Posted on 02/08/2008 11:59:58 AM PST by indcons
John McCain has retained the services of a conservative public relations firm to assist with right-wing outreach.
Shirley & Banister, well-connected in both conservative and mainstream media circles, have been helping McCain for a few weeks now placing surrogates on TV and in news stories. They also helped craft an open letter sent out earlier this week signed by five longtime "Reaganauts" -- Craig Shirely, Frank Donatelli, Jack Kemp, Dick Allen and Peter Hannaford -- urging their fellow followers of the Gipper get on board.
The firm is led by Shirley and Diana Banister. Shirley is longtime conservative consultant who is coming out with his second book on Reagan this summer. Banister worked in the GOP vineyards in Orange County and later the Dole and Buchanan campaigns.
Part of their task will be countering the anti-McCain assault from conservative talk show hosts.
Shirley, who accompanied McCain to CPAC yesterday, said the open letter he and the other "Reaganauts" issued has already caused a stir.
"Sean Hannity read it on the air [Wednesday] and dismisseed the five of us as 'pseudo-conservatives' who knew nothing about Ronald Reagan," Shirley said.
"I'd say between the five of us, we have probably put 200 years or more into the movement and Reaganism -- and all spent considerable personal time with the Gipper and working for him."
A conservative PR firm that dismisses Rush!
LOL! Have at it boys. One disaster deserves another.
He understands the Conservative issues so much he had to hire someone to remind him what they were. /s
“Sorry, Senator...we’re not miracle workers.”
You can put lipstick on a pig, but........it's still a pig.
Yeah, that’ll work.
McCain a conservative?! Shirley, you jest.
No, I'm serious. And don't call me Shirley.
“Banister worked in the GOP vineyards in Orange County and later the Dole and Buchanan campaigns.”
And just how did that work out?
By this definition, they are prostitutes.
Until he fires Juan Hernandez, no sale.
Prediction:
I think we are going to get so sick of the stretched out term ‘Conservative’ that we are going to consult a thesaurus and a liguistics expert to come up with another word for it.
We won’t even recognize it in November it’ll be so badly distorted by then.
I was actually thinking during his CPAC speech that:
a) He had to hire someone who understood conservatism to write it for him, and insert all the right buzz words; and
b) He’d have to go to “Conservative School” to actually learn how to be one.
I guess hiring a PR Firm to do it for him was the easier option.
PR? it’s more like damage control
Between Rush and Hannity, that’s 6 hours a day. McCain must be richer than Bill Gates to buy all that air time.
He’s getting more insane every day.
Great track record. The tax collector for the welfare state and an isolationist nutjob.
I’m sure the Pope must have a price too. [/sarc]
Gonna need a lot of glue to get peacock feathers on this turkey.
That’s the thing, a real conservative would not need to hire a PR firm to reach out to conservatives.
Be that as it may, I’ll still probably end up pulling the lever for him. Because I despite the Dems too much.
“John McCain has retained the services of a conservative public relations firm to assist with right-wing outreach.”
That’s a long reach!
Hannity, Rush, Ingraham and crew don't have a clue. As soon as they endorsed Romney, I knew they were quasi-conservatives, more comfortable with their limos and gucchis than their principles.
Romney, The Father of Gay Marriage, is as conservative as a Hillary/Nancy/Helen clone....and just as 'beautiful'
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!!!
That is not going to get my vote.
McCain should feel comfortable "talking shop" with them then.
First explain Juan Hernandez.
So funny! He used the liberal MSM and the Dim Party to trash and obstuct us, the President, VP, Iraq mission, and the DOD for the last 8 years, for free.
Now he has to pay cash for his lies.
“I think we are going to get so sick of the stretched out term ‘Conservative’ that we are going to consult a thesaurus and a liguistics expert to come up with another word for it.”
I made this point yesterday on a thread that the word “conservative” has become the political equivilent of the word “rich”.
People hear it and get all worked up until they realize what the speaker means by it.
Same with “secure the borders” that’s a eupaimism for amnesty. If McCain wants to “secure the borders” I want to hear him say that he’s gonna build the fence.
Close. George Soros has deep pockets too.
Reagan was surrounded by liberals. Mike Deaver was as liberal as a Republican can be, and he was a very important policy adviser. I don't think Reagan was great because he was so conservative; I think he was great because he had such great character and such wonderful leadership skills.
These old political hacks who happened to know Reagan endorsing McCain are meaningless. More evidence that McCain doesn't understand his own party.
Are they passing out the ice for US to put on it???
What a player, its all a game to him.
Fred wouldn’t need to hire a conservative PR firm.
OMH...If one needs to hire someone to cast themselves as a conservative, that pretty much says it all, doesn’t it?
Yeah but was he legal?
so you are right and everyone else is wrong?? I don’t think you have been objective.
I heard Laura introduce Mitt as “the conservative’s conservative, and I BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
SO THE RADIO CIRCUIT IS WRONG, AND MCPAIN IS A REAL CONSERVATIVE???? LOLOL
I LOVE MITT, CAN’T WAIT, I’M GONNA SAVE MY MONEY TO HELP HIM IN 2012.
Invoking the name “Reagan” has become as tired as invoking “Viet Nam”
It can't be too expensive to secretly switch out Hannity's teleprompter - it's not like Sean would realize the difference if he started parroting pro-McCain rhetoric.
I’m surprised he didn’t burst into fire...
If he wants to learn about how conservatives feel then maybe he should listen to his answering machine in his office. Everything through his office is answering machine and I don’t believe he has a live person one that works for him.
So Senator John McCain has finally come to grips with the fact that he is going to need a lot of Conservatives to vote for him, rather than staying home and not voting at all.
He’s realized that Hillary will, in all great probability, gain the Democratic Nomination for her side, and that he’s managed to wheel and deal in the background to get others to drop. And that he is going to need every, stinking voter out there he can scrape together.
And Conservatives are spitting mad.
And he isn’t going to get them.
I guess he thought this through, too late, huh?
I predict Hillary Clinton will be President on 20 January 2009.
The PROBLEM here is that McCain has a long, long documented history of action. He can say anthing he wants during the campaign, but we have all seen many years of the John McCain record and a leopard does not change his spots.
That is very true.
If you read through McCain's Wikipedia entry, you'll see some real action right as he was divorcing his first wife.
Thompson would be a great VP choice for McCain and may bring over Conservatives that just can’t bring themselves to voting for him otherwise.
“Shirley is longtime conservative consultant..”
Others references say she’s a GOP consultant.
Using the current logic/litmus tests:
McCain is running as a GOP but is not conservative therefore she can’t be a conservative if she’s helping McCain who is the antithesis of conservativism.
Oh, my hair hurts.
This will keep my laughing all weekend.
I believe that is correct. But don't stay home, folks. Vote the down ticket.
This is an email that was sent to me and this is what we should be focusing on.
Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from it’s death throes? He has a new book, and here are some excerpts.
Lee Iacocca Says:
Am I the only guy in this country who’s fed up with what’s happening?
Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder.
We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, “Stay the course”
Stay the course? You’ve got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned “Titanic”. I’ll give you a sound bite: “Throw all the bums out!”
You might think I’m getting senile, that I’ve gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore.
The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we’re fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving ‘pom-poms’ instead of asking hard questions. That’s not the promise of the “America” my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I’ve had enough. How about you?
I’ll go a step further. You can’t call yourself a patriot if you’re not outraged. This is a fight I’m ready and willing to have.
The Biggest “C” is Crisis !
Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It’s easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else’s kids off to war when you’ve never seen a battlefield yourself. It’s another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.
On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A Hell of a Mess
So here’s where we stand. We’re immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We’re running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We’re losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you’ve got to ask: “Where have all the leaders gone?” Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We’ve spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.
Everyone’s hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn’t happen again. Now, that’s just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you’re going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when “The Big Three” referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn’t elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don’t you guys show some spine for a change?
Had Enough?
Hey, I’m not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I’m trying to light a fire. I’m speaking out because I have hope I believe in America. In my lifetime I’ve had the privilege of living through some of America’s greatest moments. I’ve also experienced some of our worst crises: the “Great Depression”, “World War II”, the “Korean War”, the “Kennedy Assassination”, the “Vietnam War”, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s this: “You don’t get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it’s building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That’s the challenge I’m raising in this book. It’s a call to “Action” for people who, like me, believe in America. I t’s not too late, but it’s getting pretty close. So let’s shake off the crap and go to work. Let’s tell ‘em all we’ve had “enough.”
Excerpted from “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?”.
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