Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

McCain faces doubts among Republican conservatives
AFP on Yahoo ^ | 5/11/08 | Charlotte Raab

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.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 2008; conservatives; conservativevote; doubts; duh; mccain; republican; rino; yathink
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-157 next last
To: Jacquerie

Let’s not start thinking reagan was perfect. He wasn’t. He was merely the best president in the last 50 years or more. Probably more. That’s pretty darn good, but not perfect, and there no reason why we can’t have another one as good or better.


121 posted on 05/11/2008 6:53:29 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba
Not fake:

Source: http://www.carboncoalition.org/images/action/McCain.jpg

122 posted on 05/11/2008 6:57:07 PM PDT by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: mware

“So you are willing to see two more Ginsburgs or worse, in a permanent life long position, when those positions could go to conservative judges.”

Dems will keep the Senate. Your boy LOVES to work with Dems, and pi$$ all over conservatives and the Constitution. The esteemed senior Senator from Massachussetts will be picking McBackstabbers’ judges and if you don’t know that, you don’t pay close enough attention.


123 posted on 05/11/2008 6:57:50 PM PDT by Grunthor (Of two evils, choose neither - Charles Spurgeon)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 120 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba

Is it really? That’s the first I’ve heard of it. If it is I will stop using it.


124 posted on 05/11/2008 7:04:27 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the McCainiac population. Have them spayed or neutered.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Grunthor
So you are willing to not only give them the judges in the supreme court but also the presidency and a filibuster proof Congress.

People who are willing to do this to our country to teach Republicans a lesson, amaze me.

God help us all.

125 posted on 05/11/2008 7:05:07 PM PDT by mware (mware...killer of threads.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 123 | View Replies]

To: infantrywhooah
Keep voting for the lesser of 2 evils (3 evils)...and u can guarantee you'll end up with evil... over time

Ill have no part in it!

126 posted on 05/11/2008 7:09:15 PM PDT by M-cubed (Why is "Greshams Law" a law?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: streetpreacher
I would like to see some clue that he has heard of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the Gadsen Purchase, and is familliar with the fact that on a per-square-mile basis, we paid over twice as much for the land some claim as part of "Aztlan" what we did for either the Louisiana Purchase or Alaska.

In short, it is part of America, and our laws should apply there.

I'd also like to see a crackdown on "Sanctuary cities". Either uphold US law, or get not one dime for anything from the general coffers. Just because someone governs a town of a few million does not make them or their 'personal fiefdom' immune to the law of the land.

Actually, there is so much not to like, from his stance on energy, to the border, to illegal invaders, to the First Amendment, and his stance on the Second Amendment (27% pro, GOA 'F-'--just about as bad as Hillary or Obama), that I wish he had run as a Democrat so I could vote against him...

127 posted on 05/11/2008 7:11:41 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: Bushbacker1
Ageed 100%! But, since the liberal media picked our guy for us, we really have no other choice.

Speak for yourself. I 'll never vote for anyone who aids and abets the socialist cause.

I'll hold my nose and vote for him and hope for the best.

That is precisely the type of thinking in the GOP that has caused the GOP to become increasingly socialistic and have a front running socialist candidate like McCain. It's a never ending slippery slope.

The alternative (democrat) scares the bejeebers out of me.

The GOP has moved so far to the socialist left over the years there is no alternative to Republican or Democrats because they have become essentially one party. The only viable choice available is conservatism versus socialism. I choose the former. McCain chooses the latter.
128 posted on 05/11/2008 7:14:08 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: Reagan Man
I’m not about to defend McCain, but I still contend he’s not a socialist.

That's true if you ignore all the facts I listed in post #76.

The fact McCain has joined forces with liberals on several critical issues, doesn’t help his chances of getting enough of the conservative voters -— mine included -— to elect him POTUS.

That's an understatement.

Nonetheless, he will garner most conservative votes come election day.
Anyone who votes for a socialist like McCain is not a conservative.

still have to use the intellect that God gave you to make a rational decision.

I have made the rational decision never to support an ideal such as socialism or person who supports an ideal that is anathema to the Constitution and conservatism.

Reactionary absolutism and fringe extremism employed to rail against reality, serves no good purpose.

You and many more should tell that to GOP leaders. Maybe they will then change their extremist ways of incrementally supporting socialism.
129 posted on 05/11/2008 7:21:55 PM PDT by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: indylindy
Have you fallen asleep at the wheel or what? Do you really think that if McCain wins he is going to get a strict constructionist judge past a Democrat controlled Congress?

No, but we can't give Obama and the Democrats an opportunity to reload the courts. All four liberal judges are seriously old. Two are ready to jump ship now. Just one term of Obama and will will have 4 youthful Ruth Bater Ginsburgs. With a McCain presidency, they will still be scared to retire, although a couple may not have much choice. McCain won't be able to get a conservative judge on the court unless the GOP makes some serious pickups in the Senate (doubtful). But McCain could get some moderate Kennedy /O'Conner types or perhaps a stealth conservative through. McCain will not be able to stack the court, but he will be able to stop the liberals from reloading it with youth. Currently each liberal judge is 15 years older than a corresponding conservative judge. We have huge age advantage, but just ONE DEMOCRATIC TERM with a Democratic Senate will change that.

130 posted on 05/11/2008 7:36:35 PM PDT by Always Right (Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Beelzebubba
Addenda:

It may be a fake (I haven't done enough digging, perhaps), but it's hard to think it's a fake when the Carbon Coalition website itself once featured McCain autographing one of those signs back in 2003.

You will see that the link goes to a page that has changed, but check the properties of the image itself - it's still being hosted from the Carbon Coalition site. 

131 posted on 05/11/2008 7:43:17 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the McCainiac population. Have them spayed or neutered.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Grunthor

“Mm-hmm. Several extremely new “conservatives” to FReeperland that are backing McBackstabber.”

I agree. I check sometimes to see when they joined. Think we have some Obama and Clinton people and some McCain RINOs. They are wasting their time to try to change the minds of Freepers. Liberal McCain doesn’t get a vote from me and I’m a Republican Party worker.


132 posted on 05/11/2008 7:43:42 PM PDT by Marcella (Will work in my rose garden (with wine) and not listen to McCain.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: indylindy

“No, but I would suggest you get some meds. I do not believe we have ever posted to each other newer newbie. You are destined to go back to DU or wherever you spawned. You are not even clever.”

I’ve noticed these Obama/Clinton/liberal McCainites get nasty immediately, so they are easy to spot. If it’s a nasty reponse, I check their date and there it is - newbie.


133 posted on 05/11/2008 8:00:42 PM PDT by Marcella (Will work in my rose garden (with wine) and not listen to McCain.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Marcella

“Obama/Clinton/liberal McCainites”


Vas?


134 posted on 05/11/2008 8:04:50 PM PDT by YCTHouston
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"McCain's reputation as a party maverick and a compromising moderate has left the party's most conservative and ideological members disgruntled."

Disgruntled, HA!
I'm no longer a Republican...I'm looking for a Conservative party.

135 posted on 05/11/2008 8:05:05 PM PDT by blam (Secure the border and enforce the law)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: VRWC For Truth

“He needs all the moderates he can get since no Conservative is voting for him.”

I’m a conservative and he’s got my full support. Unlike Obama, McCain is correct on government spending, Iraq, drilling off the Gulf of Mexico, opposition to Kyoto, Iran, unfair internet taxes, military spending, ect...


136 posted on 05/11/2008 8:15:48 PM PDT by death2tyrants
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: blam
I'm no longer a Republican...I'm looking for a Conservative party.

Yeah, I quit too. Screw McCain and the Republican Party: they make me sick. I will decide candidate by candidate on this go around and will probably leave sections blank.

137 posted on 05/11/2008 8:35:13 PM PDT by wireplay
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 135 | View Replies]

To: rodguy911

Well, I don’t count on the VP overruling John much. I know it may help in four or eight, but I don’t see much value in it.

Thanks for the comments. I can understand why you would see that as a positive, but I’m not sure it holds much real value.


138 posted on 05/11/2008 8:36:15 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Who opposes John McCain's leftist agenda? The RNC, Rep Congress members, the Democrats? Good luck!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Man50D

I’m not ignoring any facts. I know who McCain is.

Again, I’m not gonna defend McCain and for good reason. I don’t support him and should he become POTUS I have no expectations that he will do a good job by my conservative standards.

You see no difference between McCain and Hillary or Obama. Gotcha!


139 posted on 05/11/2008 8:56:35 PM PDT by Reagan Man (McCain Wants My Conservative Vote --- EARN IT or NO DEAL !!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Czar; indylindy
The jackass poster formerly known as "infantrywhooah" has been suspended/banned.

Just another interchangeable Team Juan shill, vastly overpaid no matter what his actual salary might have been. No loss whatsoever. ;)

140 posted on 05/11/2008 10:17:41 PM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle (If McCain really CAN "win without conservatives," then why do you care if I vote for him or not?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140141-157 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson