Posted on 12/07/2006 4:53:28 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Former GOP Senator Al D’Amato said Republicans will "race to the center” in 2008 to make up for losses in the 2006 elections, and Sen. John McCain will be the man to lead them there.
D’Amato, appearing Thursday on Fox News Channel, said the Republican Party was hurt in the elections by the "morass” in Iraq and the ineffectiveness of a GOP-controlled Congress to pass meaningful legislation.
He also said President Bush was damaged by the appearance that he didn’t do enough to help Hurricane Katrina victims, with the image of Bush "flying over” New Orleans in a helicopter viewed by Americans as showing he was "out of touch” with the tragedy.
D’Amato said McCain can help bring voters back to the party for the 2008 presidential elections.
"If we have someone who demonstrates strength and compassion, like a John McCain, if we stay away from issues which almost trivialize the political process, like gay marriage . . . that’s nonsense. We shouldn’t be about that.”
D’Amato said Republicans may not favor McCain now, as some polls indicate, but he predicted that will change during the upcoming presidential campaign.
"If you have a McCain candidacy, you are going to capture the middle,” D’Amato said. "We will have a more moderate Republican tone, tuition assistance, an immigration policy that deals with reality . . . and stay away from bashing gays.
"He’s going to be the nominee,” D’Amato said.
This from a guy who couldn't find his own a$$ with a mirror and a flashlight...
For whose party ?? Not the GOP that's for sure......
My impression was that it was the "rush to the center" the last two years that caused Republicans so much grief in this last election.
Karl Rove has it right, that if the Republicans want to regain their majority, they have to stick to their principles. Playing politics and treating our constituents like they're stupid will only get us into more trouble.
McCain doesn't have a shot in hell of winning.
Oh I don't know. The GOP may well nominate him; he won't be representing conservatives in any case
So Al consulted his crystal ball and this is his prediction.
Conservatives will, of course, stay home to teach the country a lesson.
I guess it all depends on which conservatives face him in the primary. I consider McCain a hawkish Democrat.
I'd certainly hope we can do better than that.
McCain could very well be the nominee, but if he's smart, he will run away from his past "moderate" stances. The Repubs didn't lose cause they were too conservative, they lost because they were nothing, or at least seen as nothing but crooks, hypocrites, panderers, big spenders, out of touch...
A Republican who campaigns for Democrats now supports McCain.
Is he? He's less hawkish than Lieberman, that's for sure. I'm not sure what McCain is.
Karl Rove has it right, that if the Republicans want to regain their majority, they have to stick to their principles. Playing politics and treating our constituents like they're stupid will only get us into more trouble.
McCain doesn't have a shot in hell of winning.
Right on all counts!
now I'm just waiting for the Rudy schills to start spamming this thread...
Flame away GOP bootlickers, I don't care.
What drivel!!
In the early days of a disaster - natural or otherwise - the presence of the POTUS on the ground just adds to the headaches of the rescuers.
IIRC President Bush made several visits to the Katerina effected area in the following weeks.
The GOP better come up with someone better if they want my family's vote. I'll never vote for mcpain.
This from a guy who lost to Chuck the schmuck Schumer
d'Amato is not the world's smartest political genius. Sees everything through a very narrow NY focus.
I will not vote for McTraitor. How about Tom Coburn Senator OK?
Ditto for Giuliani or Romney.
I have little doubt McCain will be the nominee.
He's built the org and passed around the money already.
Of course McCain will be running right to pick up the dissafected liberty voters alienated by compassionate big government conservatism.
Three predictions if McCain is the 2008 GOP nominee:
1) The media will run 24/7 stories about his age and history of health issues.
2)McCain will suddenly become a "hard-right" conservative in MSM and DNC hit pieces.
3) Military service, which was oh-so-important to the DNC when Kerry was the nominee, will become irrelevant to the MSM and the Democratic Party. It will be all about "who cares most for the children" again, like when Bubba ran against H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. And McCain will be painted as the second coming of The Grinch.
Old news/rumor.
It goes like this: Cheney resigns due to health reasons, McCain is put into the veep office and runs for Prez.
We don't deserve a person as good as Tom Coburn to represent us. Sad but true.
Exactly how do you see an anti-gun, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion candidate winning the Republican Party's nomination in an open primary? Who exactly do you see as his constituency?
"Conservatives will, of course, stay home to teach the country a lesson."
Not this Conservative! McCain is not my favorite, but I would support anyone against Hillary. The damage she would do to my country, the leftists she would appoint, would wound the country for generations, and would make it impossible to defend against our enemies.
Wrong! Conservatives will stay home because they will have no candidate to support. Or they will vote 3rd party if a conservative runs, not to teach anybody a lesson but because in choosing between McCain and Hillary!, there is no lesser of the evils. Both are evil and only one of them is sane.
Why the hell doesn't someone tap Coburn on the shoulder and tell him the Free World needs him?
It won't be worth the time or the effort to vote for either of those two boobies.
I'll be staying at home with bells on and a glass of Irish in each of my hands.
Conservatives will, of course, stay home to teach the country a lesson.
I cringe at the thought of any of the above named people becoming President. However, I don't "sit out" elections and any Republican nominee will be preferable to any deomcrat nominee bar none.
Our country is much too important to me to sit on my hands.
Yeah, I too thought that the "race to the center" is what killed the Republican Party in recent years. Or at least one of the things that did. Under Rove's direction, I believe.
Anyhow, isn't McCain getting a litttle old to be running?
How many times does it have to be shown that liberals will vote for the real Democrat instead of a Republican acting as a Democrat every time?
Then you might as well stay home. It's the same difference.
Maybe you'll have some local issue that you can cast a meaningful ballot for that will make your trip to the polls worthwhile.
But going to the polling place primarily to vote LP or CP is probably a good sign of insanity. There's nothing heroic about futile gestures.
They need to learn a lesson and return to their roots, and we should make sure the big government types are defeated in the primaries.
I will not ever vote for McManiac. He is a FRUITCAKE!
Or like this:
Cheney resigns due to health reasons, McCain Rice is put into the veep office and runs for Prez.
Or like this:
Cheney resigns due to health reasons, McCain Frist is put into the veep office and runs for Prez.
Or like this:
Cheney resigns due to health reasons, McCain INSERT NAME HERE is put into the veep office and runs for Prez.
Harry told us that over 50 years ago. Nobody listened then, why would we expect them to now?
Not if I can help it.
Time for a third party.
Bullshit Al.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. - H. L. Mencken
[E]lections amount to no more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom. - L. Neil Smith
Giving power and money to Congress is like giving liquor and car keys to teenage boys. - P.J. O'Rourke
Compromise is: getting rid of your principles a little bit at a time. - Patrick Lear
He's not going to get my vote even if Hillary or Obama is the Dem nominee.
Yup, if that's the choice, we will.
If we "race to the center", we'll get our asses kicked again. The American people are not interested in electing Dem-lite candidates; they never have been. That strategy loses every time it's tried.
D'Amato's on the Sambuca again, I see.
Rudy DOES support killing babies. Hard to get around that one...
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