Posted on 11/28/2005 10:15:28 AM PST by areafiftyone
Senator McCain of Arizona is emerging as an early favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 as a result of a shift in the issues dominating the American political landscape, according to political analysts.
Intensifying public concern about the war in Iraq, the prospect of protracted corruption trials in Washington, and renewed qualms among Republicans about federal spending are all putting wind into Mr. McCain's sails while setting back most of the senator's rivals for the nomination.
"If Iraq and foreign policy and national security and deficit spending are important issues, that will benefit people like McCain," the publisher of a leading political newsletter, Stuart Rothenberg, said.
A Republican political consultant with national campaign experience said looming decisions about when and how to withdraw American troops from Iraq should boost the prospects of Mr. McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The senator has vocally opposed calls for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but he has also clashed with the White House over a measure he sponsored to prohibit Americans from engaging in torture.
A former aide to the senator, Marshall Wittmann, also said he believes the stars are aligning for a McCain candidacy.
"My sense is there's a significant amount of momentum shifting to Mc-Cain within the Republican Party over the past few months," said Mr. Wittmann, who served as the senator's communications director for two years before quitting last year to join the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
And come election time, it is people like myself and a few others who have and will take advantage of that mindset. When you have a voter who is indecisive or less than thrilled about his party's nomination there are ways to create an atmosphere of disgust or repulsion to the candidate and cause the voter to 'sit home.' Kerry was perfect fodder for this!
Thompson? No. I like him, but he caved on the Clinton/China investigation.
The problem is the American people right now are disgusted with Dems and Republicans. Things might change by 2007 but right now neither one has the upper hand in the polls.
Perot is not a lunatic.
He has a firecracker temper, to be sure, and he speaks his mind. We are not used to people REALLY doing that in the political world.
He's a brilliant businessman, and when people who worked for him were kidnapped in Iran, he put together, with his own money, his own private commando operation that went in and got them out. He is unapologetically loyal to the things he believes in.
This did not mean, perforce, that he was going to be a successful politician, but the fact of the matter is that he was a loyal naval officer, a brilliant businessman, and exceptionally loyal to his people. In the 1992 campaign he said a bunch of things that a lot of people thought but that neither party offered, and he got nearly 20% of the vote on account of that.
So, while one may dislike Perot's political style, to call him insane is too much.
"I agree. I don't like McCain,"
same here
i do think that he will get the nomination though provided nothing tragic happens to him by then. I believe this mainly because he is the only Republican who tops hillary in polls plus media darling and all that. Now if he is nominated lets hope he gets a good conservative Governor or Senator to run with him that way we can sleep well at night if we have to vote for him
Theoretically there's nothing wrong with having quarterly status reports. Congress is supposed to oversee stuff and it may help focus the war effort.
But in the political/spin context ....
Come to think of it, a MI governor admitted to brainwashing by the North Koreans. George Romney, maybe? (yes, his son is the gov of MA)
I think I'll vote constitution party that year.
Politically, the Senate vote was not supportive of the WH. It was a CYA/compromise effort by the majority of senators and it was the GOP alterative to the Dems bill (a fixed timetable for withdrawal), which was defeated. The WH has already been giving status reports on a regular basis to Congress. What Bush needed from the Senate was a vote of confidence that we will stay the course.
I thought the Democrats were going to nominate Hillary. I didn't know they were considering McCain (unless of course, Kerry is running again!) He isn't likely to be the Republican nominee, so I guess they must be talking about the Democrats nominating him.
Welcome to FR. Go back to DU.
I don't believe the party would be stupid enough to nominate someone who has tossed the GOP over in a heartbeat everytime it got in the way of his ego. Let's not forget the fact the guy in question is too old and too infirm.
McCain vs. Hillary would definitely bring a 3rd party conservative run just as Rudy vs. Hillary would too. Unfortunately, I don't think the conservative nominee would be Delay.
"So for all those folks who voted for Perot "to send a message", ask yourself if 8 years of Clinton damage to the country was worth that message."
Yes, it absolutely was worth it.
The Republican Party is not a bunch of free agents who have to be kept in power lest the Devil devour the land. A lot good got done on Clinton's watch, thanks the the Republican Congress, which happened because of Clintonian excess. NAFTA got signed, welfare reform was passed, we ran a large surplus and retired a lot of debt.
Letting George H W Bush win the election after he flat out abandoned the conservatives on taxes, and put Souter on the bench, would have been a disgrace.
Republicans would desperately love it if conservatives were like Blacks - committed bloc voters who think the world ends if the other party wins. But they are not. And if the GOP won't give the conservatives what they require, then the GOP needs to lose elections and experience the agony of having Democrats run roughshod over them for a few years. That tends to focus the mind and keep the politicians, who are otherwise inclined to be unprincipled horse-traders, more principled.
He used to be by Senator and there are issues that I am not pleased with. Bill Clinton's impeachment for one.
Although I often disagreed with my Sen. Fred Thompson, I believed him an honorable man. I would disagree that he "caved" on the investigation. He was placed in an unenviable position of serving as Chairman on that committee which was stocked to the last with 'Rats whom were simply NOT going to allow a full-fledged investigation, let alone one without a quick timetable. Thompson tried to be honorable in the matter and actually believed the 'Rats on the committee would cooperate (as they certainly had when he was a part of the Watergate hearings), and was genuinely shocked they had absolutely no intention of doing anything more than obfuscating and letting the clock run out. He was so sickened and disgusted by the conduct of Sens. Levin & Glenn (especially the latter, who was paid off by the Clintonistas by that infamous return to space), that ultimately led to his decision to leave the Senate early after only 8 years. When CNN went to Thompson in doing a "good-natured" puff-piece on Glenn upon his retirement in 1999, the ordinarily cordial Thompson told them they wouldn't want to hear what he had to say about (that traitor). I don't think you could drag back Thompson into that cesspool of DC if you offered him every last bar of gold from Fort Knox.
McPain has about a 10-point lead over Guiliani and Allen at Tradesports.com. Not looking good.
"Senator McCain of Arizona is emerging as an early favorite for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 as a result of a shift in the issues dominating the American political landscape, according to political analysts."
If he's the republican candidate in '08, I'll be staying home. He won't get my vote in the primaries either.
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