Posted on 02/15/2008 6:15:23 AM PST by jdm
It's all but settled. John McCain will be the Republican Party nominee for president in 2008. That has caused much anguish among many conservatives who knew Ronald Reagan - who was a friend of theirs. And Senator, you're no Ronald Reagan, or words to that effect.
Nevertheless, conservative realists recognize that despite all the chinks in the right side of his armor, John McCain still is far more conservative than either Hillary or B.O. But when President Bush declared that John McCain was a "true conservative" this week - which was kinda like Joan Crawford declaring that Britney Spears was a good mom - true, true conservatives said "Huh?"
After seven years of excess spending and rampant government growth (Homeland Security, No Child Left Behind, Medicare prescription drugs, etc.) under "compassionate conservative" governance, the right ain't readin' anybody's lips again. Trust, but verify. And this time they want it in writing. Preferably in blood.
GOPUSA.com has drafted a "Contract with Conservatives" that it hopes the Republican presidential nominee will embrace. "Conservatives need something more than simple assurances," writes GOPUSA's publisher, Bobby Eberle. "For our time, effort, money, and votes, we need a pledge. We need a pledge from our presidential nominee to uphold the core Republican values that built this party, and which have taken a backseat to politics in recent years."
Right-footed GOP foot-soldiers are flocking to GOPUSA's Web site to sign the online petition declaring that they "will support our presidential nominee and other candidates for high office, only if they uphold the Contract with Conservatives." An extraordinary declaration of grassroots independence. The Contract includes:
Immigration Reform: No "comprehensive" plan. Border security first. THEN we can talk about the rest. And when it comes to dealing with illegal aliens already in the country, they "should not be given special consideration for citizenship and should not be put ahead of those seeking to come to America legally." Pretty reasonable.
Tax Reform: Support for not only lowering taxes, but reforming the tax system to make it simpler. And stop using the tax code "for social engineering." Hard to argue with that.
Limited Government: SHRINK the size and scope of the federal government, not just slow its growth. Earmarks and pork should be eliminated. Limit the government to doing "only those core jobs enumerated in the Constitution." What a radical notion.
Judges: Select judicial nominees who will "follow the law rather than make new laws from the bench." And make sure they get up-or-down votes in a timely fashion - a clear shot at Sen. McCain and his "Gang of 14" that prevented Republicans from breaking Harry Reid's judicial filibusters a couple years back.
Life: Support overturning Roe vs. Wade and oppose embryonic stem cell research. Of course, this is where fiscal conservatives and social conservatives divide their forces, which is how Sen. McCain ended up winning the GOP presidential nomination in the first place. Thanks, Mike Huckabee.
Free Speech: Repeal McCain-Feingold. I suspect this one just might be a bit hard for Sen. McCain to swallow.
All in all, a pretty good treatise. Sen. McCain won't embrace all of it, but then again, no one really expects him to. All this does is put a possible President McCain on notice that conservatives will not support him blindly the way they often did President Bush when W wandered too far off the left side of the conservative reservation.
Fool conservatives once, shame on you; fool conservatives twice, shame on us. We won't get fooled again.
That’s my hope too. I’m afraid that a big Obama win would make the RAT party think they have a mandate to gut the force levels in Iraq and throw away all the sacrifices of our brave warfighters. He wasn’t my preference but I’ll have to go with John McCain. From a broken glass Republican to a clothespin Republican.
You write: “I’m not trying to be disrespectful, but there are some who would say that the troops already have saluted a cocaine user in Bush.”
Good grief....some people will believe anything they read over at Daily Kos........won’t they........
Iffen you feel that you “gotta” vote for McNut, PLEASE do it on some other line than the GOP’s Republican line.
Vote for him on the Conservative line, or better yet; vote on the most obscure line you can find. Use the Prohibition Party line, or the Whig, or the lefthanded wingbat party.
Anything.
It can be a way of using your vote and still protest this Anti-Republican Republican.
Me? I’m looking for my tackle box right now.
I attended a meeting Wed. where the speaker was the Texas Sec. of State. He was there not to campaign FOR McCain, but to encourage everyone to hold their noses and back him because we have no choice. I commented that this was a sad state of affairs when we have a such a sorry candidate that the state's high official mucky-mucks have to make the rounds all but begging voters to back the candidate.
“Now: I’ll vote for McCain. Without hesitation. For our troops.
As one of the troops, I will not be voting for McCain under any circumstances.
I agree. Nothing will get me to vote for McCain. That ship sailed years ago.
Yes. And before you drag out that tired old nonsense about how their doing something wrong makes McCain's doing the same thing wrong somehow "right," allow me to remind you of the adage regarding two wrongs not making a right.
And let me tell you: you vote in a liberal like McCain (pro-Amnesty, pro-embryonic stem cell research, anti-Second Amendment, anti-First Amendment) and it'll be like the Reagan revolution never happened.
Words have meaning, folks. If you want to vote for a Republican, vote for John McCain--but don't kid yourself. You won't be voting for a conservative.
I wish like heck that people would stop calling him something he's not.
What an asinine thing to post.
Right. Let McCain outlaw tactics like waterboarding, close facitities like Gitmo, and that’s supporting the troops ?
Not in my book.
McCain needs to stop cosying up to Ted Kennedy before he becomes even mildly acceptable.
So instead we get a McCain who abandons Vietnam-era POWs/MIAs at the behest of his buddy Kerry and to stop the release of papers that might prove McCain was not a POW hero ?
Also calling for staying in Iraq for 100 years is not helpful. Do you want troops sent around the world, much as they are now, as the world’s policemen ?
To me that’s not supporting the troops.
And a VP has what power, precisely, other than being a tiebreaker in the Senate ?
And a “maverick”, I know better than you elite liberal, with a history of despising conservatives, will listen to a powerless VP ?
Go ahead, shut your mind off and delude yourself.
With that kind of statement, it is obvious you are a liberal lurker.
What power would a conservative VP have with McCain, well known for thoroughly disliking conservatives ?
Please enumerate.
No deal. I don’t want an R elected who is easily as stupid as Ted Kennedy and is willing to be a tool used by the left.
He could select a Conservative VP and sign a contract on himself. That might do it.
As stupid as he is he would walk right over the side.
Go ahead, prove these people wrong. They’re waiting.
http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/
“John, family members of Vietnam POW/MIA(s) have been waiting for more then 14 years for you to have the courage to face them eye to eye in front of the American Public - Here is your opportunity for some “STRAIGHT TALK.” Stop hiding behind your fabricated “War Hero” persona. You know we can prove your collaborations with declassified government documents . . . It is time for the American people to get to know the REAL John McCain - the John McCain that the POW/MIA families witnessed during the 1991-93 US Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs.”
It’s not just me, pal. Whenever someone proclaims something laudatory about themselves loudly over and over for 40 years and uses it to stifle criticism, my BS meter goes to overload.
We have the advantage.
The double talk express will be kissing Rat a$$ to who held the chunk if he gets into office.
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