Focus On McCain As GOP Debates.

The Republican presidential field debated in South Carolina last night. After his win in New Hampshire, much of the press coverage focused on the performance of Sen. John McCain. As the AP reports, "The debate unfolded as one poll showed McCain getting a bounce from his New Hampshire triumph and moving narrowly ahead of Huckabee and Romney in South Carolina." The Wall Street Journal headlines its story "Debate Tests McCain's New Status," and notes Mitt Romney lost no time going "for his main rival in Michigan, Mr. McCain. Mr. Romney noted the Arizona senator has said some manufacturing jobs lost in Michigan will never come back. 'I disagree,' said Mr. Romney. 'I'm going to fight for every single job.'" McCain "backed up his statements, calling them 'straight talk,' and urging community-college job retraining and investment in technology."

The Politico, under the headline "McCain Emerges Unscathed," reports , "Largely untouched after 90 minutes," 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."

>> Rush is right

As always.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Thompson win S.Carolina ... though I think he could survive with a 2nd place finish. His debate performance last night was legendary. Unlike NH, SC is a truly conservative state ... undiluted conservatism just might win, despite the “late” start.

For Conservatives McCain is the worst of all worlds.

From Tax-cuts to the War to Judges McCain’s whole strategy has been to be as Liberal as possible and stay in the GOP.

Politically there is very little difference between Hillary and McCain. McCain has done nothing for the Conservative movement in 8 years. Other then talking a good game on spending he has done nothing. He has actively worked against the Conservatives on Social issues, on the WOT, on Iraq, on Gitmo, against Rummy, on Immigration and on Judges, on Global Warming etc etc etc etc etc. McCain has far more in common with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama then he does with Tom Coburn or the Senate GOP.

McCain would be the worse of both worlds. A mislabeled “Conservative” Administration actively advancing the Democrat Party’s agenda while knifing Conservatives in the back daily. You could count on a McCain Administration to appoint Leftist Judges in order to avoid fighting with the Democrats in the US Senate.

McCain would fracture the few remaining GOP Congress critters into pro and anti McCain factions. McCain would be the worst of all world politically for the Conservatives.

At least with a Democrat Leftist Administration, as opposed to a McCain Leftist with a GOP Label Administration, the Democrats would get all the political fall out of their disastrous political decisions and the GOP would unite in fighting them. I do know who would be the worst of all possible worlds, that would be McCain.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.