McCain courts blue-collar Democrats

His lead strategist says if McCain were to get 20 percent of these voters he will win.

WASHINGTON - With the other party still waist-deep in its presidential nomination fight, John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, has been quietly courting the white working-class Democrats who have proved elusive for Barack Obama, his most likely rival in the fall.

In the two weeks since Senator Obama's loss in Pennsylvania, Senator McCain has visited the struggling steel town of Youngstown, Ohio, to promote programs to retrain workers. He has gone to Allentown, Pa., to push a gas-tax holiday and argue that the Democrats' healthcare plans gave too much power to the government. And in Appalachian Kentucky, he has pledged to bring new jobs and technology to rural America.

All are the sort of places where Democrats have favored Obama's rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton. If she loses the Democratic nomination, McCain has every intention of poaching some of her supporters for what is shaping up as a difficult fight against Obama in November.

Obama "may lose some of the traditional Democratic coalition if we run a good campaign and make a good case to some of those folks," says Charlie Black, McCain's chief campaign strategist. "If McCain were to get 20 percent nationally of blue-collar Democrats, he wins."

Some analysts dispute that figure, noting that Obama would probably offset any such deficit with high turnout among young voters and African-Americans. But many agree that a potentially significant number of Senator Clinton's working-class supporters could stay home or vote for McCain if Obama is the nominee.

Ronald Reagan rode the support of blue-collar Democrats to the White House in 1980, playing to social values and national security concerns and arguing that their own party had been hijacked by elites and special interests. Mr. Black

Many of us did have a great deal of respect for Thompson until he jumped in to support McCain. Quite a few Republican notables have destroyed their credibility on the alter of John McCain this year. I've written off every one of them. I'm not the only one.

We have followed John McCain's history for twenty years. It's a thoroughly disgusting history. Over the last ten years, it has gotten even worse.

I don't trust the man one bit. He prided himself in being a Maverick over the last ten years. Well John, this year I and many others are being Mavericks. I'm sure you'll understand why you don't get our votes.

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Senator John McCain wants to be the figure-head of Conservatism. Okay, lets think that out...

John McCain becomes President. He's still the same old John McCain.

The RNC backs his liberal policies to maintain a position of power
The Republicans in Congress back his polices to maintain access to the White House
Republican candidates for Congressional seats move to the left, since John McCain proved that moving to the left assures RNC support and votes
The Republican party leadership at the state level moves left as McCain and the RNC demand it
Republican candidates at the state level move to the left, since John McCain proved that moving to the left assures Republican support and votes
Republican Conservative office holders across the nation will be silenced
Apologists on Conservative forums across this nation defend McCain against the few Conservatives who are left, and attack them there (forums move left)
Last but not least, the Democrats move even farther left to differentiate themselves from McCain

Who writes Conservative bills and rams them through state or federal government after that?

Who talks about Conservatism from a position of power? Who takes the chance to disagree with McCain on anything?

Under a John McCain Presidency, Conservatism ceases to become a movement, and becomes a theory. It will no longer be practiced by enough politicians to be viable.

Under leftist McCain, there is no functional opposition. Promoting leftist policy, it all passes without opposition, nobody objects to the liberal policies
Under leftist Hillary or Barack, there is not only a functional opposition, it grows by leaps and bounds in objection to their policies

We saw what a one party system did to Arkansas under Clinton. It was terrible. Now we want to install that in our federal government, leftists one and all.

No thanks. Color me dumb, but I'm not voting to turn the U.S. into 1980s Arkansas.

LINK: Welcome to McCain's impact on the Republican National Committee, it's happening
LINK: Welcome to McCain's impact on future candidates, it's being advocated
LINK: Welcome to McCain's impact on State level Republican party leadership, it's happening
LINK: Welcome to McCain's impact on Republican Conservative office holder voices, it's happening
LINK: Welcome to McCain's impact on Conservative forums, it's happening

Folks, you either wake the hell up, or doom conservatism to oblivion. After November the 4th, it's too late. You will have silenced Conservatism in our nation for four or eight years, and quite possibly forever.

You’re confusing this conservative site with a Republican one. They are not the same thing, especially in the past few years.

If you want Republican cheerleading no matter how unconservative they have become, there are plenty of sites. I understand McCain’s own site has a blog that erases any negative criticism immediately. Can’t have those disgruntled conservatives gumming up the works, you know.

Welcome to Free Republic. A little hint: criticizing other Freepers for acting like conservatives in one’s very first post is bad form. It makes us think you might be here to promote an agenda, and you don’t want that, do you?

As for your question, beating Obama by appealing to Dems will not cause Republican coattails. If anything it will cause the Congress to be more Dem, as demoralized conservatives stay home. The Congress isn’t looking good for Republicans right now precisely because conservatives, who donate and provide free work for the party, are having none of McCain. I was contacted by an aquaintance in the FL GOP to ask if I’d volunteer for McCain’s campaign. I politely, if emphatically said, “no,” then asked how recruitment was going. His grim response: “We’re going to be pulling homeless people out of their tents if we don’t get some volunteers soon.” That is what happens when a politician spits at his base, repeatedly, and then asks for their support.

McCain may win those Dem votes, but he’s not going to get their money or their time. And with the media clearly in the tank for Obama, no money and no enthusiasm from the base will be a high hurdle for McCain to get over, no matter how much he panders to Democrats.

Who is assisting Obama? You fallen into the false dichotomy trap. You’ve also fallen into the trap of thinking that voters owe their votes to certain candidates, but the truth is exactly the opposite. It is McCain’s job to get me to vote for him. If he can’t do that, that is his failure, not mine. I am the customer in the political process, and the customer is always right.

“But, electing an obama is going to make matters much worse.”

A very good argument can be made that that’s not true. Quick, think of some egregious piece of Constitution-busting legislation with McCain’s name on it. The list is long and shameful. Now, do the same for Obama.

It freaks out the static, linear thinkers on this forum who consider only one input, ideology, in their analysis, but if one looks at all the factors, including the makeup of Congress, a good argument can be made that while Obama is philosophically further to the left than McCain, it may just be that the country will be better off under four years of an inept Marxist with unified Republican opposition, than a competent socialist with no effective legislative opposition.

The same principles that won’t allow me to vote for McCain will never allow me to vote for Obama, but I won’t be rolling around on the floor in abject grief if McCain loses, either.

Welcome to FR. There is a small contingent of loudmouthed firebrands here who seem to think it "principled" to enable their worst enemy to take the Oval Office. Sort of like the kid who threatens to commit suicide to get back at the girl who spurned his advances. It is a form of adolescent acting out-- in this case, rebellion against the fact that no candidate is perfect, and that one necessarily has the duty in a democracy to vote for the best available candidate. A few freepers are too young and naive to accept that adult responsibility, and predictably, they blame the candidate instead of themselves.

Pay them no mind. Most of us have the sense to realize that half a loaf with McCain is better than starvation with Obama.

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