Posted on 05/11/2008 4:13:06 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (AFP) - While John McCain is practically assured the Republican presidential nomination, many party members are having a hard time accepting him -- and showing it with symbolic votes against him in primary contests.
The Republican nomination battle has been all but decided for over two months. Still, some Republicans used the April 22 Pennsylvania primary and last week's votes in Indiana and North Carolina to register their unhappiness with the de facto victor.
Some vote for libertarian Texan Ron Paul, who has refused to quit the race and has racked up more than one million votes, according to his campaign.
Other Republicans keep voting for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and former governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas -- both markedly more conservative than McCain -- although both have long since dropped out of the race and endorsed him.
As many as 25 percent of Republican voters want a different candidate to represent their party in the November 4 presidential election. In Pennsylvania, 27 percent opted for Huckabee or Paul; in North Carolina and Indiana on May 6, McCain opponents earned 23 percent of the vote.
The Washington Times, a conservative newspaper, calculated that McCain had garnered no more than 45 percent of the Republican vote since January.
McCain's reputation as a party maverick and a compromising moderate has left the party's most conservative and ideological members disgruntled.
He focused this week on winning their backing, delivering a major speech on legal issues and promising to nominate conservative justices to any possible new Supreme Court vacancies, as President George W. Bush has done.
"I have my own standards of judicial ability, experience, philosophy, and temperament," McCain said.
"And Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito meet those standards in every respect. They would serve as the model for my own nominees if that responsibility falls to me," he said, pointing to Bush appointees.
Even so, McCain carefully avoided mentioning thorny subjects like abortion and homosexual unions, on which he has staked out much more moderate positions than members of the party's religious right.
On Thursday, McCain vigorously denied voting in the 2000 presidential elections against Bush, his main rival during the Republican primaries that year.
Popular liberal pundit and Internet blogger Ariana Huffington had published a report that shortly after the election, McCain revealed during a dinner that he did not vote for his party's nominee.
"I voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004," the Republican candidate insisted on Fox News. "And not only that, far more important than a vote, I campaigned everywhere in America for him."
While such defenses might help the Arizona senator woo the most conservative Republicans, it carries great risks.
A Wall Street Journal opinion poll last week showed only 27 percent of Americans approved of Bush's performance. And 43 percent said they worried that McCain "will be too closely aligned with the Bush agenda" -- a worry Democrats are already moving to exploit.
That spells trouble for McCain with the potential swing centrist voters McCain needs to defeat his Democratic opponent, Senator Barack Obama or Senator Hillary Clinton.
That fool was no conservative and will not be missed.
It's also necessary to look at the big picture, determine to draw a line in the sand and say no more, precisely what we should have done in 1988, when the GOP began its leftward slither in earnest.
Hey that is a life time vote they have, we can not afford them to tip the scales when it comes to the Constitution.
Yeah, when ever someone feels the need to tell everyone what a big conservative he really is, you know he is foolin’ ya!
Same as Rush callers who have to start the call by saying they are a real conservative and all.
They remove all doubt from the start.
Even so, McCain carefully avoided mentioning thorny subjects like abortion and homosexual unions, on which he has staked out much more moderate positions than members of the party’s religious right.
&&&
Not once does this idiot, so-called journalist mention the loudest sour note that McCain has hit with true conservatives, i.e., McCain-Kennedy.
I do not recall hearing him support homo marriage, and I am pretty sure he is anti-abortion.
You act like there’s a difference
What about Scalia and Thomas?
McCain faces doubts among Republican conservatives
More like McCain faces a brick wall...no principled conservative will vote for McCain.
Wouldn't that be deliciously ironic of MacCain? "My friends, I refuse to nominate to the supreme court anyone who refuses to consider overturning MacCain-Feingold".
I will not trust any man that clearly puts illegal alien’s desires ahead of the RIGHTS of American citizens.
**
Ditto!
Quite so.
I don’t understand why we’re “stuck” with McCain. Couldn’t all of the pledged delegates to other candidates combine to stop his nomination on the floor?
Someone play “taps.”
Scary.
"And Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito meet those standards in every respect. They would serve as the model for my own nominees if that responsibility falls to me," he said, pointing to Bush appointees.
White males with a law degree, over 5ft 5inches tall?
“Which is precisely why MacCain’s friends at the MSM weren’t about to give him coverage.”
Can you imagine what a one on one debate would have looked like between the two? Damn shame.
“Hey that is a life time vote they have, we can not afford them to tip the scales when it comes to the Constitution.”
Liberals replacing liberals. I don’t see how that tips the scales at all.
In the end, most conservatives, like most Republicans and most Democrats, won't vote, period. McCain will end up winning not because conservatives and Republicans backed him, but because the few who do vote for him will be joined by enough Democrats radically opposed to the Dem nominee (whether it's Obama or Hillary -- they are equally polarizing among Democrats) to vote for McCain who after all, is of the same mind as themselves on big-picture items like global warming, politics of envy, bigger government, punishing the rich, etc. McCain will win because Democrats elected him.
Santorum... McCain hates him, therefore he has to pick him or I won’t vote for him.
I’m not finished. Before we vote for him, Senator McCain must register with Free Republic, present himself before the conservative movement, put his head between his legs, and kiss his own arse.
Do that and we will let you win. Do it not and your campaign will surely die.
Not me I love my country too much to wish that on her.
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