Posted on 04/16/2008 8:55:21 AM PDT by lilylangtree
John McCain is a hero for his service in Vietnam. Most conservatives would be thrilled to support him, if only he would give them reason to.
Why is it that conservatives have such a hard time lining up behind John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president? Is it, as some liberals suggest, just "pique" -- that we didn't get our way, and now we're throwing a tantrum? Or are the differences between McCain and conservatives very real, very serious matters that go to the heart of the principles of conservatism?
The truth is that the differences with McCain are real. They involve matters of policy, of personnel ("Who will make decisions in a McCain administration?"), and of insights into the Senator's thinking about conservatives and the issues important to conservatives.
The biggest complaints expressed by conservatives are these:
SUPREME COURT: Perhaps conservatives' biggest issue is whether future appointments to the Supreme Court and lower courts will be in the mold of Justices David Souter, John Paul Stevens, and William Brennan -- left-wingers appointed by Republican presidents -- or in the mold of distinguished conservatives such as Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Antonin Scalia.
It may be that even a moderate conservative such as Samuel Alito would be "too" conservative for John McCain. According to John Fund of The Wall Street Journal, McCain, in private conversations with lawyers, "indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito because 'he [Alito] wore his conservatism on his sleeve.'"
And, although McCain has promised to appoint conservative judges to the Supreme Court, that's highly unlikely, because conservative judges would overturn the Senator's proudest achievement, McCain-Feingold.
For the remainder of the article, see: http://conservativehq.com/news-from-the-front/ravonmccain080416
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativehq.com ...
It would be difficult to win back Congress under any circumstances, but with McCain at the top of the ticket, many conservative Reps will have to take opposite positions from the party’s standard bearer on such issues as immigration, global warming, Gitmo, etc. McCain is going to depress Rep turnout. His impact will get far worse as we get closer to the election. We will have the spectre of the GOP nominee debating the Dem nominee agreeing with one another on a bunch of issues that will make conservatives blood boil.
Great article.
Everyone claims they wanted a real conservative...why didn’t Thompson or Hunter or Tancredo get the votes? Why didn’t Romney get the votes?
"Operation Chaos" is a two edged sword?
Perhaps Rush wasn't the first to think of it.
Regards,
GtG
McCain is the lesser of three evils because he’s more likely to stay the course in the WoT, while Obama would be a disaster because he wants to be “friends” with our enemies and we already KNOW what a national security disaster the FIRST Clinton administration was. He will also, HOPEFULLY, keep his campaign promise to extend the tax cuts.
Republicans (conservative republicans) really need to turn out and vote if only for the Congressional seats in their state...The way this is looking, that could be more important than the presidency...
That very well could be, GtG...
Oh YES, that's happened SO often before. Hostile congress! No more protest voting!
It’s happened more often than republicans going against a republican president.
It’s SOP when democrats control Congress.......
Between McCain, Clinton or Obama, I don’t care who wins. The advantage of having a good McCain showing is coattails and the conservatives that might ride on them. If McCain can bring conservatives in with him, good. If not, my family is prepared to weather the storm that is going to come no matter which of these three losers wins.
I think you've swallowed the media line. Every day, they would say two or three words about Fred--that he was "late" and "lazy." But in point of fact he was doing more traveling and visiting more states than McCain or Giuliani. They just never reported it.
As for late, Labor Day of the year before the election is pretty much standard. Was he supposed to jump in during the summer, when everyone was thinking about something else? Was he supposed to jump in a year and a half before the election, just because hillary did in order to head off Obama?
If the media say something often enough, people start to believe it, even though they are suspicious of the media. That's how advertising works. Nobody trusts it, but if they hear the ad often enough, they still find themselves buying the product when they stroll past it on the shelf.
Oh please that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve read. Fred was the biggest dud I’ve seen run for the nomination. He made Bob Dole look like a human dynamo. He stuck his toe in the water. You don’t get much MSM coverage when you limit your campaigning to gun shows and videos. Why did he wait so long to get in and why did he skip the first debate and when he finally came on the scene he spent a day or two in Iowa and than ran home and took a vacation. It’s called a campaign not a coronation.
He's not that liberal, either. McCain publicly supported the house version of the balanced budget in 1995. The House version required a three fifths majority in congress before tax increases could be passed, included stronger welfare reforms than the senate version and a line item veto on pork and earmarks (Arkansas has one, and Bubba wielded it 11 whole times in his entire tenure).
McCain has enough flaws without people making them up.
That would be John McCain w/o a leftist Democrat rival (e.g. Obama, Hillary).
Personally, I think it was Hillary voters that gamed the system. A McCain candidacy only makes HER appear more responsible and fiscally conservative. He would have trounced him...if Obama hadn't come along and started Perot-ing her.
No, they're not. There are other choices, more conservaitve and even farther left than teh Dimmycraps.
A couple of articles that buttress the conservative case against Jun McVain:
http://webnewsroom.blogspot.com/2008/02/real-mccain-john-mccains-long-liberal.html
http://webnewsroom.blogspot.com/2008/02/mccains-far-left-funding-receiving.html
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