Posted on 02/07/2008 10:27:28 AM PST by Between the Lines
Does a John McCain Republican victory mean the demise of the "dittoheads?"
It is just one of a number of a fascinating back stories to the resurrection of the Arizona senator, a campaign that has had to swim upstream not against the Mitt Romneys and Rudy Giulianis of the world, but the right-wing "talkocracy" of the United States, the family-values wing of the party and some Republican members of Congress.
It has been bad news for the "dittoheads," the pejorative name given to the audience of Rush Limbaugh, the country's leading conservative radio voice, for their blind agreement with the views of the host.
Limbaugh's prediction of Republican ruination under McCain has many supporters on the airwaves, including Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, well-known media names in the U.S., and Dr. James Dobson, head of the Colorado-based Focus on the Family.
The 71-year-old McCain's list of alleged sins are long, all predicated on his "liberal" views and dismissal of the conservative base.
His critics see a candidate who would give amnesty to illegal immigrants; who would push global warming solutions costly to the U.S. economy; who refuses to drill for oil in a protected Arctic wildlife sanctuary; who once opposed the George W. Bush tax cuts because they benefited the rich; and who gives the back of his hand to the party's base.
They even say he's got a quick temper, uses bad words and "doesn't play nice in the sandbox" of Congress, as one former Republican colleague put it.
Super Tuesday played to that perception – McCain swept Democratic states the party has little chance of winning in November, while former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee split Republican strongholds.
If he cannot find common ground with his critics, McCain may be heading for a Pyrrhic victory.
Canadians, at least, would find him plenty conservative.
He is the biggest proponent of the Iraq troop surge in Congress and has mused about an American troop presence there for a century.
He would back any move to overturn abortion rights enshrined in the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision and has criticized Canadian-style universal health care.
Yesterday, McCain told his critics to chill.
"I think they've made their case against me pretty eloquently," he said, "if that's the right word.
"I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there are areas that we can agree on for the good of the party and for the good of the country."
Huckabee backed him.
"Some people should just switch to decaf," he said.
Limbaugh appears to favour espresso.
"I'll just tell you, there's far more apathy or anger out there than the Republican establishment knows,'' he said in the wake of McCain's string of victories Tuesday.
"One question I asked myself," he said, bringing up Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, "if down the road you think that the election of Obama, Hillary or McCain is going to result in very bad things happening to the country, who would you rather get the blame for it?"
On the eve of Super Tuesday, Limbaugh told his audience:
"Senator McCain successfully targeted the weak, the mushy, the squishy, the Jell-Os, some of the left, the Drive-By Media.
"The maverick ... here's the dirty little secret. The `maverick' is swimming with the majority. The maverick is not a maverick.
"Maverick, my rear end."
On Tuesday, Dobson released a statement saying: "I am convinced Senator McCain is not a conservative, and in fact has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are."
Today, McCain gets another chance to reach out, when he addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference here.
He is likely to receive a frosty reception, because conference chair David Keene is reminding participants that McCain last year "blew off'' the event as irrelevant.
Liberal groups are loving the show.
"The self-anointed kingmakers of the far right ... were rebuked by the foot soldiers of their own movement," said Mary Jean Collins, political director of the liberal People For the American Way.
"Have the leaders of the right – from Dobson to its talking heads – lost control of the voting bloc they helped create?"
I bet they are.
Dear MSM, go...what Dick Cheney said. ;)
Either one will cause amnesty.
You party boys got what you wanted. You purges us icky right wingers from your party so you could rebrand it as Democrat Lite with McCain.
Ok, now go win your election without us.
BWWWWWAA-AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Yup, left-wingers have been guaranteed a victory in November no matter what happens.
At the end of this election cycle, either McCain or the talk radio crowd will be left with greatly reduced credibility. Of course there are many here on FR who will tell you that McCain has no credibility now, but y’all know what I’m saying.
Just someone else trying to get attention from Rush.
Igmo wet dream
I am going to simply CALM DOWN.
In fact I feel sooo calm, that I’ll probably forget to vote for McLame.
This insulting stereotying presupposes that all conservatives tune to Limbaugh and nod in unison. Most conservatives whom I know are intelligent logicians who draw their own conclusions instead of pulling in tandem.
Ignorant jagdork.
Lest we forget, it’s also what McCain told our Texas’ Senator Cornyn:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1836017/posts
By November, Mr. Harper will be oinking about McCain being a hardline right-wing extremist.
Ted Kennedy smiles my boy McNuts wins now I own the white house.
“The self-anointed kingmakers of the far right ...”
Mythology.
If she is referring to Rush, he has REPEATEDLY said that he owes his popularity to simply voicing what conservatives have been thinking for years. He does not desire or pretend to lead, let alone act as kingmaker. This perspective is at root, conservatism to the core.
Oh and when a liberal says “far right” what they are telling you in their ignornace, is that ANYTHING to the right of their sick position, immediately falls off a steeep precipice into FarRightLand.
The artile is from the Toronto Star. It does not explain, now would it know why he did not win (or barely won) a majority of Republican votes in Arizona. Southern Arizonas, those who understand his policy on borders, immigration and citizenship, know him for the fourflusher he is. To put it kindly, there are one hell of a lot of Arizonas that hate his guts. Give America time. They will have lots of time to come to loathe him.
Ah, the "fascinating back stories"...
More fascinating, I think, would be the story of just how McVain was "resurrected" (interesting choice of words, I think, when so many similar secular terms are available). This "resurrection" is a contrivance, a whole-cloth creation of the MSM and GOP elites. Scr*w them.
Enjoy the taste of ashes in your mouths. We derisively-named "dittoheads" will continue to do the Right thing and support only the conservatives in the congressional races while your liberal RINO twists in the wind as the once-kind media turns the sharp knives on him.
Mr. Harper should buy a clue.
“One question I asked myself,” he said, bringing up Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, “if down the road you think that the election of Obama, Hillary or McCain is going to result in very bad things happening to the country, who would you rather get the blame for it?”
WOW, that has been my take on it as well.
The difference is that I FIRMLY believe things will go bad if any of these three get in and I no longer care which party gets the blame.
“for their blind agreement with the views of the host.”
This only applies to the right wing conservative party, that the left sides with all the liberal media, well, that is not considered blind agreement just that they are progressive and better informed.
The fact that less than 50% of Republicans have shown support for McCain seems to have escaped Mzzzzzz Collins.
Yup, just went over to DU to check. They're having a good 'ole laugh about this. Saying that "the FReepers are hyperventilating."
Wouldn’t the media just absolutely love nothing else in their miserable lives more than to see Rush Limbaugh and the entire Dittohead movement to ‘defeated’.
Bad news, MSM. We are still here and we will still be here four years from now. We survived Ford, Bush 41, Dole, Goldwater and we will survive McVain. But McVain will not surive us.
Stuck on stupids are so bent on destruction they cannot see the big drop for them straight ahead.
WRONG!
He obviously doesn't know what "dittohead" means..I quit reading there...if he can't get that right.
“More fascinating, I think, would be the story of just how McVain was “resurrected” (interesting choice of words, I think, when so many similar secular terms are available). This “resurrection” is a contrivance, a whole-cloth creation of the MSM and GOP elites. Scr*w them.”
Absolutely. McCain was going nowhere early on. He was slipped in when we weren’t watching.
Aye, right you are. It's funny actually that millions of people follow a man that stands for nothing, has no plans at all and gets by saying things like "Change is in the air" then call us mindless followers. Ha ha.
Regards
I will be a “dittohead” until the end of my life. I love Rush and nobody is going to make me change my mind!!!
Love you el rushbo!
Your going to find out how wrong you are in November.
At the risk of repeating myself:
Staying home on election day won't send a message to Republican leaders. Neither will voting for McCain. Well, a McCain vote will send the message that conservatives are not principled but party voters; and therefore the Republican leadership can continue to push candidates like McCain and Romney and bury candidates like Thompson and Hunter, and we will rollover and expose our bellies out of fear of the (continually self-destructing) Democrats. Voting for a third party candidate WILL send a proper message, either to the Republican party which has abandoned it's conservative principles or to the "new" party that actually offers us conservative candidates.
I think we (meaning conservatives) should be discussing the conservative boni fides of various third parties and their candidates rather than harping to each other about McCain/Romney/Huckabee/Hillary/Obama. And FreeRepublic should be hosting that conversation and inviting all to attend and present their "case for conservatism".
The country survived eight years of Billary and we will survive four or eight years of Hillarbill or Obama _IF_ conservatives use that time to build a strong base in a new/different party, or a Republican party that "got the message" when we voted on principle rather than on politics in 2008. A party, new or changed, whose political philosophy is closer to that of Reagan, as well as the 1994 Republicans under Gingrich.
"Principled" means conservative first, Republican second. That's my opinion, your mileage may vary.
Write your Congressman and Senators, as I will mine, and make it a fight to the end. Arizona is doing what all States need to do to solve this problem. Make it impossible for them to work, and they'll leave.
Ditto that.
It will end up being:
“Right-wing ‘dittoheads’ shake up McCain”
"I've been a long time listener, I love your show, gush gush gush" - gets old. One caller did it at the start of their call, and said little else. The next said "dittos" and then got to the point.
It doesn't mean agreement with Rush, it means agreement with that stylized (boring) gush-fest from that one iconic previous caller. We don't all need to say it, it would bore everyone, so just say "dittos, Rush", and get to the point.
All it has ever meant...
If x42 couldn't do it, John McCain certainly won't, much as the liberals would LOVE for it to happen.
I’m going to vote for John McCain, John Kerry’s would-a-been VP running mate, before I vote against him, just like his old buddy Jacque Hanoi Kerry did for Iraq War funding. Then I can claim across the aisle bipartisanship just like Juan himself.
That has never been what 'dittos' means. It means the caller is not going to take up valuable air time telling Rush how he enjoys him and enjoys the program and that he's a long time listener and first time caller, but he's just going to say 'dittos' to join in with all the other callers who have already said the same thing.
They are probably right for a change, they are laughing their asses off at how they managed to get their GOP candidate the endorsement.
I would personnel like to know who pulled off this coup.
How ignorant or stupid or malignant for refusing to understand what "dittos" means. "Dittos" is shorthand for "I like the show. Glad to find someone on the air who agrees with my views, etc."
Typical, kneejerk, librul response. I aks u, who's the real "dittohead"?
I know what “ditto” means, unless I am misreading the article, he is suggesting that as Rush says we are mind numb robots and he is the control.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
LOL.
Dear Mr. Harper. I think you will find that your job, and your newspaper, will be long gone and forgotten, before there is any "demise of the dittoheads".
Keep furiously pumping out your leftist drivel, because your time is rapidly drawing to a close.
You are exactly right. We’re being sold a bill of goods here. I wonder what the GOP said to Mitt Romney that made him ‘suspend’ his candidacy? This is a set up.
It's interesting how Fox News played along so willingly and deftly...clearly they can't be trusted as an "alternative" news source any longer (although that day passed three or four years ago, probably).
As an example, look at this December 7 article in Time Magazine. At that moment, McCain was polling in 3rd or 4th place in NH, even behind Ron Paul in some polls. It was written by Ana Marie Cox, aka Wonkette:
But that was one of the few articles in December mulling a "McCain comeback". Consider the frequency of that very phrase in 2007:
Notice how there was a steady drumbeat throughout all of 2007 about a "McCain comeback" (although none happened), and then suddenly in December there were only a tiny handful of stories about a comeback? Perhaps if there were, they would have had to have been about the "comeback" they were engineering...
I have come to that point myself, there is NO doubt this is a setup. Wish we could have a really good conservative party instead of the shadow conservative party we have now. I think we’re really in for a bad rest of our lives (smile).
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