Posted on 07/31/2009 6:33:12 PM PDT by Al B.
John McCain is red in the face and hopping mad. I’m sitting in his office in the Senate Russell Office Building, and he’s just rushed in after delivering a speech on the Senate floor where he seethed about the earmarks in the Homeland Security Bill.
“Can you believe they are putting $6 million of pork into Homeland Security?” he asks with his trademark clenched-fists.
[...]
He says he has worked to keep his relations with President Barack Obama “cordial,” but he pulls no punches criticizing the president’s economic policies.
[...]
He certainly was dealt a lousy hand. .....Why did he suspend his campaign, and why did he vote for the $700 billion bank bailout plan, which was wildly unpopular with voters?
“You have no idea the pressure I was under,” he says. “I remember being on the phone with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the Treasury secretary and ... Bernanke. They assure me the world financial system is going to collapse if I don’t vote for the bill.
[...]
If the market crash was the low point, I ask him for his best memory from the campaign. “The high point, I think, was the convention, the selection of Sarah Palin, and the enthusiasm that was generated all over the country.” His fondness for Mrs. Palin and her family strikes me as from the heart; he believes she was a net asset for the ticket.
“Let’s face it,” he says, “she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere she went she drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds like a rock star.” He says his only regret in selecting the Alaska governor was that no one on the campaign predicted the ferocity of the assaults against her. “To the liberal left, particularly the feminists, she is their worst nightmare.”
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Juan, running for re-election.
McCain blames Bush for making him vote for the bailout under Bushosocialist.
That vote cost him the election, and us our country.
Yet conservatives had warned Mr. McCain that he would remain a media darling up until the moment he won the GOP nomination, at which time they would rip him apart. I’m only surprised that he was surprised this happened. "
Freek'n idiot. But we knew that.
Next RINO, room 1A, Media Love Shack Room. Bring jelly and a riding bit.
P.T. Barnum. "There's a sucker RINO born every minute."
This is what hurts the Right the most. Bush did us no fecking favors by actuating the 'dis-economy'. Zero has opened the wound exponentially but to excuse the Bush admin.'s complicity is disingenuous.
Yup. And, even if he lost, he wouldn’t of been played as a sucker.
He’s done. Turkey meet fork.
About damn time he defend Sarah Palin, but what Mac forgets is that it was those in his own inner circle who were the ones bashing her, Nicole Wallace, Steve Schmidt, shall I go on..It was those people that he chose, they were Romney people, and he chose them, and they bit him in the ass. The ONLY reason why he did not lose in a landslide was because of Sarah Palin. I would never have voted for him if it hadn’t been for her. I applaud McCain for his comments about her but I am VERY skeptical, he has a rough election coming up in 2010, sounds to me like he is looking for the Sarah Palin magic to come in and bail him out and help him win
Good on him for coming around as strongly as he has for Palin. I’m sure running for president (at any age!) is taxing, then losing is tough. Sounds to me like he might have got turned against her by some of his aides in the heat of the loss, but she has shown incredible leadership and grace in always speaking highly and appreciatively of him—and I think it has paid off.
Who knows, by 2012 he could even maybe rustle up some of his RINO friends to support her publicly—when she’ll also need all the squishy Republican and moderate votes she can get.
It’s all right with me if she goes down and secures McCain’s seat for him against a Democrat, and while she’s at it she could back the new Republican governor running for a full term.
McCain has never had a good word to say about Palin, now this? Kind of odd. McCain has also never tried to reign in his backstabbing staffers who continuously attack Palin with anonymous leaks to the media.
The other thing that struck me is he seems tormented by his TARP vote. Sux for him and more importantly sux for America. It cost him the election.
He should have gone all out against Obama, and called him what he is, a nationalist socialist Utopian with false ideas of his own grandeur, in order to ram his totalitarian agenda down the throats of ordinary Americans.McCain wouldn't do it. So now the people have to get rid of the lot.
I bet it’s taken him a bit to come to terms with realizing he got pressured and snookered into pretty much giving the Presidency away. But you’re right, he’s taking full responsibility all around, it seems.
I also get the sense that he’s come around to taking some pride in Palin’s being such a huge draw to this day. That her continued success only seems to vindicate if not glorify his choice of veep means he can be genuinely supportive.
There's yer trouble. A real leader doesn't give a shoot about pressure from others.
I also seethe when he cites Palin's strength by generating crowds and enthusiasm, while leaving out her immense fund-raising prowess (without even trying). I do a slow burn when he talks about how poorly the media treated Sarah, because when they did, mclame failed to get red-faced and clench-teethed in her defense. So screw him. I hope JD Hayworth trounces him in the primary.
Too little, too late. If the “Maverick” can’t stand up to his own party, how can we expect him to stand up to the Socialists? We can’t.
Unfortunately, what you say is also true. But I have a feeling the people will keep his wildest ambitions in check from now until they get him out of office in ‘12. Our battle is to make sure we don’t nominate another Demopublican as our candidate.
He hasn’t done anything about the backstabbers, but he’s been quite supportive of her over the last month.
It’s true that McCain never reined in his campaign staff who attacked Sarah Palin. How much control he had over them after the election is yet another story.
But it’s not true that he’s never had a good word to say about her. I’ve heard him praise her any number of times and never heard him say anything negative about her. He refused shortly after the election and thereafter to get boxed into backing her in ‘12, but there’s nothing wrong with that. Who knows if she’s actually going to run in ‘12? If she does, I am sure he will ‘be there’ for her.
Please go away John. Just go away.
Don’t be fooled. It is time to start getting ready for his 2010 run for re-election and he has to make some noises like a conservative. He thinks we will forget he voted for the original bail out and wants to blame it all on Bush. Yep, Bush is to blame for the bill, but McCain voted for it all on his own. As for Sarah, he is the one that was trashing her to start with, using his people to do it, setting her up with Katie for interviews etc. Don’t come crying to me McCain, I don’t want to hear it.
Whether it's "from the heart" or not, he's still smart enough to know that millions of voters think her selection was the only thing he did right in the campaign.
He wants her to save his ass in 2010.
That was the very moment that I knew he was beat.
Dumbazz!
Obama is far from being contained.He only gives the "appearance " of being contained to placate his enemies.
Obama is up to a plethora of dirty tricks, among them for example, causing the downfall of the government of Kenya so Rial Odinga can rule it.Its already on the go. And now Obama has the chief executive fat cats of all the pharmaceutical companies in his sights, after having destroyed auto industry executives, and before them, many bank executives, not to mention the Cambridge MA police department.Soon it will get around to being our turn.
And will we sit back and take it and only whimper and whine like the corporate fat cats did?
Time will tell.
And if he asks her, she'll do it even if it costs her with her supporters. Loyalty and honor mean something to her.
Well, Pawlenty, Romney, , and Christ haven't announced either, but McCain has pointed them out as the guiding light of the Republican party. And it wasn't because he forgot, because he mentioned he left someone off this list in the next sentence. That was a backhanded slap of Palin. McCain has repeatedly left Palin off when talking about possible GOP candidates. McCain says nice things about Palin as a person and her family, but refuses to suggest she is presidential material.
McCain knows Palin is the darling of the conservative movement. I think McCain figured Palin would fade away like Geraldine after the loss, but Palin is still the hottest commodity in the GOP.
You got that right!!!
Doesn't he read anything? Doesn't he listen to anyone out of the Beltway Bubble? People have been telling him for a decade or more, that his arrangement with the media, will last only as long as he is useful in bashing fellow Republicans. When he was going to go up against a Democrat presidential candidate, the media would turn on him. This was obvious and no surprised. And McCain is "perplexed" about this? Weasel. Tool.
Oh REALLY? Or did he get the hand he CHOSE and ultimately deserved!!! I can't count the times I was personally on the phone to his team begging him to step up and be a real leader. I sent them ads. I sent them ideas. I demanded he NOT vote for the TARP bill. I begged them to tell him to be a 100% real genuine Conservative (with a capital "C") for once. But he insisted on bringing a billyclub to a gunfight, because he thought it was more gentlemanly and would appeal to the middle better, and he got handed his posterior on a platter with only himself to blame for the outcome.
The sad part is that WE and this beloved USA now all get to suffer for his lack of campaign fortitude. As I told his staff the last time I talked to them, I was voting for Sarah because McCain had convinced me himself NOT to vote for HIM!!!
Yes, the economic collapse, that was the moment to say, “Gosh, Ron Paul was right... He has been predicting this...” He could have galvanized the conservatives, instead, the critical mass, the Paulites, either did not vote, or voted for Bama.
Instead he gave trillions to the very people that made this mess.
McCain is a dupe. You don’t maintain “cordial relations” with a man who is literally opposed to everything this country stands for. Obama may be a natural born citizen, but he’s no American. Nevertheless, McCain wants to maintain cordial relations—unbelievable!
McCain—the Neville Chamberlain Republican.
My FINAL email to the McCain campaign:
Thank you for your kind message. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really a part of the McCain campaign -— although I contacted y’all repeatedly by phone and by email, neither I nor millions of other conservatives just like me found any interest in our suggestions or opinions from Camp McCain. You walked away from US.
My only hope and goal now is to lobby the RNC to get the rules changed so that the primaries are closed to Democrats and independents, so that our next Republican standard bearer is actually a REPUBLICAN in heart and soul and we don’t get another John McCain foisted upon us by others. McCain was so busy “reaching across the aisle” that he had no time for the conservatives in his own party -— and actually even seemed to enjoy sticking his fingers in our eyes just to spite us. At least I “held my nose” as his Mom suggested and voted for McCain instead of just staying home as so many others did.
Well, I hope McCain now sees how his fair weather bipartisan friends stand when he needs reciprocity and someone at his back -— I’ll bet exactly -0- of them besides Lieberman actually voted for him -— but I sincerely suspect that he will be back in the Senate sucking up to the Democrats and laboring under his delusion that the reason he didn’t win was because he wasn’t bipartisan enough.
I know this isn’t what you wanted to hear at the end of the campaign -— but call it “tough love” in case you are asked to help with another candidate at some time in the future.
My last rather sarcastic political ad/cartoon suggestion I sent to the McCain campaign:
SCENE ONE:
McCain Campaign rally -— Republican comes to the microphone and says, “You have to tell people that Obama has worked with and for ACORN for YEARS, and that ACORN is responsible for causing the mortgage crisis and rampant voter fraud that may steal the election.”
McCain responds, “I’m not going there.”
SCENE TWO:
McCain Campaign rally -— Republican comes to the microphone and says, “You have to tell people that Obama’s ‘tax cut’ is really a REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH SCHEME that takes money away from earners and sends government checks to people who don’t pay ANY TAXES already.”
McCain responds, “I’m not going there.”
SCENE THREE:
McCain standing off at a distance looking wistfully toward the White House and finally wishing he had listened to his base.
McCain sighs and says, “I’m not going there.”
PLEASE WAKE UP BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!
This article suggests that perhaps he's struggling to come to honest terms with what happened to him although his comments about not understanding why the media turned on him says he still has a long way to go. I guarantee you Sarah Palin has learned the lesson he should long ago have learned.
I'm deeply upset with him as you are but I do hope he can find some peace.
If he would have taken advantage of her popularity and realized it was mostly because of her deep love for our country and her solid conservative belief and then learn from her and change into a conservative (Yea that would have been a magic moment) he may have gotten somewhere.I ask him for his best memory from the campaign. “The high point, I think, was the convention, the selection of Sarah Palin, and the enthusiasm that was generated all over the country.” His fondness for Mrs. Palin and her family strikes me as from the heart; he believes she was a net asset for the ticket.
“Let’s face it,” he says, “she galvanized our base in a way that I couldn’t. Everywhere she went she drew enormous and enthusiastic crowds like a rock star.” He says his only regret in selecting the Alaska governor was that no one on the campaign predicted the ferocity of the assaults against her. “To the liberal left, particularly the feminists, she is their worst nightmare.”
He worked to destroy her, and still is.
This stuff he is saying now is just political platitudinous spin to make him look good.
Ain't working McCa'int.
AZ has to run a conservative against him next election.
Even as I knew Obama was an unreconstructed and utterly inexperienced socialist of dubious competence, I was seriously considering staying home on Election day 2008, or wasting my vote on the Libertarian Party candidate, until McCain picked Palin for VP. (I live in Missouri—a few votes here and there really make a difference.)
I wound up voting for Palin, not for McCain.
I still don’t forgive him for McCain-Feingold, and would love to see a true traditional Western-American libertarian/populist/conservative (a real Reaganite, like Palin is) beat McCain in a primary.
Precious few Republicans in Washington are not “Has-beens.” DeMint in the Senate has great potential as a future CONSERVATIVE leader, as do Michelle Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn in the House. There may be a half-dozen in the Senate and a couple of dozen in the house worthy of Conservative support. And toss in two or three Governors (in Sarah’s case, an ex-Governor)...
Republicans, as a party, are virtually dead. The McCainiacs have killed it. Even if McCain is fond of Sarah, it is HIS people who have been pushing the Media and Democrats to try and destroy her. And McCain’s pal Lindsey Graham — well, he’s a disgrace to South Carolina.
In 2010, IF the Republicans make gains in the House and Senate — or even surge to retake them — would it REALLY make a difference? They might perceivably slow the move toward Statist Socialism, but I don’t see them reversing it, much less ridding Washington and the nation of it...
No. McCain has had good things to say about Sarah all along.
No he didn't and no he isn't.
Of course he is.
He put her on the back burner when he picked her for VP, and after the election he said negative things about her.
So is and has Romney
Plus almost all of the establishment republican pundits and politicians want her marginalized and snipe at her all the time.
Hey, Mcshame. Go Away. You had your chance to bring all this stuff up. Now you are just another defeated presidential candidate along with Ralph Nader and Lyndon Larouche. You don’t count. If you wanted to be revelant, well then you should have listened to your voters, not your handlers. You had an ace in the hole with Gov Palin, but you turned on her, you IDIOT and by your pansy actions, allowed an angry marxist incompetant to occupy the White House of OUR COUNTRY. You are just as complicit as the freakin media and the marxist party. Go the hell away and shut the hell up.
Many health workers voted Obama, and now their socio-economic disenfranchisement is staring them in the face.Hell of a thing , most are dems.
Wait until that conmes home to roost.
You know Hitler has to destroy the upperclasses of German Society in order to manipulate the "Volk" of the middle class, the non-thinking, knee jerk reactionary liberals, into political power. This is the phase we are no in here in America.A new social order is about to be imposed on America, the top socio-economic strata of our society are being destroyed. Among them doctors, auto execs, and bankers,and that list will soon grow to include anyone who stands in the way of Obama's Utopian nightmare.
Look at the history of national socialism in Germany and Italy for a preview of what is to come. Note also that our government no longer supports Israel.And American Jews had better shut up about that and say nothing, hell they helped elect the idjit.
Obama fears the election of 2012. Stay tuned to see how he will try to suspend it.
What crisis will be created to bring that about?
Yes, he has changed his tune a bit now.
Even Huckabee is taking jabs at her now.
When she left the governorship in Alaska he was quite supportive of her.
He mostly is now, but throws some digs too.
I think he wants to stay on her good side for political advantage.
McCain is doing that now too. He’s pretty transparant though.
Yes, by a Democrat Congress.
On the back burner? I watched her front and center do four or five campaign rallies a day for two months.
...and after the election he said negative things about her.
I disagree. Since the election I've seen only positive quotes from McCain... over and over again.
Document one negative quote from McCain about Palin.
I don't think so.
Their biggest error was in putting Palin up for "ambush" interviews way too soon, before it was seen just how she could draw the crowds. They also failed to fight back and point out that she was NOT running for president, as the media liked to imply constantly.
Bush never fought back either come to that, whether to fight for his Soc Sec reforms or to point out that it was Congress that brought about the Fannie Mae mess, resisting attempts at improved regulation, calling them "racist" etc. GOP still doesn't seem to realize just what they're up against when fighting the Democrats.
This puts it pretty well.
The Media, The Left and GOP Elitists vs. Sarah Palin: A Lesson on How to Destroy a Leader
I was listening to Tammy Bruce a few days ago, apparently this has been proven to be fact even though I had never heard this before, but Cindy McCain was overheard calling Sarah and her family “hicks” during the campaign. Either she called her that to her face or she was overheard saying it. The fact that John McCain never defended his own running mate against the likes of his own wife and his campaign staffers who hated her from the beginning, shows me all I need to know about the guy. Yeah I’m happy he is saying the things he is saying now, but we all know why he’s doing it, to get Sarah to come to Arizona and campaign for him, because he knows that she has CLASS and might do it because she feels this sense of gratitude towards him for bringing her into the national spotlight.
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