Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

As Democrats Fight, McCain Seeks the Middle
The Caucus ^ | April 24th, 2008 | Matt Bai

Posted on 04/24/2008 2:25:21 PM PDT by The_Republican

Having regained some force in Pennsylvania, the tornado of insult and innuendo that is the Democratic Party’s nomination fight will now touch down in four more states. But while Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama regroup this week, John McCain is off doing something that, while lacking the same kind of drama, has a significance of its own. Mr. McCain and his advisers decided this week to embark on a tour of some of the places that symbolize the fragility of America’s promise, even if they aren’t the kind of places that Republicans often go: Selma, Ala.; Youngstown, Ohio; New Orleans; Inez, Ky., the Appalachian town where Lyndon Johnson once touted his War on Poverty.

There’s plenty of political artifice here, of course, and Democrats have been quick to deride the tour as a cynical publicity stunt. In a blast e-mail, the Democratic National Committee pointed out, for instance, that Youngstown is far better off today for having received the kind of congressional earmarks that Mr. McCain has vowed to veto if he becomes president. (Now there’s an interesting strategy for the fall: “Vote Democrat, the Party of Pork.”) But Mr. McCain’s hard-luck tour should not be so blithely dismissed, if for no other reason that it may reveal something about his theory of the electorate that presages a break with his party’s recent past.

Although it seems like it was about 100 years ago, you’ll recall that George W. Bush ran as a “compassionate conservative” in 2000, hoping to blunt the Democratic advantage among some suburban voters. But then came the stark blue and red electoral map that seemed to illustrate American’s hardened cultural divisions, followed closely by the standoff in Florida, and by the time they finally captured Washington.......

(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: independents; indies; mavericks; middle
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 next last
To: roamer_1

Thanks Roamer_1. You nailed it.

Even when Reagan didn’t quite hit the mark, he was a lover of the United States, and understood that Conservatism was the only way to make sure it’s founding principles remained in tact.

Reagan had some terrible things to confront in his day. Focusing on them, he may have let some things slip through that I wouldn’t have.

If he were here with us today, I don’t have one doubt in my mind that he would be supporting sovereignty and sacred borders until his dying breath.

I’ll take a cup of that any day.


21 posted on 04/24/2008 3:02:30 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: The_Republican
No one likes angry aholes.

To be fair, that's only one of McCain's problems.

22 posted on 04/24/2008 3:03:38 PM PDT by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: RJL

He can’t appeal to them?


23 posted on 04/24/2008 3:05:15 PM PDT by The_Republican (Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop

What John says he is won’t matter. What will matter is that everything he does will be blamed on Conservatives, as the media labels him that way for the next eight years.

A man who has very little to actually connect him to us, will none the less cost us dearly as he screws up time after time in our name.

John still claims he’s a Conservative. I’ve seen him do it in the last few weeks. And the media loves to label him that way.


24 posted on 04/24/2008 3:06:53 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

My coordinates are the same as yours.

I’m not drinking the kool-aid - or taking the poison pill!

I do like your tag-line - do you like mine?


25 posted on 04/24/2008 3:07:20 PM PDT by alicewonders (I'm a conservative, and I'm hated by the GOP & the Dems - I must be doing something right!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: goldstategop; DoughtyOne; All

Come the general election, McCain will be toast. The press and the “moderates” he panders to will elect the Democrat. McCain is more critical of us conservatives than he is of the most ardent leftists.


26 posted on 04/24/2008 3:10:40 PM PDT by GunsareOK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: The_Republican
Your tag line:
Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!

How very McCain of you!

27 posted on 04/24/2008 3:20:52 PM PDT by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne
My spectrometer is probably calibrated a bit differently, but I would also place McCain to the left of center (I think the problem is that some folks have caved to the "progressive" line, and calibrate using an extremely relative floating average which extends back less than five years - instead of taking a longer-term political perspective with near-absolute set points). I find McCain to be resting near Kerry (rat POTUS nominee 2004) and right on top of Lieberman (rat VP nominee 2000).

I have no doubt that party-over-principle Republicans would endorse a "REPUBLICAN" Kerry/Lieberman ticket if the only other major-party alternative was an Obama/Gore Democrat ticket. "Lesser evil", and the need to "win" would be the rallying calls, and we would similarly be lambasted for our stubborn refusal to be "pragmatic".

28 posted on 04/24/2008 3:24:20 PM PDT by M203M4 (True Universal Suffrage: Pets of dead illegal-immigrant felons voting Democrat (twice))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: RJL

Absolutely. McCain in the Membrane!!! Its time for Raining McCain Girls to steal that Red-Hot-Chilli Peppers song!!! LOL!

Go McCain! Win! Win the War! Kill Spending! Stop Waste!

Meanwhile, Ovary-Nazis can rot in hell.


29 posted on 04/24/2008 3:25:42 PM PDT by The_Republican (Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: The_Republican
I have stated that John McCain will utterly destroy Conservatism as a movement in the United States.  I have stated that he will accomplish in a couple of years what Hillary couldn't in 16 years.  I have stated that Conservatism under John McCain ceases to be a movement, and becomes only a theory as it fails to be practiced inside this nation.

I stated that the RNC would back McCain policies
I stated that the Republicans in Congress would back his policies if they wanted continued White House access
I stated that the Republicans Leadership in the various states would move left as McCain first made demands and those leadership consented to curry favor
I stated that future candidates would run left of where they otherwise would have, because McCain was elected as a leftist by the RP
I stated that even Conservative forums like this one would move left as McCains appologists attacked those who disagreed with him

This article and your reaction to my expression of belief regarding the implications make it obvious that what I have predicted is coming to pass.

The article confirms one of them.
You confirm another by your disagreement
Then you support another by talking about how to wage campaigns

1. The Republican partyin the state stopped the add.  A voice of Conservatism has gone silent...


If a Campaign doesn’t think that kind of commercial helps them they have a right to complain about it. You are the one who is stifling thoughts.

2. You have given McCain a free pass...
3.  ...don't care that the state Republican Party leadership has sided with him...
4.  ...and are trashing me for objecting.


5. Sean Hannity is loud mouth McCain Basher. What do you think would happen if ran for office? He would not win even a Republican Primary for Congress, much less higher office.

6. You can’t run as angry basher EVEN IF YOUR ARGUMENT IS JUSTIFIED, and hope to form a Majority coalition. No one likes angry aholes. However, concepts of WINNING and MAJORITY are foreign to you.

So now it's your expressed opinion that you have to be an angry basher asshole to express the truth in public?  Wow...

Here you express the thought that you have to move to the left to run as a candidate these days (be sure not to address the liberal antics of your opponent)

The way you win elections is to point out the problems with those you are running against.

Ask George Herbert Walker Bush how successful running a respectful campaign is.  He was loathe to address Clinton's problems.  That sure worked.

30 posted on 04/24/2008 3:27:31 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: alicewonders

You bet I do. Are you single? LOL, I’m not. Just kidding.

I like seeing women with a good head on their shoulders.


31 posted on 04/24/2008 3:29:59 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: GunsareOK

I too think folks are forgetting what the press is going to do to McCain. Good luck John. He’s going to be torn to shreds in ways we haven’t seen before IMO. Those who defended him here are going to want ot crawl into a hole and pull a rock in after them by the time the press is done.

I wish I could defend John. Instead I’ll just back and say, “We told you so, and you were too smart to listen. Drink up!”


32 posted on 04/24/2008 3:32:47 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: M203M4

I agree with your comments/comparisons, and I welcome seeing others make them. Good call.


33 posted on 04/24/2008 3:37:38 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (McCain is a poison pill. Accept it! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2006492/posts)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: The_Republican
Go McCain! Win! Win the War! Kill Spending! Stop Waste!

We're veering terribly close to real issues here.

One of many problems with McCain is his irrational thinking.

I've seen video of McCain talking about McCain/Feingold. He said he saw the corrupting influence of of money in Congress.

Did McCain report or stop the likely illegal corruption? No. Instead he decided he had to get the money out of politics.

Did McCain get the money out of politics? No. Did McCain do what Congress does best and apply a 90%, 95% or even 99% tax on contributions that would would get money out of politics? No.

McCain decided that the best way to get money out of politics was to take away portions of our civil right to free political speech. We can't say his name in opposition advertisements 60 days before an election.

I have a real problem with McCain who thinks that the answer to a corrupt Congress is to take away my civil right to free political speech.

34 posted on 04/24/2008 3:44:14 PM PDT by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: RJL

Sshhh........527s. Don’t let anyone know I told you about it.


35 posted on 04/24/2008 3:50:21 PM PDT by The_Republican (Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: roamer_1
Calibrated perfectly to Reagan Conservatism

Hey, I've got one of those, too. Had it since, oh, 1979 or so.

The "party before ideology" crowd just can't accept that John McCain made a 90-degree turn to port and just kept on going. The one place that the GOP candidate's compass never, ever points is... to the right.


36 posted on 04/24/2008 3:51:24 PM PDT by Charles Martel (The Tree of Liberty thirsts.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne

Thanks! I’m married - 34 years this fall. I’m just glad to see there are still people around here that are thinking this thing through long term. I’m with whoever said up-thread that they hoped he had a melt-down before the convention.

Oh please, please make it so.


37 posted on 04/24/2008 3:58:35 PM PDT by alicewonders (I'm a conservative, and I'm hated by the GOP & the Dems - I must be doing something right!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: DoughtyOne
If he were here with us today, I don’t have one doubt in my mind that he would be supporting sovereignty and sacred borders until his dying breath.

Absolutely.

I’ll take a cup of that any day.

Me too! Cheers!

38 posted on 04/24/2008 4:05:34 PM PDT by roamer_1 (Globalism is just Socialism in a business suit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: The_Republican
Sshhh........527s. Don’t let anyone know I told you about it.

So in the place of my civil right to free political speech, I can jump through a bunch of legal hoops and maybe I'll be allowed to speak?

How generous of you and Mr McCain!

39 posted on 04/24/2008 4:09:47 PM PDT by RJL
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: RJL

Oh believe me....you had to do the same before....


40 posted on 04/24/2008 4:12:22 PM PDT by The_Republican (Ovaries of the World Unite! Rush, Laura, Ann, Greta - Time for the Ovulation!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-60 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson