Posted on 01/06/2007 7:31:11 AM PST by Antoninus
(AgapePress) - An author and self-professed former liberal says he doesn't think Arizona Senator John McCain is going to excite conservatives as the 2008 "presidential sweepstakes" kick into high gear. He believes there are a couple of alternatives who might be more attractive to the conservative voting bloc.
Political analyst Keith Thompson is the author of Leaving the Left: Moments in the News That Made Me Ashamed to Be a Liberal. He says while John McCain remains the nominal frontrunner at this very early stage of the process, the Arizona senator has had a bad track record with conservatives, particularly on the border issue and judicial nominees. Thompson contends the McCain, were he to run, would even have to compete for the moderate Republican vote.
"Guest what? [Former New York City Mayor] Rudy Giuliani is looking at getting in the race, too," the author observes. "So those two guys split that moderate [voting bloc], which is not the predominant voice in the Republican Party anyway."
Thompson describes McCain's support in the GOP as "a mile wide but an inch deep." Among the factors that would count against the Arizona senator among Republican conservatives, says the author, are "his attempts to curry favor with religious conservatives after spending so much of his career dissing those voters, ... actually serving as a thorn in the sides of the conservatives on judicial nominations, and favoring this open borders amnesty approach."
So Thompson says even a longshot like California Congressman Duncan Hunter could cash in on the conservative GOP support. And while he believes Hunter is "good on the issues" and a "credible, strong guy," he says questions still remain.
"How he'll actually play [among voters is unknown]," he concedes. "There are so many factors [that come into play]." Hunter, he says, needs to be able to raise money and avoid verbal gaffes on the campaign trail.
According to Thompson, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains another "McCain alternative," even though some evangelicals have a problem with his well-documented flip-flopping on hot-button issues like abortion and same-sex "marriage."
Border fence, it works and it is the law.
I went to see McCain in person in 2000 because of media hype. I was so unimpressed that I left before the event was over. Furthermore, his face looks misshapen to me from his cancer.
Hunter would make an outstanding VP selection.
well duh!
McCain excites me not to vote for McCain.
Guiliani, who is not a conservative, either, excites me more than McCain because he, at least, is clear on what he stands for and what it will take to defend our nation. I am waiting for someone to ask both of them what they think about that plan to give illegal aliens Social Security benefits. But let's face it, we do not have a Reagan, or even a Bush, on our bench. I think we're screwed.
That is the issue that killed the Dems in 2000. Al Gore has made statements saying he would do the gun issue differently. Guiliani doesn't stand a chance in fly over country being an avowed gun grabber. He may just as well save time and money and sit it out.
McCain is just as bad on guns.
He wants to stop all private gun sales..He doesnt want me to be able to buy a gun from an individual...a friend or a relative, and doesn't want me to be able to go to a gun show and trade guns with someone there.
Basically, he wants all firearms transactions to be approved by the government...
Thats not conservatism to me..Thats a big govt liberal.
a 3rd Party candidate would certainly emerge (with covert Democrat and media support) to run to Giuliani's right.
Hillary will run to guili's right.
The MSM will knock down any candidate, Rep or Dem, who poses a threat to Hillary. McCain enjoyed their support because of his anti-Bush stance on a number of issues. Now that we are entering the Presidential sweepstakes, look for the negatives to start emerging. I imagine Hillary will announce this week or next that she is entering the race.
Let him STAY in The Peoples Republic of NYC politics because he is FAR-REMOVED from being "true conservative".
He is pro-gay, anti-gun, and pro-death(abortion).
PERFECT for the emasculated subjects of NYC, but NOT as leader of all Americans, and the free world as we know it.
The Republican Party is teetering on the brink of extinction by embracing candidates such as McCain and Giuliani. The conservative base keeps the party going and gets rewarded for it by elected Republicans who turn their backs on them and call themselves "compassionate conservatives". The Neocons would do well to study the demise of the Whig Party.
Yes, it is news. McCain has been wooing conservatives and it's not working. and that is news to the MSM.
McCain vs. Hillary, or to a lesser extent McCain vs. Obama, would be the most approachable political climate in history for the two-party system to be completely broken.
Imagine if a conservative third-party candidate like Hunter were to gain 20% of the vote? How much that would open up that third-party to full federal/state support along the lines of Republicans and Democrats?
Perhaps this is what is needed to evolve and sustain our republican system of government.
Half-a-mile wide...and half-an-inch deep.
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