John McCain Does The Impossible [convinces others that the right man won in 2008]

National Review Online ^ | 2009-01-23 | Jim Geraghty

[OpeEdMunkey]

Whatever McCain may be he is certainly neither dishonorable nor a coward. I'd say he's proved that beyond question.

[trillabodilla]

Why in the world did he run if he didn’t want to win?

[OpeEdMunkey]

If the economy had not tanked McCain would be president right now.

Of course if our current president had been a white guy named
Barry O’Bama McCain would be president now as well having defeated Hillary Clinton.

[KC_Conspirator]

I really don’t get the stupidity of McCain and few others over this. All it does is make one a useful idiot for the media.

[stockstrader]

Why in the world did he run if he didn’t want to win?

How about this instead....

WHY IN THE WORLD DID THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NOMINATE HIM?

[Old Time American]

I disagree. He has not read, or at least does not comprehend, the constitution. I also think he was afraid of Sarah Palin.

[Iron Munro]

It really makes you wonder if, deep down, the guy sabotaged his own campaign.

I started to believe in that possibility when I saw how his campaign people sabotaged Sarah Palin. It was either McCain, moles in his campaign, or both.

The way he and his staff treated Sarah before and after the election convinced me he himself is complicit.

1. Initially his staff kept her away from the press.
2. Then they set up the worst possible venues for her interviews.
3. The staff insisted she do the second and third interviews with Katie Couric against her own wishes and instincts.
4. They sabotaged efforts of Sarah and her real supporters to set up an interview with Reilly (and possibly others) on FOX.
5. McCain's staff continued their anti-Sarah efforts after the election and McCain himself acted miffed about her part in the campaign, not even offering a positive word on her behalf when she was attacked by his own staff.

Why would they do this?

I suspect she was selected as a running mate who could make it appear he was making a serious effort to go after the Hillary voters and a win but someone they believed would not really do much to boost the campaign.

They were no doubt really taken aback by her instant and overwhelming popularity and realized there was a possibility she could actually propel them to a win. McCain might have even been a little miffed that he was being overshadowed by his running mate and the realization that she could bring in party loyalists and conservatives that wouldn't have voted for McCain himself.

Whatever the reasons, he acted like a petulant child with Sarah after the election but has been bubbling over with enthusiasm for the people he, supposedly, was trying to defeat.

McCain is once again showing his true colors.
Picking McCain as the republican candidate was like the democrats picking Karl Rove.
I hope the republican party can come to its senses before 2012, but I don't see it happening yet.

[Cedric]

In a very real sense, the Republicans did not nominate McCain.

Thanks to the GOP’s “open” primaries.

[stockstrader]

Picking McCain as the republican candidate was like the democrats picking Karl Rove.

Again, the Republican Party nominated him. He WON the primaries--no use pointing fingers.

Republicans everywhere KNEW WHAT HE WAS ALL ABOUT before they voted for him and nominated him!!!

[Arrowhead1952]

Why doesn’t he just put a D next to his name.

IIRC, He was almost picked by sKerry as the dim VP candidate. Here is an old FR thread.

Kerry: McCain Asked To Be My VP In 2004

[Cedric]

You share the same basic premise.

And that premise is absurd.

[mike.musculus]

Cedric, just write down in a notebook all that he did during his campaign, without any reference to whom the facts belong.

Wait 3 weeks or a month, and then go back to the notebook. Or better yet, hand it to someone politically unaware and ask them to read it but don't ID the person committing the actions and tell them it was a "race for governer". Ask him if he thinks that person threw "the governers' race".

I did this, as an experiment, with one of my sons.
It opened his eyes when I gave him the 2nd notebook that attributed all the quotes, votes, and actions.

Its amazing how much of our thought processes are colored by presupposition.

This isn't a knock, but it seems that you are among those who continually cut McCain slack because of his time as a POW. That you take it into consideration is commendable, but he isn't that man. He's not just going-along-to-get-along, he's actually pushing as hard as possible for the Socialists.

Have you noticed his gut response to anything is to trash Conservatives? Even when they're on his side, he can't resist the low-blow. If you read statements of his from biographies of his and the past Senator (maybe it was a Governor, its been a few years since I read it...) from AZ (a Dem) he gushes at how this guy mentored him and he always feels more at home w/the direction of the Dem party.

He's even said that the Dems are a fine party, and their ideas are America's future, but that "the Republican Party has lost its way."

Is that a statement you agree with? If not, instead of defending him, help defeat him. In my view, it doesn't matter if Socialism is succored by somebody with an "R" or a "D" after their names, nor that they might mean well.

Everyone dumps on "purists" -- not saying you do, but the call is to be "practical".
Well, as a practical matter, if we let ourselves get there by tiny steps, we're still there. If we reward Socialist empowering actions, we'll get more of those actions.

[VRWCtaz]

"I think Sarah Palin is truly the only useful and lasting contribution the McCain campaign will have to the future of American conservatism."

Anyone wishing to hear a true conservative voice should read the text of the Governor's SOTS speech. As I read it I could almost hear Ronald Reagan's voice saying some of the words. It has that same optimistic tone of American exceptional-ism and potential that we all so loved about our fortieth President.

[Will88]

Can anyone name a more detestable character on the national political scene at present?

[Cedric]

McCain was a horrible candidate, nominated through a flawed primary system.

He did not “throw” the election.

To believe so is daffy.

[Eva]

Unfortunately, for all concerned, John McCain is just not the brightest bulb on the tree. It is all about him being the center of attention. I said all through the primary that I would not vote for McCain, that is until he nominated Sarah Palin and I started to think that maybe I had been wrong about McCain. I wasn’t wrong, I feel duped. I still would have voted for the man, but I should have been holding my nose, and I wasn’t.

Lindsey Graham is gay. That says it all about why he is what he is, but McCain has no excuse.

[Cedric]

Can anyone name a more detestable character on the national political scene at present?

Soros and his puppet, Obama.

[uncommonsense]

"It really makes you wonder if, deep down, the guy sabatoged his own campaign."

It seemed obvious to me at the time, otherwise, his actions didn't make sense.

[Cedric]

It really makes you wonder if, deep down, the guy sabatoged his own campaign.

How 'bout the incredibly moronic things Biden said, was he trying to sabotage Obama's campaign?

[rbg81]

His service to country aside, the problem with John McCain is that he is, at his core, a boob. And the MSM knew it too. They built him up and egged him on all these years so he could do what he was geneticially programmed to do: lose.

The only ones who are bigger fools than JM are those who drank the koolaide and voted for him. Not sure Romney would have won, but he had his economic bonifides and would have (at least) run a more credible campaign than McCain. I got flamed many times on FR for supporting Romney, but we all get what we deserve, I suppose. After all, who is the bigger fool: the fool or the one who votes for him?