Taxes, immigration amnesty, and past comments about Evangelical leaders. That’s a lot of territory of interest to different conservative groups.
I’m very tired of the conservative blogosphere’s unfair mischaracterisations of John McCain. However, it’s clear that Free Republic and many of the other right-wing sites have lost their previousl level of influence in conservative thought, just as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter clearly have.
‘Conservatives’ who have said that they will vote for Hillary Clinton rather than John McCain are proving that they are actually not conservatives themselves but have become simply irrational, disaffected rather strange people.
I used to hold Free Republic and other sites in high regard, but it’s clear that these sites are descending into self-marginalizing petty politics. This became clear to me in 2006 when in spite of vicious opposition from ‘conservatives’ in the blogosphere to Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, exit polls showed he got 93% of the Republican vote and 86% of the conservative vote in a state where Republicans are actually quite conservative. I believe that the same is going to happen nationally.
It’s time for Freepers to decide if they want to be part of the nation or simply a marginal fringe movement. The Freepers and other elements of the conservative blogosphere can’t deliver for Mitt Romney. It’s time to be pragmatic, folks.
Another point worth noting:
Why does Mitt Romney get such a pass on his horrific liberal record in the recent past (including making the top 10 RINO’s list by NRO in 2005), while John McCain gets no grace?
Let’s look at the facts:
Gay rights:
Mitt Romney infamously proclaimed in 1994 that he would be better on gay rights than Ted Kennedy (impossible) and even the other day reportedly told a CNN reporter that he always has and still does favor gay rights, just not gay marriage. He made some public outcry against the MA Supreme Judicial Court’s pro-gay marriage ruling in 2003 which was good, but his record is far from perfect and certainly nothing like Jesse Helms or an establishment conservative.
John McCain has consistently opposed gay rights in the Senate. He opposes pro-homosexual hate crimes legislation, openly supports ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’, he opposes the pro-gay ENDA. While he opposed the federal marriage amendment on federalist grounds, he supported Arizona’s anti-gay marriage, anti-civil unions, anti-domestic partnerships amendment so much that he even did a commercial for it. The amendment was so strongly anti-gay that it actually narrowly failed before the electorate.
Abortion:
Mitt Romney wildly flipped on abortion, saying as recently as 2002 that he was solidly pro-abortion and pro-Roe. We’re now supposed to forgive that position a mere 6 years later and assume that he’s totally trustworthy.
John McCain openly says Roe v. Wade should be overturned ( http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm ), something that even George W. Bush has been very shy about saying. With the exception of embryonic stem cell research, Senator McCain has a pretty solid pro-life voting record. In 2000, he called partial birth abortion an ‘abomination’. McCain also supports Roberts and Alito and stronly supported their nominations in the Senate.
Taxes:
Mitt Romney hardly has an exemplary record on taxes, having increased ‘fees’ as he calls them in Massachusetts.
John McCain has repeatedly reiterated his support for making the Bush tax cuts permanent and explained why he opposed them in 2000. Shouldn’t we give him a chance just like many want to give Romney another chance?
The list goes on and on but Senator McCain has staked out conservative positions on gun control and many other important issues.
My question is why don’t we stop being hypocritical by saying that Mitt Romney is such a wonderful conservative while we refuse to give John McCain a second chance.
When is the GOP going to stop this notion of voting for the lesser of two evils. A McCain presidency would ruin the Republican party, and especially the conservative wing of it.
When I got out of the Army in 1973 and was job hunting in Massachussetts, I left my military service off my resume because of the "baby-killer fever" of the left. No individual in the US was more responsible for tarring vets as war criminals than John Kerry, with his kangaroo court "War Crimes Tribunal."
John McCain has never had a problem with John Kerry. But when I insist on the border fence, he calls me a Chickens&%# and Mother*$%@&/.
I don't like McCain because he despises me.
Because Mitt Romney will make a great President.
Because Republicans don't want John McCain.
McCain hasn't one primary or caucus amongst "Republican only" voters. It has been Indy's and Democrats that have given John McCain his three wins in NH, SC and Fla.
CONSERVATIVES are freaking out.
MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE!!!
If McCain were elected, we would no longer even have a viable opposition party wage a credible challenge to the Democrats. We would be forced into a position of leaving the Republican party, or working against its leadership from within. Better to take our lumps in the election, promote an new generation of able conservative leadership within the GOP, and fight the good fight against the liberals to minimize damage in the short term and win a landslide in four years.
A vote for Mclaim is a wasted vote because much of the republican party will write in Elmer Fudd first.. resulting in she who should not be named becoming the Queen of Hearts.. and Obama as the mad hatter.. chasing a Marxist Rabbit..