Posted on 05/09/2008 2:58:08 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
I consider it a banner day when I can render my friend Ann Coulter speechless.
The wonderful conservative warrior was a guest on my radio show this week (Ann is one of the best guests in the business) and I hit her with something so wild, so preposterous, and so outrageous, that she just, well, stayed silent for a few seconds.
After a long pause, she laughed and said, “You know, he’s just stupid enough that he might do it!”
The “he” in question is Sen. John McCain. Ms. Coulter has made no secret of her total and utter disdain for the GOP presidential candidate. To many diehard conservatives, Sen. McCain is that horror of horrors, a Republican with enough moderate tendencies as to attract people to him who might not ordinarily vote for a Republican.
So I thought I’d have some fun by sharing with her a prediction that one of my radio callers made earlier that day.
When the caller, Tim from Atlanta, first suggested it to me, I had virtually the same reaction as Ann. I was stunned.
“Mike”, he started. “Something came to me last night while I was watching the TV coverage of the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. I was wondering just who John McCain might pick as a running mate and it hit me like a ton of bricks: I predict that after Hillary is finally forced out of the race, McCain will shock the world and pick Hillary Clinton as his vice-presidential candidate!”
Think about that for a minute. “McCain/Clinton 2008.”
After I pulled myself off the floor and sat back down in my chair, I asked Tim from Atlanta how that idea could possibly have any merit.
“It’s simple”, he replied. “The media keeps beating the drum about bi-partisan cooperation in Washington in order to get things done. People continue to harp about being tired of all this bickering and politicking and fighting. McCain is well known for wanting to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats – who could forget McCain/Feingold – and it’s pretty much understood that Madame Hillary would do just about anything to get back to the White House,” he said. “A McCain/Clinton ticket would be virtually unstoppable!”
The only thing stopping right now is the beating of my heart at the prospect of such a nightmare.
But his prediction demonstrates just how loopy this entire campaign cycle has become. It also reinforces the heartburn and headaches that many of us Republicans are experiencing as we get nearer and nearer to the general election.
Writer David Frum believes that John McCain is possibly the perfect GOP candidate in an ever-changing country. Frum, a daily contributor to National Review Online and best-selling author, thinks it’s a huge mistake for us to pine for the days of Ronald Reagan-era conservatism. He argues that a successful Republican presidential candidate will be the sort of person who demonstrates unshakable integrity, a willingness to shake off some of the previous conservative orthodoxies, and can challenge and even disagree with some of the cultural philosophies that helped define the Reagan Revolution. Frum makes the case that a successful GOP candidate will be the one who returns to fiscal conservatism, reigning in out-of-control spending, even if he or she wanders off the reservation over an issue like illegal immigration.
That view, of course, is heresy to a rock-ribbed conservative like Ann Coulter. In fact, when I asked her about Frum’s arguments, she chortled and admonished me to stop asking her about people like David Frum “who aren’t real conservatives.”
I greatly admire the torchbearers of conservatism like Ann and Rush Limbaugh and others who believe that the real peril is in Republicans even considering moving one inch to the center.
But David Frum is a smart guy, too. He makes a compelling case that if the GOP has any chance of retaining power in D.C., the party should realize that this isn’t our father’s Republican Party anymore. Instead of hearing all the supposed stories of Republican voters willing to support Barack Obama (a bizarre concept that I still can’t understand), why not produce a GOP candidate that Independents and even Democrats can support?
He seems to think McCain might be that guy.
Whichever point of view you endorse, it seems pretty evident that as Sen. McCain prepares to gear up for a full scale battle during the next six months, the Republican Party is at a crossroads.
Let’s hope Sen. McCain doesn’t choose to cross the road hand-in-hand with Sen. Clinton.
Republicrat becomes an official third party.
Hey, Kent. I got the hell out of Seattle two years ago and haven't regretted it a minute.
Amen, brother.
It may only be worth 35% of the vote but that would be enough in a 3 party system. A genuinely conservative party would balance political equations and provide a voice for conservatism, sorely lacking in our political climate.
The Libertarian party has tried for years to garner support and failed completely to be competitive. A conservative party would be competitive. It is time and McCain proves it.
The only remaining issue is to select candidates outside the primary electorate process. The shenanigans of this cycle has demonstrated the thorough corruption of the system.
There would be no lesser-of-evils in that case. The enemy would be in both camps.
No choice but to vote third party.
It's a compelling case if your primary goal is to get the GOP elected. That has never been my goal.
My goal has always been to get elected the candidate who will be best for the country, and, being best, by my definition, is protecting the US Constitution, defending the nation, protecting its borders, and not only upholding but defending traditional American values (protection of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness) as the Pope and Sarkozy have done recently and which no American running for POTUS has done this entire campaign cycle.
I really don't care about the GOP and they can disappear for eternity should a truly conservative (classically liberal) party come along that can replace them and win elections.
It has been a long time coming. Out of the ashes may yet come a new nation founded on liberty and dedicated to the God given rights of personal freedom.
We need a Constitution party that will return us to our founding principles.
......We need a Constitution party that will return us to our founding principles.....
Recipe for failure. We have a two party system with primaries. Work within the American system or elect Liberals..... that’s your choice. A third party vote is a trashed vote by a marginalized voter.
Well, as long as they keep an ‘R’ after their names they’ll get my vote! Haw haw haw - vote Republican, I always say!
How else can you explain Dan Quail and Spiro T. Agnew, to name two obvious examples?
Congressman Billybob
Not in a million years, it will never happen.
Lieberman there might be a tiny chance, but Hillary, no way.
So if I read this right, we need to burn the constitution, embrace our communist brothers in the rat party and get ourselves measured for a ball and chain.
Gallagher has made his disgusting liberal leanings well known this election cycle. Sam Adams had Gallagher in mind when he wrote this -
“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude
greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us
in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon
you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”
Only in a 2 party system. In a 3 party system such as is in Israel and many European nations a vote for a minority requires genuine coalition building in order to govern. We do not have coalition building because we are saddled with an either/or political environment.
In our current structure conservatives have no voice. Think about it.
My thought exactly. Coulter apparently could care less any longer about her intellectual consistency. It's all about HER.
And in that regard, she's just like Hillary.
It is not so implausible. McCain is more of Democrat and Hillary is less liberal than Obama. I would not be suprised in the least especially given the rumors that McCain was going to leave the Repub party a while back.
Diminish McCain over one grievance or another? Holy Moly!
Even if I agreed with his politics he lacks character and what character he does have is putrid.
I can understand the Party First Last Always crowd voting for him but can’t understand anyone else that doesn’t crave power forgetting his treachery.
“I guess Ann’s sarcasm is too far above your low IQ.”
ROTFLMAO!
Hilary will do anything to stay in line of sucession. I wasn’t going to vote for McCain anyway.
Things are never so bad that they can’t get worse.
“And in that regard, she’s just like Hillary. “
It’s sad to see so many that don’t have any clue about sarcasm.
Alright, who is this jerkoff?
No way we don't want people to cross over, but we want them to cross over AS CONSERVATIVES whom we, or our candidates, have convinced that our ideology is RIGHT.
We don't want them to cross over as liberal/marxists, because that just means that we're more liberal/marxist.
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