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 ...
I guess that's their way of calling us milquetoast. This is all a plot by the Rockefeller country club Republicans to recapture the party that they lost in 1964.
Thought you were going to do some “gnad” kicking when you came back?
That's nice: the least-informed make the most of McCain.
:-/
Mods must be asleep tonight.
Either that, or they’re voting.
Correction: What a load of BS, the majority of conservatives voted for the fiscal conservative (Romney) or the FAKE conservative (Huckabee). McCain got about 1/3 of the "moderate" GOP and a whole lot of crossover independents and Democrats.
That fixed it.
Great point though.
Without the corrupt liberal pretending to be a conservative, and taking a load of votes from he uninformed, and gullible, McCain would be out of the race now.
Are you on the wrong thread?
I think the credit belongs also to those who spent their time carrying water for the liberals by bashing Mitt Romney.
Again. Go to bed. Take it up in the morning.
Take an Ambien and go to bed.
He’s putting that stuff on every thread tonight. Ray’s our resident something or other. What that is, I have no idea.
Ray may need to hold off on any additional pharmaceuticals. I’m betting his nightstand looks like Heath Ledger’s at this point.
I think Ray is channelling Sam Kinison.
you’ll never win an election without appeal to moderates and independents. mcCain knows exactly what he is doing.
More like post-partisanship depression!
I woke up at 1:30 AM CST, took the dogs out, started watching a great program about the old Stax recording studios and decided it was time for a cup of coffee. Too early to start hitting the sauce.
About 2 this afternoon, I’ll regret this, the late night/early morning FR posting and coffee drinking...
He already did appeal to the moderates for years. Now that the nomination is in the bag, he will appeal to the conservatives, but not the real die hards. They will always hate him.
Very different from the usual strategy of appealing to conservatives to get the nomination and moving to the middle for the general.
Primary voters are very ideological and tend to pick candidates that don’t have broad appeal beyond their base. McCain doesn’t want a red vs blue strategy. He wants to go all over the map
I gotta do this stuff without the caffeine. Swore it off a dozen years ago. I just ate a steak, and I’m about to go face first into the keyboard.
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