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My last prediction: Clinton vs. McCain (2008)
Orlando Sentinel ^ | 01/20-/2006 | Peter Brown

Posted on 01/20/2006 7:36:34 AM PST by SirLinksalot

My last prediction: Clinton vs. McCain

Peter A. Brown

Three years from now, a new president will be inaugurated. Since this is my last column, I thought I would share my crystal ball with you.

I am less sure of its clarity than at any time in my 30-year professional career that began when I covered the 1976 race between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

Normally, three years out I am pretty sure who the Republican nominee will be and less certain about the Democrats.

That's because the Republicans respect seniority and until this year always had an obvious front-runner, kind of like a corporate executive vice president waiting to move into the corner office.

The Democrats are less predictable. More often they have been out of power, and that has led them in search of the best personality, rather than the best message.

Looking toward 2008 -- only the fifth time since 1900 that no incumbent president or vice president will be in the race -- I am much surer who the Democratic nominee will be:

Hillary Rodham Clinton.

SNIP SNIP

Events have transpired to make Sen. John McCain of Arizona, George W. Bush's major primary challenger in 2000, the Republican front-runner.

But McCain's history of feuding with some conservative groups -- which carry great sway in GOP primaries -- and, at times, the Bush White House leaves him potentially vulnerable on the right.

Yet being a maverick war hero, willing to buck the status quo and even take on his own party at times on ethics and campaign finance, is what gives him the early edge. Moreover, his Senate voting record is quite conservative, and on core GOP issues such as abortion, foreign affairs and fiscal responsibility, he is in the Republican mainstream.

(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; clinton; hillary2008; mccain; mccain2008; predictions
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To: SirLinksalot
I am less sure of its clarity than at any time in my 30-year professional career that began when I covered the 1976 race between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.

McCain v. Clinton will be about as bad a choice since Carter v. Ford. Yuck!

41 posted on 01/20/2006 8:29:07 AM PST by Clump
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To: Rummyfan

He may not be my first choice...but I'll take him anyday over Hil.


42 posted on 01/20/2006 8:31:53 AM PST by amutr22 (....not ANOTHER clinton!)
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To: SirLinksalot

"Survey says . . . zero."


43 posted on 01/20/2006 8:36:16 AM PST by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: SirLinksalot

If the GOP runs McCain, get used to saying "Madame President."


44 posted on 01/20/2006 8:37:31 AM PST by IronJack
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To: BallparkBoys
Allen should have this nomination handed to him on a silver platter

I met Allen at a fund raiser. An excellent choice unless someone to the right of him runs. He does have the Senate disease of trying too hard to get along. Leaders lead, they do no consult opinion polls to determine principals. Allen needs to stake out some solid leadership positions in the next couple of years.

45 posted on 01/20/2006 8:46:28 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Is there a satire god who created Al Gore for the sole purpose of making us laugh?)
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To: SirLinksalot
Here's my worst case scenario: Edwards vs. McCain.

I don't really believe the GOP will let McCain lead them to defeat in '08. However, he may be induced, with a helping of Democrat money, to run on a third party ticket. The result would be the same, a defeat for the GOP.


Hillary Clinton will fall flat on her face in Iowa and never recover. Iowans aren't stupid; even Iowa Dems aren't that stupid. They'll go with someone male and conventional---and then the other states will select the Dem candidate. John Edwards. :(

46 posted on 01/20/2006 9:01:03 AM PST by Graymatter
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To: SirLinksalot

Clinton Mcmainiac would be national suicide.

Talk about a lose/lose situation.

I'd vote for Osama before these two creeps.


47 posted on 01/20/2006 9:02:14 AM PST by the gillman@blacklagoon.com
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To: SirLinksalot
Clinton vs McCain?

Now there's a stay-home-and-watch-cartoons choice.

48 posted on 01/20/2006 9:03:29 AM PST by Hank Rearden (Never allow anyone who could only get a government job attempt to tell you how to run your life.)
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To: SirLinksalot
My last prediction: Clinton vs. McCain (2008)

There's a lose-lose proposition.

49 posted on 01/20/2006 9:04:55 AM PST by TigersEye (All Americans should be armed and dangerous!)
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To: pissant

And it ain't gonna be Hillery.


50 posted on 01/20/2006 9:07:04 AM PST by mulligan
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To: SirLinksalot

McCain will become the third party independent candidate after losing the Republican nomination, taking votes from the Republican candidate, thus ensuring a Hillary presidency.


51 posted on 01/20/2006 9:10:58 AM PST by 38special (worst case scenario)
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To: mulligan

Agreed. I hope Howie, Rev Al, Algore, hillary, Edwards, Kerry, Biden, Feingold all run for the nomination. What a hilarious comedy that will be.


52 posted on 01/20/2006 9:13:28 AM PST by pissant
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To: SirLinksalot

I just hope they don't nominate a Warner / Richardson ticket, they might actually have a chance with that.


53 posted on 01/20/2006 9:17:52 AM PST by Unexploded Ordnance
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To: SirLinksalot
Ooookkkk.... If it is Clinton vs McCain, who will be the VP candidates then ?

Pick only ONE. The only way McCain and Clinton would face each other in a presidential race is if he changed party affiliation to Democrat and they ran against each other in same primary.

The 'pundants' and left wing rabble rousers that continue to talk about McCain all manage to forget that his entire record of semi-successful Presidential vote gathering consists of "Open" primaries where Democrats could vote for the Republican candidate. As soon as he ran in the first Republican only race he got no more than a weak 30%.

McCain is nothing more than a political gadfly, his sole source of power is the attention he gets from the left wing media, and political power brokers who use him as a pawn against the Republican Party.

54 posted on 01/20/2006 9:23:10 AM PST by kAcknor (Don't flatter yourself.... It is a gun in my pocket.)
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To: SirLinksalot
If it is Clinton vs McCain, who will be the VP candidates then ?

He is talking about the Democrat primary.

55 posted on 01/20/2006 9:30:35 AM PST by Dan(9698)
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To: MNJohnnie

You sum things up correctly on McCain. I won't support him. John McCain is no more a war hero as he is a Republican in my eyes. Not sure who I will back in the primary but it is "anyone but McCain for me".


56 posted on 01/20/2006 9:35:17 AM PST by jerry639
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To: 38special
McCain will become the third party independent candidate after

Nope. mcMedia is having tough time raising money now. Unlike Perot he doesn't have a personal fortune to fall back on. Demos will have their own candidates to back in 2008. McMedia is toast. He will never be anything more then the Senator from AZ.

57 posted on 01/20/2006 9:40:19 AM PST by MNJohnnie (Is there a satire god who created Al Gore for the sole purpose of making us laugh?)
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To: Howlin; All

IMHO,( and I have my asbestos suit and tin foil hat on as I type this) mclame will be queen hillary's VP. A mclame and j f'n k ticket wouldn't have worked because they would have constantly tried to out "war-hero" each other, instead of working together.

Queen hillary NEEDS mclame to cover her behind on the "weak on defense" portion of her resume, it'll be a "kum-bay-ya" ticket, and all the "mclame-iacs" (ie squishy rino middle-of-the-road voters) will go running to embrace it.

When mclame FINALLY figures out that he ain't NEVER gonna be the 2008 Rep candidate for POTUS, he'll go for "revenge"and accept the queen's "offer". VP is better than nothing, and mclame can play his "I'm a war hero so I'm right until death" before every camera in the MSM while queen hillary goes almost invisible all the way to the White House.

Again, IMHO......I could be wrong, but I bookmarked my other post in case I'm right ( so I can show my wife that I'm not wrong All the time....)


58 posted on 01/20/2006 9:44:22 AM PST by musicman
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To: BusiDad
Agree with your post.
I do not understand why most think it is a foregone conclusion that John McClain (the insane) and Hilery (the broom jockey) Clinton will be the candidates for President in 2008 general election?
Really don't think it will be either one of them but maybe everyone else is right and I am wrong.
Will not support McCain in the primary but if he is our candidate running against Clinton I will definitely not vote for Clinton.
59 posted on 01/20/2006 9:48:32 AM PST by jerry639
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To: SirLinksalot
I take second place to nobody in my visceral dislike for McInsane, but for shits and giggles I went to Project Vote Smart's officeholder responses to the National Political Awareness Test and interest group ratings, and McInsane is not all that different from Allen.

It always pisses me off when RINOs (e.g. Chaffee, Snowe, Collins) don't back the Republican position once the infighting is done. I expect to back Allen in the primaries (unless Jeb decides to run), but, turnabout is fair play, so if McCain gets the nomination, I'll (hold my nose and) work for his election.

60 posted on 01/20/2006 9:50:42 AM PST by white trash redneck (Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9-11-01.)
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