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.
This is the reason that no one will take Hillary as VP.
Too much of a chance for an “accident”.
The existance of the dhimmirat party is what is keeping most people from voting for a conservative non-GOP party.
As it stands, not voting GOP gets you a dhim.
Perhaps Hillary can do the country the biggest service ever done and fracture the dhimmirats to the point that they can’t be a viable opponent in 2012, and we can right flank McCain.
GWB got the most, numerically, votes ever counted for a president in the history of the country.
Kerry got more than any other presidential candidate had ever gotten previously as well, but Bush got even more.
Now, were you questioning the fact of the numerical count or that Bush was running as a conservative.
The VP pick is alfready in. McCain is picking Fred Thompson as his VP. He’s clean, articulate and he will bring in the Conservative vote.
I would like to se Haley Barbour as McCain’s choice but I don’t think that is going to happen.
Well he’s already endoresed the witch for POTUS so I don’t see why he wouldn’t pick her and frankly there isn’t a dimes worth of difference between them politically.
I really hope your information is solid.
Fred was my pick for the pres.
There have been a few competitive third party Presidents in the past. Teddy Roosevelt, was elected under the Bull Moose party. Ross Perot may have gone far, had he not been such a crack pot. But that is not the blame of the third party concept, the timing and the people involved were just wrong.
The timing has to be right and America has to be fed up with a broken system.
There is no such thing as a “Recipe for failure”. There is only the fear of change or a new direction.
Enough “Marginalized” voters can make a majority. The GOP started in this very way. Before them were the Wigs. The history of this party has never been final.
I don’t believe in the “First Last Always” mantra. I do believe in the U.S. Military and that is who I am voting for come November.
The very thought of Barry bending over for the Islamic jihad is enough to make me think that every other issue pales in comparison.
I would not have a problem with Fred but that is mere speculation and wild speculation imo. I will likely write Fred in when I go to vote in the GE.
why do you guys want a real conservative to go down with mccain? I’d rather see him and rino rat sink together not get a good conservative soiled by him. Just remember we did have Chaney as vp look where it got us.
We are not Europe or Israel.
We have only two parties. There are other trivial wannabe’s but they are not really of any real significance. In the Presidential race there are three choices.... Republican, Democrat or trash your vote.
We have strong voices in the legislative houses. Consider Rick Santorum, a strong well principled conservtive. He was turned out. To be elected, the President must have very broad appeal and that includes some to the left of center.
When you look realistically at the spectrum of political opinion, pure conservatives don’t have enough votes to prevail. They have no choice but to be a part of the Republican effort because that effort most nearly represents their thought. Otherwise, they are out of the process.
There is a strong tendency here for FReepers to consider Republicans wimps and clueless when the real reason is that there is just not enough votes in the Senate to prevail. Frist had control but could not satisfy FReepers because he lacked the votes. It was not because he didn’t want to pass bills, he just didn’t have the votes. The same is true in spades with Dingy Harry, except he is all tied up everytime he brings something too pqrtizen to the floor.
Thoughts of a third party are at present just dreaming because there is no chance of success at the Presidential level. None, zero, nada.
The decision in November will be to do what’s best for the country even though it doesn’t meet the highest most pure definition of best, or elect a Marxist Obama. If you don’t vote for McCain and Obama is elected.......your fault.
Fortunately, there is considerable time left. There will be a convention and there will be some sugar and some honey added. What seems very bitter or perhaps sour will be made palatable and perhaps even very good.
Last I checked, Ann was pushing for Hillary to win. No sarcasm involved here. Ann is all about Ann. She could care less about the collateral damage to conservatism that her self-promotion causes.
You're good! Sarcasm is at it's best when there's some truth hiding beneath it! LOL I half expect to see someone say this...seriesly!!
And apparently Coulter is just stupid enough to think that a) McCain would offer, and b) Clinton would accept.
McCain needs to pick Eric, the goofball on the Survivor show.
Last night he gave up the immunity necklace (which would have kept him in the Final Four) in search of ‘redemption’ and was promptly voted out of the game by the four women who’d conspired to get him to make that suicidal move.
you’re
I am too, but I will say this about McCain - he is working long and hard to try and get me to change my mind.
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