Posted on 08/16/2008 7:54:52 AM PDT by kellynla
Top conservative activist and leader of the Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly — a legendary militant pro-lifer — reacted to John McCain's remark that former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge's pro-choice position would not rule him out as a vice presidential running mate by telling Newsmax, "I think [McCain] would be making a mistake."
Schlafly was not alone in warning McCain against picking Ridge or any other pro-choice advocate as his running mate. Other top conservative leaders chimed in, showing that McCain, already getting only grudging support from the GOP’s right wing, might drive conservatives to desert his cause and torpedo his chances of winning in November.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said, “I think McCain has to have a running mate that clearly connects with social conservatives in the party. That is where he is lacking. So if he picks a pro-choice running mate, I don't see how he can win this race."
When asked if social and religious conservatives would walk away from Sen. McCain if he chooses Ridge or some other pro-choice running mate, Perkins explained, "I'm not going to say people will stay home, but there is a core of voters whose level of enthusiasm influences people further from the core. So if McCain picks a pro-choice running mate, the strength of turnout on election day is not going to be there for him."
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum told LancasterOnline.com that McCain cannot anger conservatives, as choosing a pro-choice running mate would do.
“Obama’s got to lose,” Santorum said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m a believer that John McCain can’t win the race, but that Obama has to lose it. This is not a knock on McCain. I don’t know of any Republican candidate who can overcome the Democrats in this environment without the Democrat disqualifying himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Wrong on two counts. First, the general run of polling for the past decade shows a slight pro-life majority in general, and decisive majorities for the pro-life side when you ask specific questions about things like PBA and parental notification requirements. Second, having pro-life VPs and being a pro-life Pres candidate have never lost the middle before. "The middle", a somewhat murky and ill-defined term anywise, don't care much about abortion either way. Abortion isn't a defining term for them, and a pro-life VP isn't going to lose them now any more than it did for Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II.
“This is just spin to knock McCain down. He has shown in past weeks that he IS the only choice worthy of consideration.”
It’s no spin, it’s the silly and pointless posturing by McCain which contributes nothing toward increasing his chances of winning, but does the opposite. And his still weak position on drilling and other issues are doing him no good.
The McCain ego and childish penchant for playing the maverick just to play the maverick can cost the election.
And all that was often commented upon up until the day he became the putative nominee, but the characteristic is still there every day even if most Republicans have decided to refrain from commenting.
Some are beginning to comment on his weak position on drilling, which is still: drill offshore IF the states agree.
Obama has to choose next week
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So many Hillary’s...
So little time...
I think Bill Richardson would soften Obama’s image...
He’d be a nice Yes man too...
So let’s hope for a Dean...
I was kinda hoping for Kerry L0L
McCain:
“They Told Me I’d Never Go Home”
I really didn’t know what to think, because I had been having these other interrogations in which I had refused to co-operate. It was not hard because they were not torturing me at this time. They just told me I’d never go home and I was going to be tried as a war criminal. That was their constant theme for many months.
Suddenly “The Cat” said to me, “Do you want to go home?”
I was astonished, and I tell you frankly that I said that I would have to think about it. I went back to my room, and I thought about it for a long time. At this time I did not have communication with the camp senior ranking officer, so I could get no advice. I was worried whether I could stay alive or not, because I was in rather bad condition. I had been hit with a severe case of dysentery, which kept on for about a year and a half. I was losing weight again.
But I knew that the Code of Conduct says, “You will not accept parole or amnesty,” and that “you will not accept special favors.” For somebody to go home earlier is a special favor. There’s no other way you can cut it.
I went back to him three nights later. He asked again, “Do you want to go home?” I told him “No.” He wanted to know why, and I told him the reason. I said that Alvarez [first American captured] should go first, then enlisted men and that kind of stuff.
“The Cat” told me that President Lyndon Johnson had ordered me home. He handed me a letter from my wife, in which she had said, “I wished that you had been one of those three who got to come home.” Of course, she had no way to understand the ramifications of this. “The Cat” said that the doctors had told him that I could not live unless I got medical treatment in the United States.
We went through this routine and still I told him “No.” Three nights later we went through it all over again. On the morning of the Fourth of July, 1968, which happened to be the same day that my father took over as commander in chief of U. S. Forces in the Pacific, I was led into another quiz room.
“The Rabbit” and “The Cat” were sitting there. I walked in and sat down, and “The Rabbit” said, “Our senior wants to know your final answer.”
“My final answer is the same. It’s ‘No.’ “
“That is your final answer?”
“That is my final answer.”
It's the Catch 22 that's reached the point of no return. There is no "credible poltical weight" worth having if it's confiscated to support the opposite of what the voter wants to elect. There's no point in casting a vote for blue when you want green to win, but that's effectively what the GOP has done to many of us. When we withhold our votes, they interpret it as an attempt to "teach them a lesson" or "send a message." They give themselves too much credit; for many of us it's plainly a matter of using our votes to see that something wins or loses.
If I wanted big government, global-warming cap-and-trade endorsing politicians to win, I'd vote for them. I want them to lose, so my vote will go to a different candidate. I've finally figured out that you get what you vote for. I don't think of my vote in terms of "credible political weight." I think of candidates and parties as being worthy or not of my vote.
I didn't used to think this way. I used to vote in terms of "credible political weight." I don't anymore because it has finally dawned on me -- and OH HOW I WISH it would dawn on others -- that you get what you vote for.
No more voting out of sheer fear for me because it is a PROVEN FAILURE. McCain and Schwarzennegger are proof.
What McCain is, is, strong on defense,foreign policy and fiscal responsibility.
Is it impossible for McCain to find a VP who is also strong on those things, and anti-abort?
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Just one with a 20 year proven conservative record in the public arena...
And a veteran of an actual war..
Duncan Hunter...
But there are conservatives with a bit shorter record...
Eric Cantor is one...
“USA today? L0L!!!”
Are you always such a silly, uninformed person?
And any others who want to claim this is media spin might read several articles to inform yourselves that McCain made the statements and started this, yet another, pointless and divisive discussion.
And here’s Fox News on this story:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/13/mccain-says-hed-consider-pro-choice-vp/
Several have really made themselves look silly trying to defend McCain’s silly posturing and silly maverick game.
No more time will be wasted here.
You pick your horse.
I’ll pick mine
“You pick your horse.”
You might want to tell your horse which direction to run around the track.
He has shown in past weeks that he IS the only choice worthy of consideration.
________________________________
I wish that McCain had shown in the past YEARS that he was not for AMNESTY...
[Snip]
What McCain is, is, strong on defense,foreign policy and fiscal responsibility.
What's ironic is that he is a social conservative, even if he doesn't make it what defines him. His Senate record is actually very-prolife and good on most of the hot-button social issues.
It's the other issues that he's not good on. He's NOT "strong on defence". It's hard to be strong on defence when you support throwing the border open wide and doing nothing about illegal immigration - this is a NATIONAL DEFENCE issue as much as it is an economic/cultural issue. And he's terrible on it. Just because McCain supports the war in Iraq and says the right things about Georgia/Russia doesn't make him good on either national defence or foreign policy. He's NOT GOOD on defence issues. He's the kind of guy who would have tons of cops patrolling the streets in his crime-ridden neighbourhood, but then forgets to close (much less lock) his door when he goes to bed at night.
Saying that McCain is good on national defence is laughable. You have to be able to defend your own country's borders before you get any credibility on defending it anywhere else. And McCain doesn't have that credibility.
As for fiscal responsibility, well, he's not so hot there, either. He's a big spender, compromiser on taxes, his recent rumblings to the contrary notwithstanding. We have to separate years of senatorial history from weeks of campaign rhetoric.
Then, of course, there's his anti-free speech tendencies and his wobbliness of judicial nominations, a la Gang of 14 (which, btw, is not just a "social conservative" issue).
Face it, we have a bad candidate, and the only reason he has any support from the base as it is is because the alternative is so terrible. I guarantee you, if the Democrats had had the sense to nominate someone like Bill Richardson or Joe Lieberman, they would be running away with this election. It'd be worse than backhanding Bob Dole received on '96. The last thing McCain needs to do now is kick his own base in the stomach - without them he will not win. Period.
They'll be just as screwed if McCain and a "moderate" (liberal) VP wins. More screwed, in fact, because when they become older and wiser and turn to the Republican party ("If you're young and conservative you have no heart; if you're old and Liberal you have no brain") as the party to give them an option to Liberalism ... it will be GONE.
Letting pure unadulterated fear guide your vote is STUPID.
I’ll pick mine
Didn't anyone ever tell you not to race with a gelding?
I do as well.
I think that McCain for all his faults really believes in Freedom and that sometimes he gets mushy on immigration.
Immigrants need to meet requirements and get in line.
Lets Hold Johns feet to the fire AFTER he is elected
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No, let’s do it NOW...
On illegal immigration...
FAIR Lobby Days, in conjunction with Hold Their Feet to the Fire Radio Row...
Washington, DC Septewmber 9-11, 2008
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=feettothefire08
Vote Obama.
I would rather have this guy as an ally.
That's sort of like locking your door after the crook's already pawned the TV he stole from you.
Kerry would be nice too...
Pity though that this new generation of voters could care less about his traitorous Senate hearings that got so many Americans killed......
:(
You cant be serious L0L
That's not an argument, that's an emotion. Try again.
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