Posted on 12/27/2007 5:33:22 AM PST by period end of story
DES MOINES, IOWA — A jet carrying Sen. John McCain of Arizona touched down Wednesday evening on Iowa's western border, marking a remarkable comeback for the veteran politician and opening another intriguing narrative in the wide open Republican field.
After McCain was left for dead politically this summer, his decision to return to a state he skipped altogether in his 2000 bid for the White House is one of the many signs that the GOP contest for president is still a campaign in search of a front-runner.
McCain has surged back into a strong second place in New Hampshire, where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner there, returned Wednesday in the hopes of shoring up his eroding poll numbers. The two men traded angry, long-distance insults that signaled an abrupt end to the convivial Christmas messages that Republican hopefuls offered voters last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
In the meantime, someone is gonna have to jump out in front: perhaps Romney.
I’m thinking now McCain is my second choice if Fred can’t pick himself up off the floor. Just look at the match-ups. McCain would beat either Hillary or Obama. He has the best positives and negatives of any candidate in either party, and he is committed to winning in Iraq and Afghanistan and the GWOT, and he’s the only one with the courage to take on the the pork addiction afflicting BOTH parties.
I don’t think Romney can hold up. And when you compare McCain to Romney, McCain has the experience and the consistency and the principled unwavering positions.
Just say McNO to McRinos!
RINO stampede? Isn’t that the entire GOP race?
McCain is better than most of the front runners on most issues (is Fred even still considered a “front runner”?)
Since we’re stuck with an imperfect candidate no matter what, shouldn’t we pick the one who can at least keep the Clintons from defiling the White House again?
McCain’s only real weakness was immigration, something ALL the candidates are weak on, and he has at least come around, admitted he was wrong, and now favors an enforcement first approach.
So in NH aren’t the Dems allowed to crossover to vote in the Rep primary? The Dems are all out to stop Romney.
Amnesty,
Judges,
McCain Feingold.
1st choice by Dems for VP in 04. Need I go on. No McCain, no way.
Amnesty,
Opposed Tax Cuts
Led Gang of 14
Along with Lugar and Hagel, the RINO Senator most loved by the Dems. Need I go on.
Such a conservative that the Dems courted him for VP in 04.
If we nominate a RINO, we deserve to lose.
Kerry had a wet dream about getting McCain on the ticket, because he thought McCain would help him win. And got shot down hard.
No GOP front runner has a record that is any better than McCain’s. They all have flip-flopped. McCain has said he learned from his failure in the Senate and now favors an enforcement first approach. He ought to campaign on taking Arizona’s illegal immigration enforcement policy nationwide. If he did, he could come out on top on that issue.
Fred Thompson was right there with McCain on campaign finance reform. Both have said it didn’t work out the way they had hoped. And it’s over and done with. The most important issue for the next President is going to be standing firm for total victory in Iraq in the face of Democrat opposition. I don’t know that any of the other GOP candidates would want to make that their issues. I think Romney or Huckabee would cave very quickly on it. I have no idea what either Fred or Giuliani would do. I know McCain would stick to his guns.
Out of control spending also looms large, and if anyone has the possibility or political will to do it, it’s McCain.
McCain supported all of President Bush’s judicial nominees, and got several blocked nominees a floor vote. One of the most gross injustices of arrogant ignorance on FR was the mischaracterization of the GOP involvement in the “Gang of 14”. McCain got 7 Democrats to agree to changing their votes on cloture to allow some of the judges they were filibustering to get a vote. And what did McCain give up for this? A couple judges who were already blocked and had no chance of getting a vote. So in other words: absolutely nothing. He “gave up” something he never had in the first place. Don’t blame McCain for outsmarting you along with the Democrats.
McCain has always been strongly pro-life and would nominate good constructionist judges.
I saw that thread a couple of weeks ago.
At this point I’d be shocked if McCain continued this so-called surge.
Mainstream media giving us plenty of choice.
McCain or Hillary, the fix is in.
No Thanks!
How exactly is he more of a “RINO” than any of the others?
Has he ever been pro-abortion?
Is he weak on Iraq or national defense?
Has he ever been for raising taxes?
Is he for a Big Government nanny-state?
Does he have a record of supporting and endorsing Democrats in elections?
What makes him a RINO exactly? Because he’s been worked with Democrats on occasion in the Senate? Because he’s been labeled a “maverick” by the MSM? Looking at his actual positions on the issues, he looks to me to be firmly center right. Sure, he’s not as hardline as some in the GOP, but none of them are running, and they are also ineffective and unelectable. Compared to the others actually running in the GOP field, his opponents all share his weaknesses, but few share any of his strengths, and none share all. I’m looking at the candidates as a whole: experience, Iraq, core issues, electability.
McCain’s only real weakness was immigration, something ALL the candidates are weak on, and he has at least come around, admitted he was wrong, and now favors an enforcement first approach.That's not his ONLY weakness, not by a long shot.
I agree with you that he may have "come around" on that issue. But to me the bigger issue is his sympathy for the "rights of terrorists", his refusal to admit that high-pressured interrogations might save American lives in a battle-field situation and his stated desire to close GITMO.
I admit, against any dem, I would vote for him, but to say that immigration is his ONLY weakness is to ignore McCain's larger lack of leadership qualities.
Thank you for posting this link. It has always, always been a mystery to me how it was we ever got involved. Still to this day I have NO clue why the US put its footprint into EURO affairs.
Second Amendment, global warming, and the issues mentioned above. The problem is McCain is too busy trying to be populist and maverick and ignoring the Constitution and the facts. Thompson and Hunter take stands on these issues rather than try to be Hillary’s veep.
Do you think the MSM label “Maverick” was given to McCain because he is a conservative?????
Every time I’ve ever seen him on the news he was sticking a stick in the eye of the republicans. I think he was the first person that was labeled a RINO.
Lets start with Amnesty and go all the way back to the Keating 5! He has a long, and very bad track record.
McCain is on my WILL NOT VOTE FOR LIST. Period....
Wrong. The facts later came out that McCain sent his chief of staff, John Weaver, to propose to Kerry that he take on McCain as his vp running mate. Kerry rejected it but when word got out he allowed McCain to save face by claiming that he had rejected Kerry.
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