Posted on 02/06/2008 11:51:10 PM PST by calcowgirl
Presidential candidate John McCain's sweeping victories on Super Tuesday revealed what could be a post-partisanship era in politics.
Republican voters across the country turned away from the party's more conservative candidates and selected the Arizona senator again and again in primary contests from New York to California.
The ultraconservative radio talk show hosts, bloggers and newspaper columnists simply didn't resonate with the party's majority members - the soccer moms and NASCAR dads who never attend precinct meetings, but showed up on election day. Whether those high-profile opinion givers like it or not, McCain is their man.
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., traveling with McCain from Phoenix to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, was asked whether McCain's success illustrated the Republican Party is far more mainstream than it has appeared during the past seven years.
"Perhaps. I hesitate to call it 'mainstream,' but yeah, that's probably right," Flake told the Tribune. "It certainly is more diverse than some people want to admit."
Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., also traveling with McCain, said McCain's single-day achievement indicated the GOP is a centrist party.
"It tells you that folks from the hard right kind of make their living by whipping things up," he said.
"And it also tells you that Republicans are pragmatic. They understand that there is kind of a core Republican philosophy. They want to see candidates with that philosophy win. They don't want to get behind some extreme candidate and lose the seat," Shadegg said.
McCain will have the opportunity to spell out his Republican philosophy today at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, as he continues his quest to lock up his party's nomination for November's general election.
(Excerpt) Read more at eastvalleytribune.com ...
"the GOP is a centrist party"
Oh, Joy.
Time for a Federalist party, it seems.
What a load of BS, the majority of conservatives voted for the fiscal conservative (Romney) or the social conservative (Huckabee). McCain got about 1/3 of the "moderate" GOP and a whole lot of crossover independents and Democrats.
As I recall, McCain was winning without the Conservative Base, which split between Romney and Huckabee. He will never win in November without that essential Republican group.
WTF is “main-stream” GOP?
The GOP, a party of RINOs. Who’d a thought.
It is interesting that McCain won Super Tuesday with 66% of Republicans voting for someone else.
McCain’s big “surge” and whopping win in California was based on only 18% of registered Republican voters,
or 6% of total registered voters in the state.
Somehow I don’t think his “mainstream” “post-partisanship” will have a whole lot of staying power.
82% of registered Republicans in California did NOT vote for him.
The guy sure can motivate the base (to reject him!).
I disagree, it will because the MSM will keep telling us this over and over again.
Human Events mag had Romney #8 on their "TOP 10 RINOS" list just 2 years ago and yet we have all of these super smart people running around calling him a "conservative" all of a sudden because he has good hair and $400 neck ties.
Huckabee is more conservative than MYTH but McCain would be a better POTUS, he has an ACU rating of 83%.
Has he made mistakes and written some bad legislation and made some bad votes, certainly.
Either vote for him or not, there are plenty of Democrats that will be voting for him over the 2 Marxists anyway.
That is post of the year material right there.
In other words, the people who don't pay any attention to politics. The people who just let the MSM feed them sound bytes and don't do any research.
That would be all the liberal/moderate/independent/democrats that vote for McInsane
Really.
Exactly...and then there were the Republicans who were suddenly informed they were non-partisan who couldn’t vote at all in a heavily pro-Romney region. What was up with that?
Go to bed.
I guess that's their way of calling us milquetoast. This is all a plot by the Rockefeller country club Republicans to recapture the party that they lost in 1964.
Thought you were going to do some “gnad” kicking when you came back?
That's nice: the least-informed make the most of McCain.
:-/
Mods must be asleep tonight.
Either that, or they’re voting.
Correction: What a load of BS, the majority of conservatives voted for the fiscal conservative (Romney) or the FAKE conservative (Huckabee). McCain got about 1/3 of the "moderate" GOP and a whole lot of crossover independents and Democrats.
That fixed it.
Great point though.
Without the corrupt liberal pretending to be a conservative, and taking a load of votes from he uninformed, and gullible, McCain would be out of the race now.
Are you on the wrong thread?
I think the credit belongs also to those who spent their time carrying water for the liberals by bashing Mitt Romney.
Again. Go to bed. Take it up in the morning.
Take an Ambien and go to bed.
He’s putting that stuff on every thread tonight. Ray’s our resident something or other. What that is, I have no idea.
Ray may need to hold off on any additional pharmaceuticals. I’m betting his nightstand looks like Heath Ledger’s at this point.
I think Ray is channelling Sam Kinison.
you’ll never win an election without appeal to moderates and independents. mcCain knows exactly what he is doing.
More like post-partisanship depression!
I woke up at 1:30 AM CST, took the dogs out, started watching a great program about the old Stax recording studios and decided it was time for a cup of coffee. Too early to start hitting the sauce.
About 2 this afternoon, I’ll regret this, the late night/early morning FR posting and coffee drinking...
He already did appeal to the moderates for years. Now that the nomination is in the bag, he will appeal to the conservatives, but not the real die hards. They will always hate him.
Very different from the usual strategy of appealing to conservatives to get the nomination and moving to the middle for the general.
Primary voters are very ideological and tend to pick candidates that don’t have broad appeal beyond their base. McCain doesn’t want a red vs blue strategy. He wants to go all over the map
I gotta do this stuff without the caffeine. Swore it off a dozen years ago. I just ate a steak, and I’m about to go face first into the keyboard.
He has been doing that with his voting record for years
yes but there is a structure to it.
“Mainstream”, eh? Riiiiiiiiiight.
Sounds like another McCain thumb in the eye to conservatives.
President George W. Bush did something I find horrifying - he does not uphold the laws of the United States, something he swore an oath to do, hand on a Bible.
If you have courage, then go to the following:
http://www.reforminstitute.org
This is a thinktank Senator John McCain set up so that far-left wingers like David Geffen, George Soros (Tides Foundation), and the Environmental Defense Fund, could donate tens of thousands of dollars to him without it becoming highly public.
There is nothing illegal about this 501 nonprofit organization. But the ideas that come out of it ought to scare the hell out of any redblooded American.
His outreach representative to Hispanics is Dr. Juan Hernandez, a former Mexican government official who wants to abolish the U.S.’s borders and sovereignty. McCain has publicly stated that he agrees with EVERYTHING Dr. Hernandez believes.
Abolishing our nation’s sovereignty is not something a President should do.
If you believe McCain would be a good president, then I suggest you look at my post at #46, and pay a visit to the Senator’s ultra-liberal think tank, the Reform Institute.
He obviously doesn’t think much of the Freedom of Speech and couldn’t give a rat’s fart about our nation’s sovereignty, as he isn’t just an open border guy but a NO BORDER AT ALL kind of guy.
Not the kind of President I’ll support.
The old Federalist Party, ie Hamilton, believed in a strong central government and so doesn’t the NEW Federalist party. They also believe in environmentalism and graduated taxation (ie “tax the rich”)- sort of, demonRAT party light.
http://www.geocities.com/new_federalists
The Constitution party (the old US Taxpayers Party), on the other hand, still looks good, although their stand on “foreign entanglements” gives me pause...
http://www.constitutionparty.com
and ideas are a terrible thing, right? We must all recite from Ann Coulter’s books right before we go to sleep every night and say Amen.
Did you hate Reagan?
In a radio address in 1977, he noted that apples were rotting on trees in New England because no Americans were willing to pick them. “It makes one wonder about the illegal alien fuss. Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won’t do?” Reagan asked. “One thing is certain in this hungry world; no regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters.”
The GOP is the party of Reagan.
well I don’t believe in a graduated tax at all and that was one reason I voted for Huckabee.
mcCain is also for a flat tax and kemp, Forbes and Rudy support him.
Q: Do you favor a flat tax? A: Sure, I’m for a flat tax. I’m for a tax system where average Americans can fill out their tax return on a postcard and send it in and not have the fear of an audit. But do you know why the tax code is 44,000 pages long? Do you know why it’s a nightmare, a chamber of horrors for average citizens and a cornucopia of good deals for the special interests? It’s because every time we pass a tax bill we add another special loophole and a special deal for the special interests.
Source: Republican Debate at Dartmouth College Oct 29, 1999
FORBES [to McCain]: Cutting the capital gains tax is key to a prosperous future. In New Hampshire you indicated support for a flat tax and I was wondering if you might put flesh on those bones and tell us what you have in mind for tax reform?
MCCAIN: I want to thank you for your efforts on behalf of a flat tax. I think we’ve got to eliminate the marriage penalty, the earnings test, raise the 15% tax bracket, put a level of $5 million on the inheritance tax. But this tax code is 44,000 pages long. It’s an abomination. It’s a cornucopia of good deals for the special interests and it’s a nightmare for American citizens. We’ve got to get rid of the special interest loopholes that are right in this tax code. That’s the first step in cleaning it up to reach your goal of a simplified tax system. I appreciate your efforts. But until the day arrives when we remove the influence of the special interests, we’re not going to be able to achieve your goal.
Source: (cross-ref. from Forbes) Phoenix Arizona GOP Debate Dec 7, 1999
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