I’m amazed by how many people needed Sarah Palin to see the light as to how big a disaster allowing Obama to win would be for America.
I forgot all about that: I don’t have to hold my nose anymore!
Palin would be the McCain to McCain—if he went too far left, she would have no problem announcing this to all, even resigning her vice presidency so she could run against him should he seek re-election as a Democrat-Lite in 2012.
You have made your choice. In all fairness, did you not hate McCain's political positions as a moderate/centrist (and liberal at times) rather than hate Mr McCain the man?
I just had a few questions outside of that. THESE HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH OBAMA, but stand on their own strength intrinsically with and about HIM. I ask them in all civil sincerity.
You objected to him as I see it because of his liberal voting record and antics, it seems.
Did he change or did you?
Do you think he will go RINO if President, or will he "conservatize".
Any percentage chances on that, either way? And, most importantly, if he does go RINO on us, what should we as Conservatives do next?. Should we oppose him, or support him as our President?
Let us think long term also, I am talking six months out now. As you have thought these through now, I would imagine you have conclusions and strategies on these. Please share, Mr. Hoven, if at all you are reading this..
I’m in.
I just pray she can slap some sense into him regarding global warming, immigration and the great biofuel scam.
McCain wanted Lieberman, but when that polled in the toilet, he realized the only way to solidify his base was to pick a hardcore conservative.
Even McCain has to be shocked at how well this choice has worked, and I can't imagine him turning his back on conservatives now. Not that Palin would let him.
Meanwhile, the sit-at-home "true patriots" have gotten nothing for their efforts; McCain's choice was based on conservatives willing to vote for him IF they thought they could work with him.
I was a FredHead (still am) and used rationals like the poster to not support McCain. But Sarah Palin changed it for me. I will volunteer and help to get them elected. I am excited about the race!
Welcome to our club, Mr Hoven.
Have just the teensiest bit of crow served with a side of humble pie.
Hopefully, you haven’t arrived too late. I don’t think that you have.
I once swore I’d never vote for McCain...Palin has changed that.
I too campaigned against McCain in 2000 and 2004...and his immigration stance and Campaign Finance Reform bore me out.
But something happened. McCain reversed course on amnesty and even grudgingly supported building our Southern Border Fence...plus, McCain latched on to Drill Here, Drill now.
McCain is a war hero, we all know that, but he supported the Surge in Iraq even before my hero, President Bush. That counts for something. He was for the Surge when sending more troops into Iraq was extremely unpopular...
...and that’s when I learned something about McCain...he’s resolute. Just like when I hated his persistance in supporting CFR at every turn, so I came to love his support for the Surge. He never waivered on it.
I can dig it!
Plus, McCain is pro-life. The next 4 SCOTUS Justices need to be pro-life. We can bury Roe v Wade!
So I actually came around to McCain prior to him picking Governor Palin...I was even resigned to “supporting” him if he picked Lieberman.
I am *so* glad that he picked Sarah, though! Now I won’t be holding my nose to vote for McCain...and I even sent him some money.
Wow!
That’s a big turnaround for me. I walked the walk and talked the talk against him in 2000 and 2004. Nice that I don’t have to be against him this time, though.
...and that whole Obama thing?! People! Come on...he’ll be a historical laughingstock who will make people forget McGovern himself.
I had to rethink my resolution to NEVER vote for McCain, when Obama became the nominee.
Great article! I’ve been debating about going to the polls simply for the same reasons. I groan when John McCain said he wanted to include Republicans, Democrats and Independents in his cabinet. He really doesn’t get it. I don’t think Palin is one to sit around.
But we don't need to be thinking about McCain as the Democrat Lite that would bring us the raging lefty following in his wake. The raging lefty is here now (Obama), and he's following in the wake of an often times Democrat-Lite named Bush.
Ridiculous logic.
We aren’t electing her as President, we’re electing him and he’s the same today as he was the day before he chose Sarah. I like Sarah, but some folks are fools for falling for his game. He played it right, brilliant choice, and it worked. All the attention is on her. Meanwhile, he’s free to move, seemingly undetected, as far to the left as he wants. Bravo McCain. Bravo
I sympathize, McCain-hater. McCain the man is perhaps the most respectable living figure in national politics. But I believe he would govern as a RINO in every arena save national defense. I believe this because of his record, and because of his leaning on the “maverick” label, which we all know refers to his frequent hops across the aisle (i.e. his frequent votes on the Democrat line). In McCain’s head, I’m sure he is a man above party. From the outside, he is a man between parties, leaning one way or another, often not to my satisfaction.
Perhaps it is not fair of me to single out McCain as an especially pernicious example of centrist bipartisanship (or, as I call it, sporadic liberalism). But my party (or formerly my party) has singled him out for me. For a time now, dissension has grown within me. i voted for Bush twice, swallowing steel tariffs, Medicare expansion, unbalanced budgets, pork-barrel spending, “compassion” (i.e. liberalism), No Child Left Behind instead of school choice, and so on.
The spectre of terrorism; the tax cuts; and the valiant, if truncated, assualt on Social Security kept me on board. But now, I wonder what I will gain by the switch to McCain. I know that I will lose ground on immigration and environmentalism. He talks of tax cuts and limited government only in generalities. He made a strong case for school choice, but then there was that claptrap about federal community colleges.
For those of you tired of RINOs, sick of ever-advancing centralism, socialism, and environmentalism (three synonyms, I realize), when are you going to do something about it? Why isn’t McCain too far? Can you imagine, eight years ago, in the McCain/Feingold era, rooting for this guy? When will the time come to embrace a new Goldwater, a new Reagan? When will we purge the party of its Lindsays, its Rockefellers, its Nixons, and its McCains?
Why isn’t now the time? I know what you’ll answer (since you’ve already answered above). You’ll say Obama is too dangerous. You’ll say Obama is the most unqualified and the most liberal candidate in this country’s history. I take your point. I might say now is as good a time as any to prove to the people how disastrous a quasi-socialist can be. But I know that economic or foreign-policy disasters on Obama’s watch would probably be spun by the media to advocate further state expansion, as all disasters are.
Then there’s Palin, who has excited me like no other politician in my lifetime—though my enthusiasm may be a bit premature. I was too young for the Reagan Revolution, the first election I can recall was Bob Dole’s run at the house. In four years, I’d vote for Palin. In eight years, I’d vote for Palin. But now, under McCain, I don’t see her doing much.
She cannot put McCain over the top. I choose now to strike out, to vote third party. I welcome a Goldwater to step up to be struck down (hard) by the left and the media. I welcome a William F. Buckley to put verbalize our angst and stand athwart the tide of liberalism. I welcome a Reagan (Palin?) to stand astride the pillars of power and yell, “Out, you pharisees! Out I say!” I welcome the internet to poor forth the wills of a hundred million rugged-individualists onto the opinion of the hour.
The rapture will come again. Then another Gengrich Revotlution will putter out, and another watered-down liberal will rule in our name, and we will have to begin again. Eternal vigilence is so annoying.
We seem to keep forgetting that.
I am voting for Sarah Palin in November. McCain will benefit.
McCain wasn’t my choice, but the primaries are over, and I’ll vote for him. I cannot understand why the McCain haters don’t realize they’re helping Obama, and I’m sick of their whining.