Here you go Commander Queeg...
And watch out for decks of cards... 
...and strawberries!
GET A NET FOR THIS CORRUPT, TRAITOROUS P.O.S.!
Posted on 09/19/2005 2:19:08 PM PDT by gobucks
U.S. Sen. John McCain knows why he wants to be president.
He isn't running for the job - officially. That won't happen, if it happens at all, until after next year's midterm elections.
McCain, who turns 69 on Monday, said "there's no point" in formally announcing his candidacy until after the 2006 congressional elections.
But the Arizona Republican didn't skip a beat Tuesday when asked why he would want to run for the White House in 2008.
"Because we live in a time of great challenges," McCain said in an interview with Arizona Daily Star editors and reporters.
Chief among them is the war on terror, a "transcendent issue" likely to last for years, he said. But there is "a broad variety of domestic challenges" as well.
Sounding much like a candidate ticking off the priorities of his platform, McCain said they include immigration, Social Security, global warming, rising health-care costs and the "obscene" spending practices of Washington.
"My ego is sufficient to say that I think I have the background and experience to take on these challenges," he said.
Asked about possible opposition to his candidacy from conservatives, McCain cited polls that show he and ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani are "the two most popular" members of the Republican Party.
That, he indicated, is a crucial factor in deciding whether he'll seek the presidency.
"As long as I have strong approval and support from most of the Republican Party, then running is a viable option," he said.
A recent poll by the Gallup Organization found that McCain's favorable ratings have consistently hovered above 50 percent since 2002, two years after he ran for the Republican nomination for president against George W. Bush.
But while the four-term senator is thought of highly across party and ideological lines, Gallup found a potential weak spot among conservatives - a key constituency to prevailing in Republican primaries.
The problem McCain could face with conservatives became evident earlier this month when the Arizona Republican Assembly, a conservative Mesa-based group, voted to censure him for what it called "dereliction of his duties and responsibilities as a representative of the citizens of Arizona."
The group unanimously passed a resolution critical of, among other things, the guest-worker legislation he's sponsoring with the man they called "his Democrat soulmate, Senator Ted Kennedy."
McCain didn't comment on the resolution but vowed to continue speaking his mind.
As the Gallup Poll noted, McCain has a generally consistent conservative voting record but forged a national reputation after a series of notable breaks with fellow Republicans.
On Tuesday, though, he sided with the president on two issues that have made headlines recently: teaching intelligent design in schools and Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who has come to personify the anti-war movement.
McCain told the Star that, like Bush, he believes "all points of view" should be available to students studying the origins of mankind.
The theory of intelligent design says life is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power must have had a hand in guiding it.
At a breakfast meeting Tuesday with the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, McCain said Sheehan is probably being used by organizations opposed to the U.S. mission in Iraq. But, he added, she is "a symptom, not a cause" of growing public discontent with the war.
McCain is popular but not as a Republican.
Just getting back to Free Republic. Thanks for the update and correction. However my point is still that at this early stage of the game we don't really have a bonafide conservative candidate that we can rally around and get energized with. Instead we have a couple of RINOs like McCain and Guiliani (especially McCain) that the left-wing mass media is just falling all over themselves to print articles and reports that portray these two RINOs (especially McCain) as being the overwhelming favorite choice for Republicans. Because the left-wing media is so out of touch with reality and consumed with their own biases, they fail to understand that McCain especially is endorsed by really no one other then his left-wing media buddies and also Dick Morris, who is doing all he can to convince us that only McCain can beat Hillary. I don't trust Morris as Clinton's former press secretary and I am convinced he is a stealth Hillary supporter.
So my point to all this, is that in the absence of any currently well known conservative candidates, I think that we the conservatives in the Republicans would do far better to go with a relatively unknown but solid, strong principled, conservative candidate (not another pragmatic Bush-type person, but one who is a principled conservative and it would be nice to have one who is articulate and can debate well and slam the DimWits at their own game). I think that a sharp, articulate, well-versed conservative candidate will bury Hillary (or any other left-wing DimWit) in 2008.
Who is that? Who?
Sorry, but there is no "conservative" on the horizon who fits your bill.
You may as well start gearing up for McCain or Guiliani. George Allen, Tom Tancredo, Mike Pence, or Mitt Romney are just not going to get the job done. Arcana doesn't sell with the larger populace. A name and a face and a story are important, and Rudy and McCain have that in spades.
I don't know that much about John McCain at this point...other than he is an arrogant, ego-driven, backstabbing SOB who betrays again and again President Bush and other conservatives. Rarely is John McCain in the news for events other than backstabbing fellow Republicans or for appeasing and compromising with lunatic left-wing Dimwits.
I will never vote for that backstabbing, betraying SOB. Fortunately he will be never be endorsed as the Republican candidate for president... the only constituency that backs John McCain is the left-wing hysterical media and Dick Morris.
Also I remember reading an article about John McCain... he would have flunked out of the Naval Academy if not for the intervention of his father and grandfather, both admirals in the Navy. As it was he graduated nearly at the bottom of his class and was a subpar pilot, which led to his being shot down over N Vietnam. Once the NVA realized who John McCain was, they did not treat him harshly or torture him like they did the other POWs. That's what I remember reading about the exploits of John McCain.
So who is your first choice for Republican POTUS nominee? So far you have shot down all other choices except for McCain and Guiliani.
McCain or Guiliani. I want somebody who can beat Hillary, and these are the only two who can.
"I disagree. McCain is not my first choice, but, if he is the nominee, I will support him unequivocally. He is so far superior to Hillary Clinton that voting for him is a no-brainer."
"McCain or Guiliani. I want somebody who can beat Hillary, and these are the only two who can."
I thought you said McCain wasn't your first choice. Obviously he is. McCain will get trounced in the Republican primaries and he will lose his much renowned temper once he loses his media-appointed front runner position. I have respect for Guiliani...but none for McCain!
My vote will be for anyone that runs against McCain in the 2008 Republican primary. His popularity with me is ZERO and falling fast. Have voted for every Republican Presidential candidate since 1960 but have not a clue what I will do if McCain is the 2008 candidate.
No way will I ever vote for that traitor.
Perhaps he will, and perhaps he won't. We shall see.
You're right, we'll see. Currently there is no other Republican that stirs up as much resistance & opposition from conservative Republicans as does John McCain. I think he will be toast in the primaries.
The resistance is on FR. When national polls have him beating Hillary by 25 points, I figure there's a few conservative Republicans in there.
We shall see, won't we?
Please, tell me where in the galaxy your planet is located. I would like to move there.
McPain - after receiving a $1M payment from anti-gun scumbag McKelvey ("monster.com"), posed for TV ads which ran here in Oregon during the campaign to pass an anti-gun-show bill, which passed BECAUSE SENATURD MCPAIN GOT ON TV and supported it.
Now, you can go right ahead and argue that he and you support "Reasonable" gun control. I, and every last gun owner in Oregon - and everywhere else in the country, if I have anything to say about it - will sit out any election in which McPain runs, even if he's running against Vladimir Illyich Ulyanov.
Deal with it.
I haven't kept a record of the times he slimes the TV set with his presence, he has NO Reagan quality's.
At one time he was a brave and honorable man and someone I respected, not any longer.
He's a liberal Rupublican out for the shill.
Every time the liberl media wants a Republiccan to come on TV and give them sound bites trashing Bush, they call John McCain, he is willing to do just about anything to get his ugly face on TV.
If he believes he is in the top two Republicans he is fooling himself. Which he has done alot of the past ten years.
He is doing a Bucannanon.
My ego is sufficient to say that I think I have the background and experience to take on these challenges," he said.
What in the hell is he talking about? What pray tell background and experience does he have that makes him able to take on the war on Terrorism? Being held in a North Vietnam POW camp does fit the bill.
And his ego!
I don't think Clinton had that much name recognition, despite what you cite. I don't think being the head of DLC makes one a national figure, and if I recall, his 1988 speech was a disaster. Wasn't that the one where the audience burst into wild applause only when he said, "In conclusion"? I suspect a lot of politicians have given nationwide addresses at the convention, but most voters (even relatively educated ones) couldn't pick them out of a lineup or come up with much info on them. I definitely don't think Clinton was a well known figure in 1990. I do think it's too early for this kind of assessment. I simply cannot see McCain or Giuliani getting the nomination. I think McCain's name recognition is a two edged sword, and I just don't think Giuliani, despite his impressive showing after 9/11, has the national experience to run for President.
Dude; McCain is presently the number one rated Republican.
Your info is incorrect and I'm not discussing this with you any further.... My vote is with McCain.
That is very sad indeed if he is the number one rated Republican, it must be amoung Democrats!
Here you go Commander Queeg...
And watch out for decks of cards...
...and strawberries!
GET A NET FOR THIS CORRUPT, TRAITOROUS P.O.S.!
He does have very low ID,that is not what we are talking about.
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