Posted on 02/15/2008 6:15:23 AM PST by jdm
It's all but settled. John McCain will be the Republican Party nominee for president in 2008. That has caused much anguish among many conservatives who knew Ronald Reagan - who was a friend of theirs. And Senator, you're no Ronald Reagan, or words to that effect.
Nevertheless, conservative realists recognize that despite all the chinks in the right side of his armor, John McCain still is far more conservative than either Hillary or B.O. But when President Bush declared that John McCain was a "true conservative" this week - which was kinda like Joan Crawford declaring that Britney Spears was a good mom - true, true conservatives said "Huh?"
After seven years of excess spending and rampant government growth (Homeland Security, No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drugs, etc.) under "compassionate conservative" governance, the right ain't readin' anybody's lips again. Trust, but verify. And this time they want it in writing. Preferably in blood.
GOPUSA.com has drafted a "Contract with Conservatives" that it hopes the Republican presidential nominee will embrace. "Conservatives need something more than simple assurances," writes GOPUSA's publisher, Bobby Eberle. "For our time, effort, money, and votes, we need a pledge. We need a pledge from our presidential nominee to uphold the core Republican values that built this party, and which have taken a backseat to politics in recent years."
Right-footed GOP foot-soldiers are flocking to GOPUSA's Web site to sign the online petition declaring that they "will support our presidential nominee and other candidates for high office, only if they uphold the Contract with Conservatives." An extraordinary declaration of grassroots independence. The Contract includes:
Immigration Reform: No "comprehensive" plan. Border security first. THEN we can talk about the rest. And when it comes to dealing with illegal aliens already in the country, they "should not be given special consideration for citizenship and should not be put ahead of those seeking to come to America legally." Pretty reasonable.
Tax Reform: Support for not only lowering taxes, but reforming the tax system to make it simpler. And stop using the tax code "for social engineering." Hard to argue with that.
Limited Government: SHRINK the size and scope of the federal government, not just slow its growth. Earmarks and pork should be eliminated. Limit the government to doing "only those core jobs enumerated in the Constitution." What a radical notion.
Judges: Select judicial nominees who will "follow the law rather than make new laws from the bench." And make sure they get up-or-down votes in a timely fashion - a clear shot at Sen. McCain and his "Gang of 14" that prevented Republicans from breaking Harry Reid's judicial filibusters a couple years back.
Life: Support overturning Roe vs. Wade and oppose embryonic stem cell research. Of course, this is where fiscal conservatives and social conservatives divide their forces, which is how Sen. McCain ended up winning the GOP presidential nomination in the first place. Thanks, Mike Huckabee.
Free Speech: Repeal McCain-Feingold. I suspect this one just might be a bit hard for Sen. McCain to swallow.
All in all, a pretty good treatise. Sen. McCain won't embrace all of it, but then again, no one really expects him to. All this does is put a possible President McCain on notice that conservatives will not support him blindly the way they often did President Bush when W wandered too far off the left side of the conservative reservation.
Fool conservatives once, shame on you; fool conservatives twice, shame on us. We won't get fooled again.
So the fact that he votes with Hillary and Teddy and Obama makes you think he’d be a better choice than Hillary and Obama ?
That’s some kind of disconnect.
And I love that tired ol' line, "I was a freeper with a different name..." Et tu, Ash?
Last post under my other name was 10/17/2007 when some person tracked it down over the internet, got my eamil and gave it to those friends of yours over at DU.
AND... besides, I don't want Budweiser Barbie for First Lady.
I wonder if Juan Hernandez is there with him in Laredo?
And what was your sign-up date then? 10/15/07? Whatever, noob.
Similes such as this are truly priceless!
My only issue with the above contract is that the drafters really should find a way to give McCain a graceful path to comply with the last item.
Something like, "revise McCain-Feingold..." might work.
Words are cheap, and nine months of the finest words will never make up for twenty-four years of betrayal. The military is very important to me, but only because I first hold integrity, decency, patriotism and truth in high esteem. A vote for John McCain, a reward to an arrogant, narcissist a***ole, would be a betrayal of all those things.
McQueeg can pound sand. Let him troll for votes from his good buddies in the Senate Harry Reid, Teddy Kennedy, Mrs. Lindsey Graham and Barbara Boxer.
I don't see that. He is only slightly more conservative than either of those hard core Marxists. Anyone who would seriously look into forming a third party to unseat a Republican President after his first term in a time of war isn't conservative and doesn't give a flying moonbat's ass about the military or the WOT.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. I don’t think we have a choice. Our freedom is too precious to be thrown away by a bunch of people who don’t care about our troops or our countrymen. They only look for their agenda.
Hey Grellis, I already got on him on his nubeness. I don’t like nubes going off either. Do me a favor Freeper and check out post # 62.
Regards
If you crave Pyrrhic victories then go ahead and vote for John McCain. He won't win anyhow.
We get nothing by voting for this fellow.
McCain's base is a bunch of liberals and democrats who felt a bit frisky and safe by voting for him in a Republican primary.
Those voters will not be there for McCain in November, and neither will true Republican conservative voters. McCains base is/are democrat voters.
It is over.
If you really wanted the GOP to win in November, which I don’t, you would be better off voting for Hillary in Wisconsin.
This fight between the moderates and the conservatives in the Republican Party has gone on as long as I can remember. I know, it was going on during the Gerald Ford campaign. Look who we got when Gerald Ford failed to get elected.
I have faith that enough conservatives in the Republican Party will unite and elect McCain. I happened with Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and GW.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I don't even care if s/he has been on this forum since '97. Trashing BO because of past drug use is stupid. I can think of a very well known, much admired conservative who admitted, not so long ago, that he was addicted to illegally obtained prescription drugs. I can think of another who has a serious gambling problem, and several who have difficulty maintaining fidelity within their marriages--and those are all recent. Bringing up somebody's drug use from decades ago is stupid, and it makes us all look bad. Noob move.
Heck, I did all kinds of drugs in my teens. Maybe I am a dem!
I can’t vote for the hill. I don’t want the repubs either. so I refuse to stay home and brood over this mess and I might throw a wrench in the mix this way. However, I still haven’t looked a independent candidate yet.. we’ll see. take Care
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