McCain Haters For McCain

American Thinker ^ | September 05, 2008 | Randall Hoven

[neverdem]

I think I'm fairly representative of those conservatives who just could not stand to vote for John McCain.  But I now plan to vote for him this November.  Let me tell you why.

My published criticisms of McCain can be read here, here, here and here.  I even contemplated that a President Obama might not be so bad.  I think my bona fides as a "McCain hater" are fairly well established.  (Although I don't care for the word "hate" here.  I didn't hate him, just voting for him.)

To some conservatives, voting is a simple matter: only one of two candidates is going to win, so pick the more conservative.  By that measure, McCain easily beats Barack Obama.  Just compare, say, lifetime ACU ratings.  The score would be 82 to 8, McCain over Obama.  No contest.  But by that measure, if the Republicans had nominated Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), we should vote for her over Obama, since her ACU score is 22.

The logic of the anti-McCain crowd was not that simple.  Our time horizon was not just the next four years, but the future in general.  I had stated that it is better to have a Democrat President who governs like a Democrat than a Republican who governs like a Democrat.  Why?  Because the Democrats would get a twofer with the latter: the enactment of a Democratic agenda and the ability to fix the blame for anything bad on the Republicans.

And what would conservatives get?  An agenda they despise, blame for everything bad and no political party representing them any more.

I gave the example of Richard Nixon.  He did virtually everything Democrats wanted.  He got us out of Vietnam -- by withdrawing in defeat.  He hugged Mao Zedong, the greatest mass murderer in history, in public.  He imposed wage and price controls.  He gave us OSHA and the EPA.  His EPA chief then outlawed DDT, letting millions around the world die defenseless against malaria.  He appointed Justice Blackmun to the Supreme Court, who went on to author Roe v Wade.  He increased government spending to support a growing welfare state.

And what did conservatives get for all that?  A Republican President resigning in disgrace, a sweep of Democrats in Congress, oil price shocks, a recession, President Jimmy Carter, our enemies emboldened abroad and a political albatross that hangs around the necks of Republicans to this day.

In short, some of us think preserving a party that truly represents conservative values is more important for the long term than just having someone in the White House with an ACU rating somewhere north of 8.

If McCain were trying to morph the Republican Party into Democrat-Lite, I would not vote for him.  He could have demonstrated that by picking a Vice President like Joe Lieberman.  Nothing wrong with Joe, but he's not a Republican.  He thinks life is improved through government programs.  Republicans think government usually is the problem, not the solution.

But McCain did not pick Joe Lieberman or anyone like that.  He picked Sarah Palin.

And that changed everything.

Sarah Palin is pro-freedom, pro-life, pro-gun, anti-tax, anti-spending.  And she walks the walk.  Her life story is pure American -- even old-time, frontier American.  We can compare experience levels in years of "public service": her 12 to Barack Obama's 11.  But more importantly, Obama's experience consists mostly of missing a lot of votes so he could write a second autobiography and make speeches, while Palin's includes negotiating a gas pipeline deal with Canada and confronting Big Oil face-to-face and making it blink.

Sarah Palin also represents real reform in government.  Not just reform in the sense of ethics rules, but reform in the sense of getting back to the days where elected officials were normal people recognized for their real-world leadership, not professional politicians, usually lawyers, adept at making good excuses, not good decisions.  Alexis de Tocqueville would recognize her as an American: a Bible in one pocket and a newspaper in the other.

And because she is so young, John McCain showed us the future of the Republican party.  It's even more choice that Palin's nemesis in Alaskan politics is Senator Ted Stevens, the oldest, whitest, pork-barrelest, and now indicted, Republican in the Senate.  McCain made it clear: out with the Stevens, in with the Palins.  I am down with that.

In a stroke, McCain showed us his vision of the Republican party, and it is not Democrat-Lite.  And the base knew it right away.  On the day he announced Palin as his VP choice, $4 million flew into his campaign from internet contributions.  The previous daily high was under $1 million.  What does that tell you about what the Republican base thinks of Sarah Palin?

Yet we've heard this spun by our wise media as a scheme to get Hillary Clinton's voters.  We hear those same wise men advise McCain to reach to the middle and the left.  Such advice is wishful thinking or self-delusion at best, or lies at worst.  Five of the last seven presidential elections were won by Republicans.  When Bill Clinton did win, he did it with less than a majority of the popular vote.  The last Democrat to garner a majority of the popular vote for President was Jimmy Carter, who received 50.1% of the popular vote two years after Nixon resigned.

Republicans do not win by moving left.  They win by being Republican: pro-freedom, pro-defense, pro-American, by being the party of small government and big ideas.

The Palin choice was not about getting Hillary's voters, although that might help nudge the margin of victory up by maybe 1% or 2%.  It was about reinvigorating the base, the base that put Reagan in the White House with a 49-state victory.

This whole episode also shows me that McCain is probably smarter than I had thought.  He apparently has favored Palin since February; this was not a seat-of-the-pants decision.  His campaign staff was not only able to keep it a secret, it let the media drink its own bathwater in its silly who's-he-gonna-pick game.  And he timed it beautifully to deny Obama a big post-convention bounce.  You could almost think McCain knows what he's doing.

The surge is working.  The US and Iraq are discussing troop withdrawal dates.  General Petraeus is drafting a troop drawdown schedule.  The latest GDP figures show healthy economic growth.  Jobless claims are down three weeks straight.  And John McCain picked Sarah Palin for VP.

I'm voting for John McCain and Sarah Palin this November, and I won't even have to hold my nose.

Randall Hoven can be contacted at randall.hoven@gmail.com or  via his web site, kulak.worldbreak.com.

[neverdem]

And just how we gonna' stop `em.

Get back the Congress. Our economy thrives on cheap energy. Our economy has been sabotaged by donkey energy policies from preventing drilling for natural gas and oil, on shore and off shore, preventing more nuclear energy plants being built, subsidizing corn ethanol, etc. Manufacturers could afford to make things here with cheap energy, but not with expensive energy when all the other costs of production from union demands and government regulation are taken into account.

[supercat]

And just how we gonna' stop `em.

I think the President of the Senate might have something to say about that.

[supercat]

I have faith in God that his plan will prevent that from happening.

I wouldn't count on that. God sets things in motion so that people can do the right things, and he sometimes provides a small but critical nudge to protect them when they do the wrong things, but the day-to-day happenings of the world are the work of man, not God. If things go catty-wampus, God will slowly but surely nudge them back in the right direction, but it would be folly to suggest that you can sit back and watch events because God will take care of everything, without considering that you yourself might have a critical role in His plan.

[Yosemitest]

How we gonna' stop `em from tearing down the border, and losing the war against illegal immigration?
That idiot McCain wants to just wave a law and say we have no more illegals, making these illegal instantly legal.

To hell with that!

[Yosemitest]

I certainly hope so!

[neverdem]

How we gonna' stop `em from tearing down the border, and losing the war against illegal immigration?

Get back the Congress. Stop them like the last time. Congress makes laws, not the President.

[usmcobra]

Please don’t even try to suggest to me that voting for McCain Over Obama is somehow going against God’s Plan.

[Kimberly GG]

Yes, well we’ll see how long his ego will allow him, not to share the spotlight, but to take a back seat to it, as is happening.

[Yosemitest]

You lost me there,
I'm just saying that we can't trust McCain.

[supercat]

Yes, well we’ll see how long his ego will allow him, not to share the spotlight, but to take a back seat to it, as is happening.

He's getting a level of support from conservatives he's never seen. Even if it's centered on Palin, the amount that spills over onto him is still greater than anything he's gotten before.

[usmcobra]

What you are saying and have for what seems like forever is don’t vote for McCain.

That to me is like saying don’t cross the street because you may get run over by a bunch of illegel aliens.

Eventually you have to do something, because doing nothing is politically naive.

[Yosemitest]

You misread me, I said I can't vote for McCain.
But I want to vote for Governor Palin.

But I really Like Bob Bar.

[usmcobra]

OMG!!!!! QUICK SOMEONE ALERT THE MEDIA!!!

Yosemitest IS GOING TO VOTE REPUBLICAN!!!

Sarah Palin forced his hand!!!!!

[NavyCanDo]

To tell you the truth, when Fred Thompson dropped out, I was saying “a McCain for President Yard sign will never cast its shadow on my front lawn”, and I would Never put a McCain bumper sticker on the car. I did stop short of saying I would never vote for him.

Well let me tell you, with his fantastic performance at the Saddelback Church forum, his brilliant new style of ads, and now picking someone I was watching for a long time, Sarah Palin as his VP, I AM SO PUMPED I CANT BE CONAINED.

I used my lunch hour that Friday the announcement was made to find websites to purchase bumper stickers, yard signs, T-shirts, everything. Heck I could broken a taboo of mine and got a tattoo; McCain/Palin 08 on my chest.
Today I stopped by our county McCain campaign office and signed their volunteer sign-up sheet.

[NavyCanDo]

“I had never considered John McCain to actually be that intelligent, but the way he's set up this campaign, which has been just totally jaw-dropping in its scope, has caused me to re-evaluate many of my previous opinions of the man, all to his favor. “

I can't confirm its true but I have heard that the bloo-blooded cigar smoking long time members of RNC, including Bush and Rove were pressing McCain to pick Romney. If true then that Maverick that we sometime hate, sometime love - did a very very good thing by saying NO to the established order.

[NavyCanDo]

conservative cat - see my post #134

Were thinking just alike. I also live in WA. I will predict right here, that Washington will be close. I know several democrats that were inspired by Palin and are voting for her. I also predict the new generation of crossover voters, PUMAs and whatever else they call themselves, will be in larger numbers than the Reagan Democrats from 1984. I was a Reagan Democrat, and I can tell you I can feel something BIG happening.

[dbwz]

The way I see it, the response to Palin is a bargaining chip, and we can either use it or lose it.

[Campion]

He will negotiate with the terrorists or whoever, and allow them to peacefully migrate en masse into our cities, where thousands of "community organizers" would incorporate them into our new Sharia-law-bound communities. And he would be praised for "making peace".

That's what happens after he gets us nuked.

[af_vet_1981]

I groan when John McCain said he wanted to include Republicans, Democrats and Independents in his cabinet.

Zell Miller - D GA would be a great choice if he would serve.

[tiki]

I was going to vote for McCain, I just wasn’t going to like voting fore him.