Posted on 01/11/2008 11:24:25 AM PST by Checkers
If John McCain is somehow prevented from winning the nomination, it won’t be because of his fellow candidates.
Last night, the rest of the field refused to lay a glove on McCain. Many conservatives I talk to still assume he will fall of his own weight. And, truth be told, the other campaigns’ visceral dislike of Mitt Romney is blinding them to the need for a strong voice to articulate the conservative base’s deep distrust of McCain.
For McCain, a seemingly impossible confluence of events have had the effect of parting the waters for his previously treacherous path to the nomination.
First, McCain emerged from the back of the pack. The conservative establishment didn’t know if this was serious or not, so they didn’t organize. At the outset, Romney probably found this useful to knock off Rudy in NH. Then Rudy decided he didn’t have the warewithal to challenge his friend McCain in a pro-choice, Northeastern state.
In Iowa too, Huckabee used McCain as a club to bash Romney. Romney only started attacking McCain in late December, and then only on McCain’s home field of New Hampshire.
Okay, I can see letting New Hampshire slip. That happened in 2000. But certainly South Carolina could be counted on finish him off for us. Is McCain getting any heat there?
Not much.
Mitt Romney has to save himself first, and he’s doing that in Michigan. That probably necessitates a pivot to a more positive message. Like other cash-strapped candidates, he’s counting on Huckabee to finish the job in SC. It’s also probably too late for any 527s to get going.
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
Where are Romney's ads attacking McCain?
Where are they?
Romney doesn't have a single ad criticizing McCain.
Supposedly Mitt has a lot of money -- although he had to stop his ad buys in South Carolina and Florida and pull back for a last ditch desperation effort in Michigan -- but if Mitt has the money for it, why isn't Mitt running ads criticizing McCain?
I heard on the radio from a Iowa supporter of Romney, who said that after the caucas (Romney won in that particular town), the Huckabites and McCainiacs attending refused to hang around longer to discuss the immigration.
Uh....who did this poll?
I believe it is Strategic Vision. There was a thread today.
McCain: 29
Willard: 20
I’ve never thought it was a strange alliance. They have a good coverage of the country (Tennessee, Michigan, Mass), they really aren’t that far apart politically in their current stated views, and they complement each other well.
Fred’s got a commanding presence and somehow has become known as a solid conservative. He’s got a folksy charm, a command of the facts, and an eye toward detail, and he’s a lot smarter than he projects.
Romney’s got the family/character, he’s a consumate professional, he’s got a 50-state organization that rivals Hillary Clinton’s machine, and he’s a great speaker. He’s also an easy guy to get along with.
I could easily see Fred Thompson with Mitt Romney as Vice President. This would give conservatives a solid team, Romney 4 or 8 years to prove his conservative credentials, and we should be able to win in November.
Problems — Evangelicals aren’t drawn to Thompson, but also have been torn from Romney, so a Thompson/Romney ticket still doesn’t guarantee the evangelical vote.
Mitt is doing OK with votes so far, and delegates. But Thompson isn’t yet. That should change soon, at least we hope, but it’s not longer clear that the two of them would end up with a majority of delegates.
I don’t know that Romney really wants to be a VP, but I’m almost positive Fred Thompson doesn’t. Romney’s not young, so maybe he doesn’t think he can be President in 8 years, but if Fred was only doing a 4-and-out that might work. Fred doesn’t look like he’d last 8 years, much less to an 8-year VP stint followed by another 8 at President.
I know Romney is about the same age, but he looks years younger.
I don’t know. If Romney was going to be President, Thompson probably wouldn’t be the prime choice as a VP candidate — maybe a southern conservative governor would work better. But I could see Romney as a good fit for Thompson, since the only thing Thompson really would need (assuming he was winning enough primaries that he’d be considered for president) is help in the northern states, since he took the southern strategy.
I agree with you about who the most likely alliance is, assuming McCain wouldn’t sell his soul to Rudy Giuliani.
In terms of somewhat obscure black conservatives, I think Michael Steele of Maryland would be a better VP candidate than J.C. Watts.
Found it.
It was from Jan 4-6, so it should be taken with a huge grain of salt.
Thompson is also not young, and to have Thompson decide to have McCain as his final V.P. choice would probably make a majority of conservatives throughout the U.S. very nervous instead of helping Thompson.
I knew we would see eye to eye sometime.
It was not traced to Mitt’s campaign, it was clearly reported that it was republicans who were close to fred’s campaign, who were simply try to gain credibility by selling themselves as predictors of the future, and failed.
Tying it to Romney was just a clever political ploy. If Romney was actually capable of pulling off everything he is accused of (manipulating other campaign’s supporters, buying votes and endorsements, sometimes YEARS in the future, fooling 30% of the conservatives in the country, etc. etc., we would HAVE to pick him as President, because it would be clear there was nothing he couldn’t do.
I NEVER endorsed the idea that Fred would drop out — frankly, I’m not much for that type of futures prediction. What will happen happens. I love talking about what the merits of various scenarios would be, but not predicting them. I didn’t think Fred was going to drop out before South Carolina in any case.
I think a Fred surge WOULD hurt McCain. MY fear is that there will not BE a Fred surge. There hasn’t been so far. The NRTL endorsement didn’t help. His good performance in a debate in November didn’t help. His several weeks of criss-crossing Iowa barely got him over McCain. His 3rd-place finish didn’t seem to get him any votes in New Hampshire. He couldn’t break through in conservative Wyomning, he’s polling 10% in the national polls, and as of a couple days ago was at 12% and in 4th place in South Carolina.
I don’t say that to say he shouldn’t do better, just noting that there is evidence that counting on a Fred surge is not the best bet around.
And in fact, it is Fred’s lack of a surge that has committed me firmly to Mitt Romney — because he has enough support, money, and votes that he can make it to the convention with a large delegation, and could keep anybody else from getting a majority.
McScream WILL NOT take the VP nod. If Fred wins and goes two terms, McScream would be 102 or something and running off 8 years as a VP for the big job. Nope, ain't gonna happen.
What a fight we are having. I don’t remember ever seeing a primary like this before. I just hope that while we are doing this all we are not enabling the Hildabeast. But I guess there is no way to avoid it. All I can do is pray that Obama continue to give Hillary a hard time and not just let her skate to the convention.
That is to your credit.
Personally, I hope the two end up on the same ticket. Though I know that won’t be popular around here according to Fred’s supporters.
Well, you are ignoring the more obvious (but probably also wrong) possibility that he didn’t attack McCain because he agrees with what McCain is saying.
Fred Thompson has never shown any hesitation in disagreeing with people, after all.
at this point, just to continue the discussion, if Thompson can take out Huckabee, even if McCain wins South Carolina we’re better off. McCain can be stopped in the next set of primaries, but if Huckabee has a natural consistancy of 20% who will keep showing up for him unless they decide he’s unelectable, so the sooner he looks unelectable, the better for the other candidates.
Meanwhile, if Romney can stop McCain in Michigan, South Carolina isn’t as important if McCain wins. If McCain wins Michigan AND South Carolina, that might be a problem.
“Romney and McCain have never been allies and never will be.”
I agree completely with your post. I have noticed the hatred that McCain has for Romney too. That’s one reason I don’t like McCain. I don’t want a President who is capable of hating good people. It’s just not a quality that I find acceptable.
“Then, exhausted, in a televised debate, either Obama or Hillary gets this turkey-neck old man to lose his temper.
Election over.”
Now it makes sense why all of the pro-Hillary commentators would love to see McCain nominated. They just can’t stop singing his praises right now. I wish people would wake up.
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