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 ...
“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.”
I think you’re correct. I remember when McCain brokered that deal. It seemed at the time that the judge issue was either dead in the water, or the “nuclear” option would have to be played. Given that we’re now dealing with a Dem. congress, and very likely a Dem president in 08, I for one am glad the nuclear option got scrapped.
I think he should just spend more time at the dog tracks with the other senile, old men.
Romney has adapted and succeeded in every job he has taken on.
McCain would make a great Vice-President, with Romney at the top.
Plus, it would get him (McCain) out of the US Senate where he has been awful for the conservative agenda the past 15 years. (McCain-Feingold, Gang-of-14, Amnesty for Illegals, Voted against numerous Bush tax cuts, etc)
If not for McCain's steady support for the Iraq war, the My-Way-or-the-Highway 3%-ers on FR would be calling him a wimp RINO liberal flip-flopping liar scum.
Oh wait. Some of them are.... never mind.
PS -- I respect and even like John McCain, despite his quirky politics.
And just how long do you think it will take a Democrat controlled Senate to overturn the filibuster option under such circumstances?
Granted, they will probably try to peel off a few weak Republicans first. But failing that, they will do exactly what Trent Lott was afraid to do and change the rules.
Ummm ... Isn't that how we ended up with eight years of Bill & Hillary Clinton in the White House starting in 1992?
"George Bush the Elder is a RINO and not conservative enough so let's cut off our noses to spite our face and put the Clintons in the White House with only 42.9% of the popular vote."
Romney has adapted his positions to fit the political winds. On one hand you could say that fooling liberal Massachusetts voters into thinking he was to the left of Ted Kennedy on abortion was a politically shrewd way for a pro-life candidate to sneak into office in Massachusetts, but on the other hand, it doesn’t leave me with much confidence that he’ll stick with the positions he’s currently selling himself to conservative Republicans with. Nor does it give me much confidence that he would have had to backbone or courage of his convictions to stick with Iraq as President Bush and John McCain did through the tough political times.
I think Romney would have folded to the Democrats had he been president over the last couple years. I just don’t see him wanting to inherit the legacy of Iraq or having the interest to spend any political capital on it, as McCain would and President Bush has.
“But failing that, they will do exactly what Trent Lott was afraid to do and change the rules.”
That’s speculation at best. There are enough Dems from Southern & Western states that would never support that. The Dems can’t march in lockstep any more than the Repubs can. Liberal North Easterners may run the Dem party, but without Dem senators from VA, MO Mt LA the Dems are still in the minority. Same goes for the Reps. The majority may be from the South and the West, but losing moderate/liberal states like RI really hurt.
I’ve noticed that many here like to paint everything with the same brush, unfortunately the country is much too big and diverse for that to be a long term strategy.
Leni
I took a test that asked my views on different issues and then it told me what candidate best supported my views....it was McCain....I was shocked, I have never really liked the guy....
As for Kerry courting McCain as VP, there is a reason that got so much traction in the media, the left sees McCain as one of them on many issues.
And what McCain did on the “Gang of 14” was peal away enough Republican Senators to block the attempt to change the Senate Rules that now allow “unconstitutionally” 41 Senators to block judicial appointments.
McCain was against the Bush Tax cuts and thought we should keep taxes high on “the wealthiest Americans” Sounds pretty Marxist to me.
McCain was implicated in the Keeting 5, and now has another lobbiest scandal to contend with. The left isn’t covering it now, but will in any General election.
Yes, Thompson went along with McCain Feingold, but at least he didn’t carve out a special exception for one of his biggest donors like McCain did.
Many Republicans will vote for McCain, but few Conservatives will.
for some reason the headline looked like it said “McCain wide open stance”
Yes, a few of them broke on amnesty, but only because the peasants raised enough fuss and put the fear of God into them. That's unlikely to happen on lesser issues like judges, particularly judges in the lower courts.
Harry Reid is a case study in Democrat behavior from those representing Southern & Western states. Look up his voting record before he became majority leader. It was actually fairly moderate, along the lines of Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) or Arlen Specter (RINO-Pennsylvania).
Now it is as far left as Teddy Kennedy or Osama Obama (who, thankfully, is missing a lot of votes due to his presidential campaign). What makes you think some even greater idiot such as Mary Landreau(La) or Claire McCaskell(Mo) will behave any differently once they have an even bigger majority in the senate?
McCain is a clone of Ted Kennedy on immigration, CFR, taxes, etc.. We conservatives in Az know all about him. The only reason he keeps getting re-elected is because liberals keep crossing party-lines and voting for him.
In 2004 he won with 77% of the vote. A landslide x 5.
When has McCain supported raising taxes?
Regarding campaign finance reform, immigration, and voting against the Bush tax cuts (because pork spending wasn’t cut), McCain has admitted he was wrong.
“What makes you think some even greater idiot such as Mary Landreau(La) or Claire McCaskell(Mo) will behave any differently once they have an even bigger majority in the senate?”
Because they have to get re-elected in their home states. Reid is a bit different in that he had to shift far left to get in a position of leadership in the senate, but the Southern Dems break ranks fairly often due to the fact that the South is generally more conservative. It’s one of the reasons the Dem senate has such a low approval rating. The Dems can’t defund the war or push socialized medicine without the lockstep mentality, and the Dems from conservative states can’t march in lockstep and still get re-elected.
If its McCain or wasting a vote on a third party to stop a Clinton, Obama or Edwards presidency, I’m betting nearly every conservative will swallow hard, bite their tongue, hold their nose and vote for John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Guiliani or Mitt Romney.
Folks will get really politically pragmatic in a hurry in the face of a liberal Democrat becoming the next president.
Well said. He’s not my first choice but I can live with him. He’s probably got the best fiscal conservative credentials of all the candidates except Paul - a point of irritation with the current Pres. He voted against the Medicare drug benefit for example.
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