Mainstream GOP gets credit for McCain surge

East Valley Tribune ^ | February 6, 2008 | Paul Giblin

[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.

[claudiustg]

-—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.-—

We are purged! The Republican Party is no place for partisanship. The Republican Party wants to be like the other Party.

How many ways can it be said?

[Designer]

"WTF is “main-stream” GOP?"

I think that is MSM liberal-speak for the folks who read their trash.

It is certainly not us.

[citizen]

Oh, so today at CPAC we get to hear Senator McPinocchio tell us what a bedrock Conservative he is.

Bah! McNasty has made it all too clear exactly who he is these last 10 years or so. He can blah-blah-blah yadda-yadda-yadda all he want...he may as well be making a c-span speech before an empty chamber for all the good he will do convincing us he is not who he is.

[Dixie Yooper]

Rush is encouraging his listeners not to vote in November, and as far as fighting against tweaking and torking, just how active are you in the REAL WORK of the Republican Party? It takes much more than showing up to vote every few years. Are you active in your county’s Republican Party? Do you get involved in who represents you at the State Conventions? Do you really think everything happens behind closed doors by a bunch a cronies smoking cigars? If you want change in the party, get involved, but whatever you do, don’t give up your chance to vote against the Democrats.

[claudiustg]

These “mainstream” Republicans laugh at us. They deplore our bigotry in stopping the amnesty bill. They’ve got it handled. All that’s required of us is to get out of the way and watch our betters take care of business.

[SierraWasp]

You obviously have no idea who you are lecturing with your interrogative style questions and and even lesser idea of what it means to be a movement conservative first and a Party member second!

What good is being a Party slave and work your head off for a Party that fritters away and completely abandons it's platforms, both state and national, huh? What's the virtue in supporting some tird that goes whoring after Algore's man-made Globular Warming farce?

Why do you presume our candidate must ape the liberal leftists lest we lose to liberal leftists? That is NOT a winning way!!! What if Reagan had done that??? Why are you encouraging that and why here on FR??? Are you trying to "refine" FReeperdom??? Are you embarrassed for conservatism???

[Dixie Yooper]

All that’s required of us is to get out of the way and watch our betters take care of business.

It wasn't so long ago that the conservative side of the Republican party laughed at the moderates in the party. They didn't give up and quit voting. I guess they are just a stronger, harder working, able to take abuse and fight back kind of people. It's best not to laugh or be laughed at when it comes to those we depend on to get the job done.

[Dixie Yooper]

Wasting your presidential vote will only make you feel good about yourself up to election day. It won’t make you feel good about yourself that night when you see Katie Curic’s big beaming smile on her face while she yaps about a new age and direction for The United States of America along with all the other MSM talking heads. It won’t make you feel good when you see Hillary or Obama giving their victory speech. 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. It won’t make you feel good when you see Osama’s latest taped message about a new beginning for Islam and America, and it certainly won’t make you feel good about yourself when you see the bodies of our troops being dragged though the streets of Baghdad by the Al Quiada.

[calcowgirl]

McCain won a majority of the Republican votes, even in RED states. The article is, unfortunately, accurate in that regard. McCain isn’t as hated as some of us FReepers wish.

No, he didn't. He won a plurality of those who showed up at the polls, which in many cases also included Independents and Democrats in open primaries.

In California, a closed primary, McCain got the vote of 18% of registered Republicans. In other words, 82% rejected John McCain.

[Prospero]

Federalist party

EXACTLY the name I was ruminating over. Sounds like... Victory.

And what better illustration of the fact that the “post partisans” don’t really have a problem acknowledging “the other side” to politics. These Monsters actually don’t believe there is any other side.

As if we were just going to fade away and surrender because the Republicans have come close to nominaating another Richard Nixon, another Gerald Ford, another G.H.W.Bush... So what...

Big Deal.

Conservatism is America.

[calcowgirl]

For the last 16 years, Rush has been the Clinton's biggest critic, and for the last 8 years he has been preparing us for this fight to keep Hillary from getting back into the White House. In the last 3 weeks, he has morphed into one of her greatest weapons against us. Listening to his show is like watching a train wreck with people you care about on board. It's painful, but you can't avert your attention from it.

I applaud Rush.

If only he had spoken up before Schwarzenegger was foisted upon the people of California.

Anyone-with-an-R-by-their-name is not necessarily good for the Party, or the country.

[calcowgirl]

Anyone that leans left is now mainstream GOP.
This article is a pile of dung.

That sums it up.

[calcowgirl]

...McCain would be a better POTUS, he has an ACU rating of 83%.

McCain's ACU ratings:

  2001  68
  2002  78
  2003  75
  2004  72
  2005  80
  2006  65

[ZULU]

“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. “

More spin from the leftist press on the success of their boy.

Correspondingly, if the McCainiac wins, they will say the conservative movement is dead and Ronald Reagan lived in vain. Hopefully enough angry conservatives will prove them wrong in November by not voting for this individual and again in 2012 in fielding a genuine conservative the puublic will be more than willing to exchange for Obama or Hillary.

All good reasons NOT to vote for McCain.

[calcowgirl]

McCain is winning because there are no conservatives in the race to stop him.

True. Our new "centrist party" operatives, aided and abetted by the MSM, have made sure that there is no good conservative choice. Doesn't all this "post-partisanship," where the "frontfunner" doesn't look much different than Hillary, just warm your heart? (yuck!)

[calcowgirl]

I told you Schwartzenswindler's disease would be spread nationwide by jokers like Muckain who insist we keep compromising with 'em till we've completely capitulated all conservative tendencies!!!

It seems to be spreading in epidemic proportions when even good freepers are jumping on McKeating's bandwagon. All one must do is look at what SchwarzenKennedy has done the past few years to advance liberalism in the name of "post-partisanship," and all under the (R) label.

[calcowgirl]

Any question now that liberals have infiltrated the GOP in large numbers?

None, whatsoever.

[calcowgirl]

“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.

Say what?????

The new pragmatism... meet the new leader with "a core Republican philosophy."

Pretty sick, huh?

[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. Neal who is not a Republican is not taking the same path as Rush is over this issue of McCain.

[SierraWasp]

MuckCain MOCKs us with his CONservatism now!!! Now he's trying to tamp conservatism now, telling us to lie back and enjoy his making a mockery of principles we hold dear!!!

Those of you that cheerfully join in with him by irritating genuine conservatives with supposed "friendly pursuasion" are aiding and abetting the MuckCain incursion from within our ranks. I recommend they use another tactic here at FR. I'm genuinely annoyed by it and that ain't gonna move me anywhere near MuckCain's 5th column!!!