Posted on 05/15/2006 7:44:01 AM PDT by Grendel9
The maverick senator seen as the Republicans' best hope for succeeding President George W Bush has taken a major step towards becoming his party's next leader by reaching out to the powerful Christian Right.
John McCain swallowed his pride on Saturday when he spoke at Liberty University in Virginia, run by the ultra-conservative television evangelist Jerry Falwell, who he once said had an "evil influence" on the party.
His attempt to win over Mr Falwell and other Christian leaders - whose millions of followers dominate the party's grass roots - was a deeply controversial choice as a way-station on the road to the White House.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1131AP_McCain.html?source=mypi
He probably swallowed more than that kissing The Swimmer's bloated a$$.
Come on McCain, only Hillary can away with playing both sides of the field. If you want to be the candidate of the media, you have to keep pissing on social conservatives.
macain is a non-starter. or, if he starts, he won't finish. ultimately, a non-starter.
No.
MeCain will have to swallow a whole lot more to impress me.
Intended result: raise evangelicals' opinion of McMeMeMe.
Actual result: Lower evangelicals' opinion of Falwell.
McCain is a typical polician and a consumate beltway insider/isolationist.
He has to much more inspiring competition.
Feel sorry for those grads she was addressing because she turned it into all about herself.
----
I would rank McCain as an equal to Hitlery in terms of being an opportunistic carpetbagger...they both play both sides of the aisle to their own personal political advantage. Both phonies. Both not be trusted. But anti-Constitutional.
The spin on "Meet the Press" or was it the "Chris Matthews Show" was that McCain was trying to lessen criticism from the "religious right," not get their support.
He's still wacko McCain to me, regardless. The sniper who's sniped at Bush out of bitterness for six years or more and gotten in bed with the Dems to do it.
The more I read about this 2008 race, the better Hillary's chances look. (Although I don't think they're as good as many seem to think.)
LOL! What a perspective. I am both powerfully controlling and a pushover at the same time. LOL! Well, sorry to disappoint but I'm not falling for the McCain grovel-team efforts.
McInsane can run to the right all he wants. He can court Jerry Falwell and speak at Liberty University and go help build the fence on the border and it still won't work. He burned too many bridges in 2000 and since then for me, and the majority of the Republican base, to ever trust him.
The things that are done just to get elected........
Gees what a loser
"The maverick senator.." aren't you just sick of hearing this phrase? It should be "juan mckennedy ( media Az.)"
Ditto--I haven't forgotten his comments after the SC primary.
Falwell hasn't been a major player in Christian circles since the '80's.
McCain reaching out to falwell merely proves how out of touch he is.
McInsane, The Hothead, with his finger on the button.
I don't think so.
Swallowed pride?
He won't fool many true conservatives. No way he ever wins the primaries.
I doubt if McCain will even make it to South Carolina before he drops out of the primaries. His showing of 4th in that beauty contest in Ohio is for real no matter what the drive-by media thinks.
It takes more than ideas to win primaries, it takes a ton of money. McLAME is the only republican rasing cash and building a coalition. He will be in Saratoga Springs NY this weekend raising money, I haven't seen or heard of any oether republican candidate working this hard.
McCain can eat pooh. I'll never cast a vote for this self rightous p.o.s.
"The maverick senator seen as the Republicans' best hope for succeeding President George W Bush has taken a major step towards becoming his party's next leader by reaching out to the powerful Christian Right."
Wow. Who makes this stuff up ?
I heard Falwell refer to McInsane as "A great American", needless to say, I think Falwell has either gotten senile or he is trying to kiss up to what he perceives as "power", or has lost his mind. Whatever his motive, he is flat out WRONG; McCaine hates evangelicals and if elected would be no friend of Christianity or Christians (in spite of all the "photo opps" carrying oversized Bibles into liberal "church" services.
As for Falwell; I have lost a lot of respect for him because of this stunt. He also needs to drop about 95 pounds; he now looks like a walking advert for "gluttons are us".
Falwell, to his credit, did what an agent of Christ is expected to do and so did McCain--Love Thy Enemies (too bad the satanic Robinson--who is acting more like Ahmadinejad--can't seem to understand WWJD). McCain also delivered a terrific speech about reconsiliation and showed himself to be true presidential material.
I'm glad to read your post. I dunno, I've just never been a McCain basher the way some have. He seems more conservative than the President sometimes, and I support the President quite a bit.
Seen through what? The bottom of a beer bottle?
"Loving one's enemies" does not mean you have to willfully seek to deceive your audience by calling your enemy a "great American"! Neither does loving our enemies necessitate that we as Christians have to give our enemies a legitimate forum to promote themselves and legitimize our enemies as people who "love us", when in point of fact they (McCain) hates us.
Although I voted for the president I have never been a real fan (as most on FR who know me realize)... In fact, have really been disappointed in those who have held office since Reagan (who will, in my estimation, will rise to the status of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Lincoln, et al, that we hold in the greatest presidential esteem). I really believe that Nancy Reagan wanted McCain to win the nomination in 2000. I've seen real hate for McCain on this board and I've never really been able to figure out why; but it seems to be mostly driven by the kind of so-called "Christian" who damns others to hell because they cannot seem to remove the "plank" in their eye when it comes to the greater good of their fellow man and their country.
If God himself told me to vote for McCain I might have to respectfully decline.
That's a good point. McCain isn't a Christian Conservative, he's a Conservative.
I can see why Nancy Reagan supported McCain, as Reagan never struck me as a Christian the way Bush is, but one who courted Christians. I'm not saying he was a non-believer like me, but he certainly wasn't a wear-religion-on-the-sleeve type which seems to be the only kind some Conservatives will accept.
Indeed? I hear Sean Hannity call listeners to his radio show, whom he doesn't even know, "Great Americans". I heard your boy Bush even call Teddy Kennedy once a "Great American" (during their joint appearance at the signing of the odious No Child Left Behind Act). And, specifically, how does McCain hate you?
"McCain can eat pooh. I'll never cast a vote for this self rightous p.o.s."{
Great, succinct post. My sediments exactly. (Mispelling on purpose.)
...Then of course (in regard to some of your past comments)if that Oxycontin-gulping blowhard, Rush, told you to you would!
I do not like him, Sam-I-Am.
I do not like McCain the Ham.
I do not like him here or there,
I do not like him ANYWHERE.
McCain is not to be trusted. Period. I won't forget how he slammed conservative Christians, and I hold him just as culpabale as Bush on the so-called CFR bill. He holds his own ego over that of those whom he claims to represent.
"Maverick," my lily white arse.
I know about Renegade MacCain... but Falwell????? He must have known - as old as he is now - he was opening the "gates" of the "Religious right" (us) to this a--?
Or at least "paving the way" for the MIRACLE we are about to see... THE TRANSFORMATION of the Renegade to become the Champion of the right?
Why???? WHY?????
Doesn't change my mind one bit. I'm not voting for him. He and Arlen Specter should switch parties.
Seen that way by crack addicts, maybe.
No conservative undermines the 1st Amendment.
Well, of course Nancy Reagan wanted Senator McCain to win. Nancy Reagan always tried to protect Ronald Reagan against his own solidly conservative instincts--- that shows up in every biography and study of his administration.
She's an incredible woman, but she's not conservative in the slightest. It's probably not a coincidence that Michael and Maureen Reagan, who were Jane Wyman's children, were right wingers and Ron and Patti Davis, Nancy's children, were extreme left wingers.
As far as I know, those who were imprisoned Senator McCain in Hanoi with him consider him a hero and they should know. You can be a good person, like Nancy Reagan and John McCain are, without having an ounce of sense about politics.
Seanator McCain's father was a Reagan conservative, to judge from President Reagan's letters. Senator McCain was perhaps raised a conservative but since he's been in the Senate, he's gone left on every single issue outside of pork barrell spending. He's for the War On Terror, but he's undermined it at nearly every point-- this article gives some of the many examples http://www.nationalreview.com/levin/levin.asp
I agree hatred of him is unwarranted--- but so is, imho, respect for him as a politician.
I don't know why the venom for the guy among conservatives. I'm disappointed in him for pushing the bad CFR bill that turned out to be a boon for Dem 527's, his bashing of Christian conservatives and his Gang of 14 deal, which is turning out to be another bad deal because the Dems are apparently lining up to filibuster some more mainstream conservative nominees.
OTOH, the guy is solid on the GWOT and is pro-life. He has a solid voting record on judges, but I don't know how he'd be as the guy making the appointments. He seems even worse than Bush in pandering to Dems to try to moderate the bitter partisanship in Washington that the Dems have absolutely no intention of ever abandoning.
Bottom line is that the guy is conservative, but not a movement guy, like Reagan was. Still, he'd be a whole lot better than any Dem I can think of. And with the popularity of the Prez and the party in the toilet, he might be the only pubbie who could win in 2008.
I hope to G-d someone else will become the GOP nominee.
Where is this Kool-Aid everyone has been drinking? Could I get some?
If you think that McPain is viable candidate your nuts. I can tell you after his McCain/Kennedy Immigration bill he better switch parties.
There is going to be a major realignment in politics in America. Selling out the US is going to get really expensive.
Still, after you guys get done "teaching the party a lesson" and "realigning" things, I hope you'll enjoy the second Clinton administration. If you think immigration is bad now, you ain't seen nothin' yet.
Would I vote for Seantor McCain over Hillary? Of course. Why rip off my head to spite my face? But Senator McCain is not a conservative... his voting record is deceptive because he started out great and, as everyone knows, started shifting left on CF issues after Keating 5 and in the late ninities till now put that shift left into over-drive.
Senator McCain votes pro-life because those votes are generally symbolic party-line votes. But he is not pro-life, and openly supports embryo stem cell research because he has been given cover to do so by Nancy Reagan. As for Roe, these were his thoughts in 1999:
"I'd love to see a point where Roe v. Wade is irrelevant, and could be repealed because abortion is no longer necessary. But certainly in the short term, or even the long term, I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade, which would then force women in America to [undergo] illegal and dangerous operations."
That's the same as the "safe, legal and rare" rhetorical position of both Clintons.
Senator McCain doesn't really see himself as a conservative-- he sees himself as a trust-busting progressive in the mold of his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. Tactically smart leftists realize that http://www.slate.com/id/2139775/
Also a boon for GOP 527s (i.e. Swift Boat Veterans for Truth). I believe McCain, to his credit, was hoping to get CFR on a level where ordinary Americans could run for office without having to be independently wealthy or holden to special interests. The compromise that evolved with Sen. Fiengold and the Dems was something far less than what I would like but it is a start. I would love to see an electoral process where candidates did not have to be wealthy or in the backpocket of some extreme far right or left group to be deemed electable for the MAJORITY of us. On the Gang of 14, well, it at least it worked. It kept the Dems from filibustering and the GOP from having to set a Consitutional precedent of trumping a long-held 2/3rd majority rule...besides, both Roberts and Alito got on, and we got Dems like Robert Byrd to vote for them while exposing Teddy Kennedy, Pat Leahy, Diane Fienstine, Richard Durbin to the fact that they are fools.
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