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Mainstream GOP gets credit for McCain surge
East Valley Tribune ^ | February 6, 2008 | Paul Giblin

Posted on 02/06/2008 11:51:10 PM PST by calcowgirl

Presidential candidate John McCain's sweeping victories on Super Tuesday revealed what could be a post-partisanship era in politics.

Republican voters across the country turned away from the party's more conservative candidates and selected the Arizona senator again and again in primary contests from New York to California.

The ultraconservative radio talk show hosts, bloggers and newspaper columnists simply didn't resonate with the party's majority members - the soccer moms and NASCAR dads who never attend precinct meetings, but showed up on election day. Whether those high-profile opinion givers like it or not, McCain is their man.

Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., traveling with McCain from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, was asked whether McCain's success illustrated the Republican Party is far more mainstream than it has appeared during the past seven years.

"Perhaps. I hesitate to call it 'mainstream,' but yeah, that's probably right," Flake told the Tribune. "It certainly is more diverse than some people want to admit."

Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., also traveling with McCain, said McCain's single-day achievement indicated the GOP is a centrist party.

"It tells you that folks from the hard right kind of make their living by whipping things up," he said.

"And it also tells you that Republicans are pragmatic. They understand that there is kind of a core Republican philosophy. They want to see candidates with that philosophy win. They don't want to get behind some extreme candidate and lose the seat," Shadegg said.

McCain will have the opportunity to spell out his Republican philosophy today at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, as he continues his quest to lock up his party's nomination for November's general election.

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


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cpac; elections; freerepublic; gop; jeffflake; johnmccain; mccain; mcmexico; mcshamnesty; rino; rmsp; schadenfreude; shadegg
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To: SierraWasp

Mitt has dropped out of the race.


101 posted on 02/07/2008 9:24:19 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Dixie Yooper; SierraWasp
Wasting your presidential vote will only make you feel good about yourself up to election day. ... It won’t make you feel good when you see one of them signing one disgusting bill after another into law with Nancy and Harry looking on with big smiles on their faces.

Well it sure will make me feel good when I see John McCain, surrounded by the likes Lindsay Graham, Jeff Flake, and Joe Lieberman, saying that we must have a cap-and-trade program to fight Global Warming. It will make me feel good to know that I did everything I could to defeat the guy who foisted McCain-Feingold on the nation and tried to push a Shamnesty bill to allow 20 million lawbreakers to become citizens of my beloved USA. It will make me feel good to oppose ALL of these liberals, no matter what label they choose to hang next to their name. Vote for him and YOU own it. I want no part of John McCain.

102 posted on 02/07/2008 9:24:21 AM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: calcowgirl

Mitt just dropped out of the race. Hopefully I will have Huck to at least vote for, but I all I have is McCain, I will vote for McCain. It wasn’t all that easy to vote for Bush in 1988 and 92, but I held my nose and did it.


103 posted on 02/07/2008 9:27:29 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Dixie Yooper
Anyone-with-a-RADIO TALK SHOW- is not necessarily good for the Party, or the country. At least Neal Bortz asks his audience to verify everything he says and not to just follow blindly.

I don't listen to talk radio much... nor do I "just follow blindly" ANYONE!
(And that includes the liberal-infiltrated GOP who is rallying behind McCain).

104 posted on 02/07/2008 9:28:24 AM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: calcowgirl
Why can’t real republicans vote for their candidate at the convention?

It seems to me the demoncrats and the independents have selected the republican candidate. Not real republicans.

Let’s put our candidate up there and not the demoncrats

105 posted on 02/07/2008 9:33:18 AM PST by rlferny
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To: SierraWasp
I'm genuinely annoyed by it and that ain't gonna move me anywhere near MuckCain's 5th column!!!

For me, it goes beyond annoying. It is insulting and only strengthens my resolve to fight against these leftists(R).
Many in the flock will not follow when it becomes so evident that the McCainiacs are goin' the wrong way.
The visionless partisan sheepherders should take heed else they be trampled in the process.

106 posted on 02/07/2008 9:33:51 AM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: Dixie Yooper
Mitt has dropped out of the race.

Well, if commie Mark Halperin thinks so, and King of the sheepherders Karl Rove predicts it, it must be so!
(talk about "blindly following!)

Has Mitt annnounced that? No!

You appear to be nothing but a propaganda machine.

107 posted on 02/07/2008 9:37:12 AM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: chaos_5

Will you quit this, McCain has won in open and closed primary states, these talking points being regurgitated by pinhead talk show hosts may make you sleep better at night, but they are not backed up by the facts.

I think most republicans frankly saw right through the used car salesmen trying to claim the mantle of Conservatism when they have shown in their actions they are far from it. If Romney and Huckabee are what you consider conservative, I gotta quesiton highly what your definition of conservatism is.


108 posted on 02/07/2008 9:37:46 AM PST by HamiltonJay
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To: calcowgirl
Has Mitt annnounced that? No! You appear to be nothing but a propaganda machine.

I was just listening to McCain's speech to CPAC. It sounded like they loved him. What a bunch of liberal scum... sarc. off. I also got to hear some of Mitt's speech with Rush's "clever" commentary. In regards to Mitt stepping down, I'm sorry you had to hear from me first, and don't hold anything against you for calling me whatever name comes to mind. I wish you could still join us Republicans in the fight against Hillary and Obama, but if this is the end of it for you, there's not much else I can say. I lost my candidate when Duncan Hunter dropped out. From that point on, I made up my mind I would vote in November for who ever the nominee was.

109 posted on 02/07/2008 1:47:23 PM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Dixie Yooper
I wish you could still join us Republicans in the fight against Hillary and Obama, but if this is the end of it for you, there's not much else I can say.

The end? No way! I will continue to fight against all liberals, no matter the party label. That will include Hillary and Obama, and exposing John McCain for the insincere jerk he really is.

John McCain Gets Soros Cash

110 posted on 02/07/2008 1:52:18 PM PST by calcowgirl ("Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P. J. O'Rourke)
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To: SatinDoll
He won't win at all. Moderates have no passion, and this primary was about leftish gimmicks--

The really bad thing is how the stay-at-homes will impact real conservatives running for office.

The anti-McCains need to come up with a strategy to get the conservatives to the polls--maybe a Vengeance Vote.

111 posted on 02/07/2008 1:55:53 PM PST by Mamzelle
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To: calcowgirl

Yes it could, then it might not. When you consider some sobering facts, twice as many Democrats have voted in the primaries as did Republicans.

Bipartisanship, agreeing with Democrats, no matter how high the taxes go, or how big the handouts get.


112 posted on 02/07/2008 1:57:51 PM PST by Tarpon (Ignorance, the most expensive commodity produced by mankind.)
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