Posted on 01/28/2008 7:27:44 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
John McCain heads into Tuesday's Florida primary facing resistance from not only his fellow candidates, but also from the leaders of conservative talk radio, who some suggest have put their reputations on the line, as well.
Talk radio pioneer Rush Limbaugh said that if McCain or Mike Huckabee are nominated, "it's going to destroy the Republican Party." Mark Levin calls the senator "John McLame." On Monday, Laura Ingraham said she was "concerned about the mental stability of the McCain campaign" and had cuckoo-clock sound effects accompany his words.
"Sen. McCain is a great American, a lousy senator and a terrible Republican," Hugh Hewitt told The Associated Press. "He has a legislative record that is not conservative. In fact, it is anti-conservative."
Yet with McCain winning primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and in a virtual tie with Mitt Romney for the lead in polls in Florida, the top radio personalities are facing the possibility that their words are having little effect.
Radio host Michael Medved said that the big loser in South Carolina was talk radio, "a medium that has unmistakably collapsed in terms of impact, influence and credibility because of its hysterical and one-dimensional involvement in the GOP nomination fight."
Its continued resistance to McCain will be ineffective and will hurt both the Republican Party and the radio industry, Medved said.
The long-running hostility toward McCain stems from his failure to follow conservative orthodoxy on issues including immigration, global warming and money in politics, Hewitt said. McCain's endorsement by The New York Times _ the newspaper conservative talkers love to hate _ was just another indignity.
Michael Harrison, publisher of Talkers magazine, warned against any conclusion that talk radio hosts would be diminished if McCain were to win the GOP nomination.
"It will give them an opportunity to reposition themselves in a more independent and populist way," Harrison said. Talk show hosts aren't judged on whom they pick as a candidate, any more than the jobs of football announcers are on the line with their Super Bowl predictions, he said.
They're judged on ratings and revenue, and every indication is that the election season will be a boon for talk radio, he said.
Limbaugh picked up on that point on the air last week when he rebutted any analysis by the "drive-by media" that McCain's strong showing had been a rebuke to him. He noted that a chapter in one of his books was titled "My Success is Not Determined by Who Wins Elections."
"You nominate the nominee; I don't," he said. "This notion ... that I've been overcome here, McCain's beaten me back, that's not the way to look at this, because that whole line of thinking relies on the fact that you people have to be perceived as mind-numbed robots and that you are all a bunch of sponges and you sit out there and you have no brain and you have no independent thoughts. You just listen to what I say and you go act on it.
"We know that's not the case," he said. "It's never been the case."
It's a reflection of the muddled primary race that radio talkers are more fixated on whom they don't like _ McCain _ than any candidate who wows them.
"The mood is that everyone offers something and nobody offers everything _ and that's why there is so much confusion," said L. Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center.
Hewitt said he would vote for Mitt Romney "if I was voting today," but he's not. He also likes Rudy Giuliani.
If McCain were the Republican nominee running against either Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama, Hewitt said he would support McCain. So would most of his colleagues in talk radio, he said.
"It's not about taking your ball and going home," he said.
This man may have a wonderful record as a Combat/ POW vet, but he has a lousy record as a conservative, much less a Republican.
I think he should have moved over to the dark side after his last Presidential bid; but then again he would have lost his "maverick" status and would have become just another dim witted democrap!
If by chance he does get the party nomination ( fat chance!) it's going to be interesting to see just how many of his beloved demorap admirers , and the so called "independent voters", rush in and support him against good ole Hillary.
Any bets out there?
Hillary will cut off Medveds balls....Salem Radio is Target Number One of her minions.
You’re msising a vital piece of logic in order to do a hit pieceon Romney. You haven’t tied him to Bain Capital in the year it purchased Clear Channel (Nov 2006).
I’m not a Romney fan, but I do think he’s probably the lesser of the 4 evils. But when I hear someone trying to smear someone and the story isn’t even logical, I sense dirty politics.
You sure do lay it out well. Any one or two of these would be enough to convince a true conservative that McCain was not the person who views politics the way a true conservative would. I am with you all the way on this....just very disapointed that Fred dropped out.
Mahalo
“I’m with you. I’m voting for our nominee, whoever he may be. But if it’s Romney, I will suspect that I am not voting for a true conservative, but an opportunist who reinvented himself as one.”
That’s right, vote for the overt liberal (McInsane) who has voted as such over and over rather than the one you suspect might be one. Real smart. Give you a B for brilliance there. Oh, and by the way, McCain’s votes had national significance, not local significance (one state only). But I’m sure that didn’t dawn on you.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961240/posts
No not dirty just doing a bit of research there is time to get somebody else maybe.
Bump for later.
Yesterday’s talk radio was no “forum of ideas” It was Hate McCain Hate McCain Hate McCain from start to finish, and it has been for days. It was mean, vitriolic and far worse than the libs.
Example, one listener in Florida called and accused McCain with collaboration with this North Vietnamese captors, of easily giving them classified information. The host did nothing to deny it, cut it off the air, etc. He simply told the listeners about the web site where those lies were repeated.
They couldn’t endorse Romney. Had they done so, they would have lost the special protection their supposed neutrality gives them. They didn’t endorse Romney, but spent their entire time slamming McCain.
It was as bad and as underhanded as any lib media type, and worse.
Look at it this way. The MSM reports of the Romney / McCain contest were much more balanced than our talk radio!
It doesn't matter who you are for in this race. This was horrible. I was ashamed for all of us.
McCain has Juan Hernandez working on his campaign team. Juan is a former Mexican Government Minister, and claims dual-citizenship. He is working to have an open border between the U.S. and Mexico, and wants to intensify the invasion of the U.S. by Mexico. He has no respect for U.S. sovereignty or for our culture with its ties to England and Europe.Hernandez says it's time to stop thinking of the US and Mexico as two separate countries and time to start thinking of them as a single region. He also says that we should end the distinction between legal and illegal immigrants.
I couldn't persuade you to write in "Bullwinkle," because that is where I am going if the party is that stupid.
Remember the Bull Moose thing with Teddy Roosevelt?
Talk radio is long past its prime. Most Republicans simply no longer tune in.
Hugh Hewitt - Moderate - Philosophy & Principles of Indecision
That must be the great Russian conservative, Nonov Theabov.
(With apologies to the Freeper I anonymously stole that from)
Hubby and I are planning to write in Ronald Reagan if McCain gets the nomination. Ronald Reagan dead is more conservative than John McCain alive. It’s sad that it may come to that.
YES! Bullwinkle it is! I am with you all the way!
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