have to help him, all of us that believe in conservatism and saving the repubulican party from RINOs.
Whatever you can folks, money, time, calling.
We dont have to have a RINO for our candidate.
Keep saying it...
FRED CAN DO IT!
We can put him there!
The McCain Train WILL be stopped in SC.
Fred is more stoker than brakeman.
5 and 14
Pain Train is more like it.
I can’t wait to see it go right off the track.
Fred did an awesome job of PROMOTING FREd and that is what he needs to do more than anything.
Nam Vet
Aw, what a good little Pander Bear!
Pretty much every pandering move Mitt makes is an affront to principled conservatives.
I thought McCain’s worst moment was when he explained why the Reagan coalition is not dead because we need to address global warming. What?
Poor, poor little Plutarch.
You are really, really bitter that McCain destroyed your idol Mitt in New Hampshire, aren't you?
Why do you keep bleating over and over about how all the other campaigns should be doing Mitt's dirty work for him?
Do you really think Fred is going to work with Mitt after Romney was linked to the "Thompson's dropping out" rumor in Iowa?
No, your sleazy candidate is going to have to stand up for himself, as he drops further and further out of contention... :D
he also wants “change”
Keep hope alive!
umm we’re not stupid democrats. What will Mitt do next? cry like Hillary?
The latter is a complete BS/paranoid scenario, and you know it.
You're smarter than that.
Sheesh!
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