Posted on 05/15/2008 5:51:06 AM PDT by webschooner
Soul searching Republicans are turning to an unlikely savior, one-time party heretic and now presumptive White House nominee John McCain, as they try to stave off an electoral disaster. Stung by the Democratic seizure of three staunch conservative seats in Congress, Republican lawmakers fear a shellacking in November's general election, after losing control of both chambers of Congress in 2006.
The rise of McCain as their champion is not without irony, since the 71-year-old Arizona senator has quarreled with his own party for years on issues as diverse as immigration, campaign finance reform and global warming.
But it is precisely that independent streak that is drawing Republicans to his coattails, hoping he can cleanse them of the stain of gridlocked Washington.
Eric Cantor, Republican chief deputy whip in the House of Representatives, told reporters that the McCain brand was healthier than that of his party.
"John McCain is a demonstrated vote getter among independents, and his message and what he will be able to do in this election is extremely important."
House Republican minority leader John Boehner told Fox News that with McCain at the top of the ticket, his demoralized party might spring a surprise in November.
"I think that we're going to do a lot better than people think," Boehner said.
"John McCain appeals to almost all Republicans. He also appeals to a wide array of independents and conservative Democrats."
Democrat Travis Childers on Tuesday won Mississippi's first congressional district, one of the safest Republican seats in the country, following his party's recent special election wins in Illinois and Louisiana.
The win was another triumph for the strategy of matching socially conservative Democrats, who often oppose abortion and back gun rights, to conservative districts, where Republicans would normally ease to victory.
As they surveyed the damage Wednesday, Republican House leaders rolled out the first elements of a new agenda, dubbed "The Change You Deserve," pinpointing the struggles of working families.
Significantly, a key player in their press conference was Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard chief who is now one of McCain's most visible economic advisors.
Democrats see their win streak as a referendum on the unpopular president and dream of an electoral landslide after a Washington Post/ABC poll this week found eight in ten Americans think the country is on the wrong track.
Tom Cole, who heads Republican congressional campaign efforts, delivered an unusually stark warning, telling his party's candidates "to take stock of their campaigns and position themselves for challenging campaigns this fall."
But Adam Putnam, chairman of the House Republican conference, suggested Republicans could prosper without their president up for reelection.
"The President is not on the ballot," he said.
Top Democrats will not let them creep silently out of Bush's shadow.
"What happened in Mississippi was a day for reckoning for the failed policies of the Bush administration," said Chris Van Hollen, chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee.
And he said McCain, who recorded a message for the defeated Republican candidate in Mississippi, had failed to save his party.
"They thought he would be a life preserver, he wasn't -- he was an anchor."
Democratic House majority leader Steny Hoyer meanwhile mocked the new Republican slogan, "The Change You Deserve," saying it had already been used to market an anti-depressant medicine.
Democrats, who seized control of both chambers of Congress in 2006, are looking to expand their 37-seat majority in the House, and increase their tally in the 100-seat Senate from the current 51.
Republicans are particularly bracing for losses in the Senate, since in what was already shaping up as a bad year they have 23 seats up for reelection compared to only 12 for the Democrats.
I think the slogan makes perfect sense. The Republican establishment abandoned conservative principles and now they are getting the change they deserve.
Republican votors even in Mississippi are so demoralized by McCain and his ilk having hijacked the party that they never showed up to vote. They don’t feel that their vote means anything anymore, so they’re just gonna look after #1 and try to stay sane in a world gone mad.
We all feel like we’ve been pushed out of a perfectly good airplane at 20,000 feet without a parachute. Nothing to do but make peace with God and wait for the impact.
I doubt what you say is true. The Democrats are going to use “ With McCain you get Bush on steroids.”
Bush and McCain are quite similar on many things.
The things they are similar on are the dealbreakers for McCain. Democrats are not going to vote for a pro war democrat. They threw Lieberman off the bus for that.
McCain is trying to straddle the fence and he will be rejected by both sides. Right now we have 3 Democrats vying for the same voters. Soon there will be two.
Meanwhile all the others will go elsewhere and for good reason.
Not after the Dims and the media hang the label "Bush III" around his neck.
In fact, they've already started....and McCain is doing nothing to disabuse the public of the label with his outrageously liberal speeches.
Leni
The only thing that compels me to vote for McCain is the necessity of keeping Obama out of the White House.
Doing well? Let's wait until after the Dem convention and see how well he is doing. The Dems will be campaigning to stop a third Bush term. The one position that McCain garners the most support from his GOP base is the Iraq War and the WOT. Unfortunately, most of the American people believe it is a costly mistake and we should pull out. On this issue, McCain is just an extension of the Bush policy, which will not help him among independents and Dems.
I do find it interesting that McCain will announce today in Columbus that he sees the US troops out by 2013. I guess he has set a timetable of sorts to try to move away from the Bush policy.
They see ‘Rats winning and their response is to act like the ‘Rats! Talk about clueless. If they want to actually WIN seats instead of losing them, they need to adopt a Newt Gingrich style plan of CONSERVATIVE VALUES and a way to put them into place. They farther they go from the party of Reagan, the more they lose, yet they seem to be unable to grasp that simple concept.
Not to necessarily be a prophet of doom here, but It may be that we are witnessing the end of the Republic and that this current political season is simply an artifact of that end.
I thought Obama was the saviour? Can there be 2?
I think McCain will win the presidency but the down ticket Republicans will get wiped out. So, basically, the Democrats will control the executive and legislative branches.
We have done this before and it was a disaster. That said, the country survived.
I quit the Republican party: I hope millions of others do the same and bring about its total collapse.
They may be shaken after the last election cycle, but McCain definitely doesn't have them stirred.
GOP is going the way of the Whigs.
We have to start over.
Howsabout we call the new party “The Conservative Party”?
House Republicans are the ones responsible for sullying the conservative brand. Hence, they are in no position now to try to improve it.
The first thing the Republicans should do is stop listening to the “news media”. Nobody in the news media gives a dump about the Republican Party. The publishers, editors, and “journalists” are all Democrats. The only objectivity in the “news media” is to be found in the scores on the sports pages.
Unfortunately, Republican congress critters are about to get the change they deserve!
This is my take from another thread:
The leadership of the party causes the Republican Party’s struggles.
The party established the rules in the primaries, did not require only Republicans to vote in them, and decided that a few select states could vote before everyone else so as to eliminate the conservative choices by the time I could vote.
The party put resources into who should win those early races to see that the anointed one of the party is chosen. I have never been allowed to vote for my candidate in any meaningful way. The choice for me is easy. I am an irrelevant voter. My vote to nominate can never affect the outcome.
My vote should have as much power as those initial votes in Iowa or Florida. Theirs count, and mine does not.
Now, it is as if we had 100 voters, but the first ten in line get to pick the candidate, and the other 90 can vote for the survivor. If those 90 don’t approve, then they are at blamed for voting in the opposition.
What kind of a democracy is this? One man, one vote…the first to count, the last to confirm.
This is no democracy. This is a game.
I will not accept responsibility for “allowing” a Democrat into the office because I cannot support McCain for President. That was the known and reasonable outcome of the party apparachiks who planned this whole mess. I will not sanction it with my vote.
Don’t expect me to accept the resulting choice for McCain for the greater good of the country or party. If the Republicans cared about the greater good of the country or the party, they would not structure the primaries so, and they would give everyone a chance to vote for a conservative when it actually mattered.
The Republican Party is responsible for this terrible dilemma, and I am not responsible for the outcome of the vote...The party wanted it this way, now they can have it this way.
We need a national primary day with closed primaries.
Here’s a program for the Republicans:
Economy? Keep taxes low and limit government intervention.
Deficit? Cut the size of government.
War on Terror? Scare the Hell out of our enemies, and convince them they can’t win.
Social disfunction? Stress traditional values.
These are all basic tenets of Ronald Reagan, who won a few elections.
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