Posted on 11/06/2007 7:05:11 AM PST by Calpernia
U. S. Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, has spent the better part of the last decade running for president. He actively sought the office in 2000 and lost handily to George W. Bush. Since that time, he has done everything he could think of to antagonize the base of his own party.
Former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-TN, acts as if the thought of running for president just occurred to him five minutes ago. Some days he acts as though it still hasn't occurred to him.
For very different reasons, these two men, with their totally different approaches to politics, have probably slammed the door on their chances for winning the Republican presidential nomination.
In 2000, McCain was the darling of the mainstream media. Back in those days, he was the anti-Bush, which appealed to them. This year his worldview is anathema to theirs because he has unapologetically defended "Bush's war."
But McCain's unpopularity within his party stems from two other issues: illegal immigration and campaign finance reform.
On immigration, McCain seems to have learned his lesson. In what radio host and bestselling author Laura Ingraham would call a "Power to the People moment," McCain (along with a lot of other members of Congress), has gotten the message loud and clear: border enforcement first.
"I understand why you would call it a, quote, shift," McCain said to reporters after being grilled by voters in South Carolina. "I say it is a lesson learned about what the American people's priorities are. And their priority is to secure the borders."
Too bad it took a meltdown of the congressional phone lines last June to convince the senator of the common sense of the American people. Until he saw his poll numbers sink to single digits, McCain seemed absolutely oblivious to - nay, defiant of - the people's will. Nevertheless, those of us who have been incredulous to the deafness of the president and far too many members of Congress on this issue welcome Sen. McCain into the bright light of reason on this issue.
While "comprehensive immigration reform" (better known as "amnesty"), is dead, the legislation for which John McCain is best known is still alive and festering within our political system. The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill passed by Congress and signed into law by the president will be haunting us for years, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has struck down certain provisions of the law. For that reason, it has left the base of the Republican Party with a permanent bad taste for McCain's brand of politics.
Fred Thompson's alienation from the GOP activists who comprise the nominating block of the party is much more recent. In fact, it unfolds like a wet blanket of sad disappointment day by day. Desperately seeking a candidate to rally around, social conservatives keep waiting for Fred Thompson to show them p something.
His recent underwhelming performance on "Meet the Press" did not help. Asked about his positions on abortion and same-sex marriage, Thompson, who has a respectable record on both issues, managed to flub his answer. He told host Tim Russert he opposes to an amendment to the U.S. Constitution on either issue, preferring to leave these two crucial social issues to the individual states. As Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family has pointed out, Thompson endorses the idea of fifty different definitions of marriage. The same is true, it seems, on the definition of life, since Thompson simply wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned and the issue returned to the states.
In addition, Thompson seemed muddled and indecisive about his opinion on water boarding as a technique for dealing with terrorist detainees.
With less than two months remaining until the Iowa caucuses, it is likely that Fred Thompson and John McCain will both continue to decline in the polls, while former Governors Mitt Romney (Massachusetts) and Mike Huckabee (Arkansas) will continue to gain on the current frontrunner, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. So be it.
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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online, TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor.
I just perused his archives. You should too, and then tell me if he’s still a dunderhead:
http://www.conservativetruth.org/archive.php?author=Doug%20Patton
why am I not surprised you call Thompson people goons without provocation? You are baiting.
I guess I'd have to see those polls. I wish it were true. I wish Fred was doing better than Rudy in most polls too.
This isn’t Guliani fluff. If you read his other articles, he’s not a fan of Guliani. He simply doesn’t have Fredhead blinders on.
“A Romney Huckabee ticket sounds plausible.”
Maybe in NJ.
LLS
I don’t think he would vote a DNC ticket from reading him:
http://www.conservativetruth.org/archive.php?author=Doug%20Patton
I don’t think so. Did you check out his other articles? I did:
http://www.conservativetruth.org/archive.php?author=Doug%20Patton
bump
All you have to do is look around here. While Romney is doing better in NH and Iowa...that’s about it.
Exactly. We have had ambitious cads whisper sweet nothings in our ears before; Rudy, Huck and Mitt are finding it harder to deceive conservatives.
Romney has the same problem Dole had.
Sad but apparently headed that way. And that's precisely why the GOP is going down the tubes with conservative voters. Conservatives recognize a left-leaning liberal political pig with conservative lip-stick smeared on them for appearances sake. The GOP is in a sad state of disrepair when it has to settle for MSM-made "top-tier" candidates that have to talk conservative (but act like nanny-stater leftists) in order to get the party nomination. Makes me realize that even Ronald Reagan couldn't win his own party's nomination now.
Who is Doug Patton and why should I let him decide who I should vote for?
Hmmmm. I stand corrected.
I’ll be home on election day if Romney is the candidate. The Mormons are a cult.
Duncan Hunter is the solution and the problem is the unnecessary self-destruction of the conservative movement because we have let the eft wing media and the self-interested corporate and wealthy big money donors decide who our Republican candidates should be.
I haven’t seen the kind of attacks widespread as you suggest. This can be a rough game, however, like park tackle football among friends.
I support Thompson because I think he has the best combo of emotional connection to the electorate and good principles and ideas on governing. Romney And Giuliani are incomplete, and some good men (Hunter, Tancredo) couldn’t get traction.
Thanks, Badeye. It’s worth a look, I think. He’s a Fred skeptic who is concerned about Rudy winning. That’s what he seems to be. I’d say a lot of Fred skeptics fall in that category. And we’re not sold on Romney. Hunter is not a player. Fred could win despite his weaknesses. GWB did. But it’d be helpful if ppl looked at the situation with open eyes.
More GOP sponsored blather.
When will they “get it’? When we leave them, running at full speed, by the thousands?
They are well on their way to becoming “insignificant”, just like the MSM.
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