Posted on 05/19/2008 9:29:55 AM PDT by seanmerc
John McCain is America's favorite kind of candidate. With his record of extraordinary patriotism and his distinctive Senate tenure, McCain is a nominee whom voters from both parties — and independents, too — could easily support.
But he has been dealt a terrible hand: a tanking economy, an unpopular war, a Republican incumbent whose approval ratings are at their all-time low and a gloomy national mood, with 82 percent of Americans saying in a Washington Post-ABC News poll last week that the country is on the wrong track.
Political scientists add all that up and predict that the Democrats are destined to win the White House. But I don't do political science; I do politics, and I'm convinced that McCain can still win, if he's willing to follow the road map below.
Stay the Course
McCain needs to not run as a traditional Republican, which is easy, since he's not one.
After all, how did an anti-torture, anti-tobacco, pro-campaign finance reform, anti-pork, pro-alternative-energy Republican ever emerge from the primaries alive? Simple: The GOP electorate, along with the rest of the country, has moved somewhat to the left. (In Florida, for example, exit polls showed that only 27 percent of Republican primary voters described themselves as "very conservative," while 28 percent said they were "moderate" and 2 percent said they were "very liberal.")
Meanwhile, McCain's likely rival, Barack Obama, has raised such doubts among voters that their concerns momentarily energized even Hillary Rodham Clinton's sagging campaign. With the help of the incendiary comments of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Obama's negatives have been rising even as he nears the finish line.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Gee same advice he has been giving the GOP since 2004. Morris is a one note wonder
But, McCain is free to run to the middle. He won't get my vote regardless if he runs to Mars.
Why is there never any mention of Congress’s lower rating than the President?
LOL - I thought that I read that the 27-28% very conservative was up, not down, this year.
You’re right. Unfortunately, they [the GOP] just don’t get it. It’s ‘running to the center’ and abandoning their core principles and constituencies that has gotten them into this mess. So, what’s their solution? Run to the center, thus exacerbating the problem.
The Pubs don’t respect the people who got them where they are. Until they do respect their base, they will be in a continual mess, even with the Rats giving them as many targets of opportunity as they do.
I just assume McCain run whatever he needs to do to win (within “reason”), as long as he picks a conservative VP. His choice of VP sets more of a direction for Republicans, what with McCain being 71. Whoever he picks is akin to him moving the Ouija right or left on the Oiuja board of Republican politics.
Morris believes you CAN fool all of the people all of the time.
Dick Morris is a Democrat. He believes in Democrat policies. He supported Bush in 2004 only on the issue of national defense.
Who cares what his “advice” is? I don’t agree with his goals for America.
After all, how did an anti-torture, anti-tobacco, pro-campaign finance reform, anti-pork, pro-alternative-energy Republican ever emerge from the primaries alive? Simple: The GOP electorate, along with the rest of the country, has moved somewhat to the left.Actually McCain was FORCED on us as they tried to FORCE him on us in 2000. The difference this time is that Howard Dean staffers lead the McCain 2008 movement in 2006. They have accomplished their goal.
Run to the center? Can McCain make that big of a right turn?
McCain is already left of center. If he ran towards the center he would actually be moving right. Unfortunately, he is moving away from the center and even further left.
“Dick Morris: A Roadmap for John McCain [’Run to the center...”
So Juna is gonna tack to the right?
Wait, wait, wait. You forgot to precede this with “You can get Dick’s pieces for free at www dot dickmorris dot com”
;)
At least he’s an authority on....toes.
“Run to the center? Can McCain make that big of a right turn?”
I was wondering the same. I’m just one person but as anecdotal evidence, I have voted Republican since I was 18. Straight ticket, one lever every time. Not so much this time.
Morris has this one right.
McCain didn’t need this twit to tell him what to do. He is already gone past center left and his base is already holding its nose. (who may or may not vote for him) The way I see it is John will pander to the left and pick up some votes while losing many of the Conservative base votes.
His base will be there for him; indeed, it will turn out in massive numbers. Wright has become the honorary chairman of McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts. It would be nice to think that race isn't a factor in American politics anymore, but it is. The growing fear of Obama, who remains something of an unknown, will drag every last white Republican male off the golf course to vote for McCain, and he will need no further laying-on of hands from either evangelical Christians or fiscal conservatives.
Not me.
Yes, I fear an Obama presidency, but it's congress who passes the stupid laws. McCain is just as likely to sign the insane bills as Obama, but with Obama we have a better shot at retaking the House and Senate over the next four years. With McCain, the GOP will be punished by the electorate for a decade or longer.
And he will lose.
Leftists will vote for a real lefty, and conservatives won't vote at all. Spitting on your base is a darned peculiar way to win an election.
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