Posted on 02/07/2008 6:29:17 PM PST by Checkers
Are there any Freepers who support John McCain?
If you support Mr. McCain, can you make the case for your man?
Can you make the case without bringing up the War?
Can you make the case without bringing up Judges?
Can you make the case without using any ACU ratings? (Those don't impress anybody.)
Can you make the case without insults or telling people to "calm down"?
Can you make the case without the type of lying and dishonesty we've come to expect from John McCain and his special friend Mike Huckabee?
Can you make the case without trashing Barack Obama?
Can you make the case without using Hillary Rodham Clinton as some kind of boogyman or boogyperson?
Can you?
The ball is in your court.
One silver lining in all of this is a brilliant VP choice will pay off, especially given McCain’s age and lack of enthusiasm.
Even without all of that, he's a senator, and his opponent will be a senator. What differences there are in ACU ratings or whatever pale besides the fact that both candidates come from the most clubbiest of Washington environments. Middle mush is what you see and what you'll get. I don't believe he will nominate Alitos and Robertses. He doesn't have to. He plans on being a one-termer and only needs to have his nominees pass muster with a Dem congress. Say hello to more O'Connors and Souters. Like there is all that big a difference between that and more Breyers and Ginsbergs.
I voted third party when Dole ran and I have no problem doing so now.
Remind me again which party’s presidential nomination John McCain is running for?
No, that was an observation.
I support the Republican Party, and what is left of conservatism. But I give them no money, as they have proved unworthy of my dollars. Now if they want to give me some money, that is a different matter, my usual rate is $100 an hour, but since I like FR, I’ll continue to discount my rate card for you guys.
“If you don’t believe as I believe, every thought, every word, every utterance, you are unworthy of my vote. If you can’t do it precisely as I dictate, you are unworthy of my vote.
The fact I will elect a Marxist by disapproval of the minutest perceived imperfection is not relevant. Death and dishonor are preferable to casting a vote for someone who lacks the perfection of credentials I demand.
The country can go to hell, but I will remain true to my biases and even some personal bigotry while not voting or while actively killing the candidate I find repugnant. My thoughts will remain pure even as the country is destroyed and I can smugly say “not my fault, I laid out a pure and perfect course”
/sarc>
If he picks a good conservative Veep, I will vote for McCain.
McCain at least is pro-life and has an indefinately better foreign policy than Hillobama. I will NOT hand the White House to the Dems. We can counterbalance McCains negative aspects by strengthening real conservatives in Congress. Let’s not give up!
What are your alternatives? Stay home and let the liberal democrats win? McCain may choose a good running mate...one to temper his faults. I work in the get-out-the-vote push for our local party. It’s going to be difficult to get anyone excited enough to work if all this gloom and doom on the Right keeps up. I can’t throw away the Presidency for 8 years however. Would you rather have Hillary or Obama and all their minions running the country. If so, keep running McCain down. It may already be too late. The damage has been done.
He is far better then the Democratic alternatives.
Because some conservatives don't want to deal with reality.
Obama doesn’t know enough to lie ...
Thanks for proving my point!
Maybe I am, the body language of your post led me to an easy conclusion.
Critics of McCain’s Critics Should Chill
By David Limbaugh
Friday, February 8, 2008
Isn’t it ironic that GOP moderates are harshly criticizing GOP conservatives for being harshly critical of GOP presidential frontrunner John McCain?
What mortal sins have conservative McCain critics committed? Oh, they’ve stuck to their conservative principles, fighting for the values they believe in and refusing, prematurely, to surrender. What good would they be if they so readily threw in the towel of defeat?
“Enlightened” moderates are shocked at conservatives, tagging them as uncompromising extremists who represent the very fringe of the Republican Party.
John Dilulio, a principal architect of President Bush’s arguably non-conservative, faith-based initiative, is among those making these arguments.
Writing for the Weekly Standard, Dilulio says that only 3.6 percent of Republicans identify themselves as “very conservative.” Is Dilulio making the unwarranted leap of implying that McCain’s critics come from this 3.6 percent fringe and that mainstream conservatives have no problem with McCain?
If so, and with due respect to Mr. Dilulio, I emphatically reject that only 3.6 percent of Republicans have great difficulty swallowing McCain — ideologically and personally. McCain isn’t winning a majority of Republicans, much less conservative ones, and is relying heavily on Democrat crossovers and independents, not to mention a little help from his friends Mike Huckabee and the mainstream media.
It’s easy for moderates to argue that critics of moderates are extreme. That’s what moderates always say. They have been complaining about conservatism since I was wearing a “Goldwater for President” T-shirt.
They’ve said for years that the only way Republicans can win elections is to move to the center. Their opinion is not based on convincing data but wishful thinking. History is not their friend. Republicans win big with conservative ideas, provided they have inspiring candidates. Moderate ideas dilute the message and deflate the movement, zapping it of its verve and enthusiasm.
I have read the reasonable arguments of my friend Bill Bennett and others disputing that John McCain is a liberal. They argue he is a conservative with some liberal positions and that, in any event, he’s far more conservative than Hillary or Barack.
Fair enough, though the McCain critics grossly underemphasize the differences and McCain’s untrustworthiness. For the record, I can’t see myself as ever voting for either Hillary or Barack, two unreconstructed socialists who are soft on defense and enemies of the unborn. But hold your horses. We’re not there yet.
We’re in the primary season, and there’s nothing wrong with all sides advocating their respective positions. If conservatives can’t hold John McCain accountable now for all his apostasies, apostasies he committed with utter delight amid mainstream-media adulation, what chance will we have of doing so later?
The idea that our party can’t recover from vigorous debate during the primaries is unserious, to wit: Reagan vs. Ford. In the meantime, rumors of the death of mainstream conservatism are greatly exaggerated.
McCain’s relative success is not a sign of the end of Reagan conservatism as a dominant political force. It’s just temporarily dormant, the victim of a confluence of factors, waiting to be re-ignited.
One factor is that we have had a weak GOP presidential field, though I think some of the candidates ultimately proved themselves to be quite inspiring. McCain has slipped in largely by default, like John Kerry in 2004.
Another factor is that Republicans have been in control of the executive branch for seven years. Though Democrats have recaptured Congress, they still haven’t been able to accomplish many of their legislative initiatives, including obstructing funding for the Iraq War. Even their reprehensible character assassination of President Bush has lost steam since the surge began yielding fruit.
Nothing unites conservatives like Democrats in power and working their mischief, or out of power and maliciously but effectively obstructing good government — excuse the liberal-sounding oxymoron.
And then there’s the war, which originally united conservatives but admittedly has led to the ascendancy of the neoconservative influence with its willingness to accept all kinds of economic and social liberalism. I believe that’s unnecessary. All three stools — and more — of mainstream conservatism can thrive simultaneously. Nevertheless, these factors and others have coalesced to dampen, temporarily, the fires and energy of conservatism.
Sometimes conservatives become more unified out of power. Of course that doesn’t mean we should allow Democrats to regain the White House, either because we would unite while out of power or because we are seriously disappointed about the prospect of John McCain as our candidate.
But would the critics of McCain’s critics please quit trying to marginalize mainstream conservatives and redefine mainstream conservatism? Just admit your guy is not that conservative and let us hold his feet to the fire, especially since his success to this point will give him all the more temptation to pander to liberals. You’re the ones who need to chill out.
David Limbaugh, brother of radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, is an expert in law and politics and author of Bankrupt: The Intellectual and Moral Bankruptcy of Today’s Democratic Party.
Thanks for this article. I hadn’t seen it, and it expresses my thoughts on the McCain nomination and the hysterical ones who have called those of us in opposition, shrill, traitors, hissy fitter’s, petty and childish.
Way to unite.
You said it best! Thank you.
You asked if I could make my case not considering the war and my answer is no. If we were not involved in the WOT, if so many of our finest young people hadn't made the ultimate scarifice for the defense of our freedom I wouldn't even consider voting for McCain. But we do have people in harms way and they are paramount among my concerns.
I think he’s a rino dipstick but would vote for him over hitlery or osama. I hate not having a better choice though.
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