Posted on 07/30/2008 6:57:53 PM PDT by pissant
He’s going to transform the party — by turning us into hawkish Democrats? Nuance.
There’s a bigger point — and this initial volley, they say, lays the groundwork for it. They will be sharpening McCain’s message that he, not Obama, is the true change agent, a man who’s repeatedly taken unpopular stands, made the hard calls and forged bipartisan alliances.
Part of the calculus now is how his VP choice will further sharpen that message. There is significant support among top McCain advisers that he make a “transformative” pick who would change the Republican Party — someone who would appeal to moderate Republicans and Democrats…
A person who fills that bill, these advisers say, is Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman, an Independent Democrat, flatly denied his interest to ABC’s Ron Claiborne earlier this month, but McCain is now seriously considering him as that “transformative” pick, sources tell ABC News…
What’s more, some McCain advisers believe Lieberman would dramatically enhance the point they are now trying to make about Obama in this “celebrity” ad campaign.
McCain and Lieberman are anti-celebrities, the argument goes. They have, as one top adviser said, felt the heat after taking unpopular positions because they were willing to do “what’s right for the country” — whatever it meant for their own popularity.
Good news for that unpredictable five percent in the middle he needs to win, not so good for, er, everyone else in America. Are evangelicals going to vote for a guy who scored 100% on NARAL’s annual report card? Are Reagan conservatives jittery about McCain’s maverickiness going to feel reassured knowing Al Gore’s choice for VP is waiting in the wings? Is the left going to reach hitherto unscaled heights of apoplexy at the thought of the one pol they hate more than George Bush somehow ending up on the Republican ticket? (No, no, and yes, respectively, if you’re scoring at home.) Think of it in practical terms. Assume the worst happens and through some misfortune Vice President Lieberman becomes President Lieberman. Either the Democrats’ animus towards him results in hopeless gridlock in Congress or the breach is healed and we’ve got a lefty executive working with a lefty legislature towards common goals — Iraq excepted, of course. I like Liebs; I don’t like the idea. But the signs are there if you’re willing to look…
Exit question: Maybe the left, true to its proud tradition of honoring dissent, will forgive Joementum his apostasy? Hmmm.
Lieberman is a lib in most things. His voice is annoying. He lost once already.
I thought JC wants Obama.
It was Rudy McRomney 24/7. They had more coverage in a week than the grand total of coverage for Hunter/Brownback/Gilmore/T.Thompson/tancredo combined for the entire campaign.
A few weeks back i dreamed he picked Hillary .
Not sure which would be worse.
Obama has recovered most of it for McCain already. Wait for "re-create '68" for the rest to return.
Wishbone quarterback was the ultimate high-pressure job ever invented and Watts was as good as it got at it. Veep or even POTUS would be simple in comparison.
If he chooses Lieberman, it just means it’s no longer GOP vs. Democrats.
It means it’s American Capitalism vs Socialist Marxism...or worse.
If the Rock Star wins...we all lose.
Lieberman puts this Cultural War into sharp focus.
I don’t believe it. I think they’re floating this to make whoever he does choose, seem more palatable.
I don’t hate Joe Lieberman, I think he’s actually an honorable person, but this is NO time for McCain to be reaching even further across the aisle. For better or for worse, I think McCain already appeals to conservative Democrats as much as he’s going to. He needs to reach out to unhappy Republicans now!
Jewish vote?
"... downright puerile." Exactly! Yet Lieberman is a stupid real grownup. Sorry if such bluntness offends, but it's the truth. He'd be a stupid man with quite a lot of power behind him in the support of the American people. For all that he's a Jew (which is a good thing, in my opinion), he's a stupid grown up who hasn't figured out a lot of things. And he was willing to be vice president to a horrific moron like Al Gore. ANYBODY who worked to put that man in the White House is a traitor!! ;^) Only half-kidding on that, and it's worth pondering when weighing the vaunted "nobility" of Lieberman's character.
For the sake of our country, it is of immense importance that he be defeated.
If our nation has reached that fragile point, we're done for anyway. I think it's worth fighting for this country, and the thing that is hurting this country isn't the Democrat party, it's Liberalism. When Liberalism is wins elections, we have Amerca in 2008.
There are no "perhaps" with Lieberman -- he'd advance Liberalism by leaps and bounds with support on all sides and be "respected."
There's a chance with Obama because Obama is NOT a grown-up and the world and America would know it and resent it, no matter what the media does. He would likely be unpopular fast, and divisive, because so many Democrats dislike him. I think there's a pretty good chance this nation can survive Obama, who would be a one-term guy.
There is pure CERTAINTY with McCain and, say, Liberman, or Romney for that matter, that liberalism would gain power in the hands of "grown ups" weilding all that government power more "responsibly" than Democrats.
There isn't any chance that this nation can survive Liberalism. It might survive if liberalism starts losing elections, in particular Republican elections. Yet I maintain that it's come to the point that liberalism so dominates Republican philosophy that a guy like Joe Lieberman (!!) is a legit possibility!
It's all moot. Dems will elect McCain because Obama is as bad as Hillary would have been, and had she won the primary, McCain still would win because of Democrats.
It is to offset votes from people like THIS that we all need to pull double our weight, get the vote out and keep our eye on the ball to ensure Obama is not elected. It is almost irrelevant who the VP candidate is compared to everything else in the calculus. Good grief!
If McMini picks Lieberman, I’m definitely going to support the second coming of Carter. Hopefully it the Obamanation would just last for 4 years.
I won’t be party to the tanking of our party. I realize that the Lord Messiah will appoint a few Supreme Court justices, but it would just involve replacing liberals justices with liberal justices.
McMini is pretty dim; I hope he’s not that dim.
no way
But he is a patriot for sure and will do what's right for us in a time of war.
Yeah, but the folks who vote in Repub. primaries don’t necessarily pay attention to what the MSM says. And if you noticed, Rudy didn’t do so well, after a while, so all the publicity early on didn’t help him one bit. The conservatives voted for their favorites, and the ones who didn’t necessarily didn’t WANT a conservative voted for McCain.
ABC News reports this so it must be true....not
I’d impale myself on a rusty farm implement before I’d ever vote for any ticket with Oprah on it. She’s turned an entire generation of women into simpering idiots.
I’m thinking Sarah Palin.
The publicity did help Rudy. He was raising money hand over fist. He just executed the worst campaign strategy in the history of primaries. For someone as liberal as that to have the ‘air’ of inevitibility for months on end, even gaining a following on FR of all places, is preposterous in a conservative party. Almost as preposterous as the maeverick actually winning.
I haven't read that he WANTED Obama. He might have made a comment about having a black man running for the highest office in the land. It IS different, but that doesn't necessarily mean he WANTS Obama to be President.
So ultimately, all the publicity and money didn't do a thing for him.
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