Posted on 02/23/2008 10:56:29 AM PST by Bob J
Ever since Super Tuesday a super debate has been raging on FR concerning John McCain. I was never a McCain supporter, in fact I penned the post Super Tuesday post "Official FR Drinking Thread" so we could together drown our common disappointments into oblivion.
FReepers seem to be moving into three distinct groups. The first are those that have always supported McCain, a lot or partially. There are those that don't like McCain but are willing to support him because they believe they will get some of what they want or to defeat what the see as the more critical danger, Obama or Clinton. The there's the third group, those that viscerally dislike McCain and vow never to vote for him for any reason.
The actions and motivation for support from the first two groups seem obvious...they would rather see McCain in the White House than a dem. But for the life of me I cannot understand some of the actions of the third.
Allow me to explain.
I understand you dislike McCain and the reasons why. He is far too liberal on many issues, he has stabbed conservatives in the back several times and he is too cozy with the dems. These are all defensible reasons to not vote for him or to vote third party and you have every right to vote as you see fit and for whatever reasons you hold. What I don't understand is why some here are making such concerted efforts to dissuade others from voting for or supporting him.
As flawed as McCain is there is no way a logical case can be made that we would be better off under Obama or Hillary (O&H). Even on most issues where McCain is closer to the left than to us, O&H are much farther to the left than he is and would do much more damage than McCain. On the issues where he is not, the WOT, taxes, abortion, etc., the differences are stark and this does not even take into count extended issues like judicial appointments.
So why are you working so hard, so viscerlly, so nasty, to turn votes against McCain? If you truly feel as you do than go sit out November or cast your vote for your 3rd party candidate. That makes sense. What doesn't make sense is why you push for a McCain and GOP loss.
It may be as simple as "misery loves company". It may be that you validate your own position by getting others to believe as you do. It may be that there are some dem propaganda plants on FR. I don't know but I sure would like to and I know others do as well.
Yes they did. Go do what you have to then.
Absolutely brilliant! Completely without flaw- Kudos, my FRiend.
Mine is so simple I can put it in a walnutshell. Who is Ahmadinejad rooting for this fall?
Uh, I think some on here simply are enamored of Huckabee and want to persuade as many as possible to vote for him; or another thing, too, is that there are some on here from over on Democratic Underground (DU) who want to act like they’re conservatives and sway as many as possible to just stay home on election day. - I’ll probably hold my nose and vote for McCain if he’s the nominee. He’s going to have to keep his temper in check and not torpedo his own campaign. I’m afraid the salvo from the NYTimes isn’t the first shot to be fired across the bow of the good ship McCain. It looks like McCain may have done enough stuff to sink his own ship without our help. However, on the outside CHANCE that McCain might decide to quit stabbing us conservatives in the back - especially where the Supreme Court is concerned - a lot of us will probably vote for him. I will say some in his campaign staff give us pause as far as hopes for less of the likes of Souter is concerned.
I certainly hope the Republican party officials take notice. For all the phone calls and letters they’ve sent begging for my money and vote I hope they come away realizing they have some work ahead of them.
re: #273
Thank you for a very thoughtful post.
Have Clinton and Obama?
Supporting his election because McCain isn't Reagan or because your underwear is askew or any other excuse you come up with, is aiding and abetting the destruction of western civilization, and isn't conservative in the slightest.
Hey, Bob! How did you correct the spelling in your post without an edit thing showing up?
Um...McCain refused to make the Bush tax cuts permanent. He refused to even get rid of the death tax-McCain, Obama and Clinton votes the same way in this matter.
“The Republican primaries are a mess and need to be fixed. The only consolation there is that the Dem primary system is an even bigger mess. A small consolation but entertaining.”
They are definitely a mess. McCain had only won about 35% of the votes when he became the putative nominee. It’s as if states were electing governors and senators on one voting day with no runoffs. That’s a huge problem in these winner take all states.
If all delegates were distributed proportionally, McCain would have a small lead over, probably Romney and Huckabee and we’d definitely be looking at a brokered convention. That’s be a definite improvement over our 35% nominee John McCain.
And, the absurd amount of time and effort and money spent in Iowa and NH is beyond ridiculous. As much as those states would whine, we need to end that and have an initial voting day that includes several states from various parts of the nation (a mix of red and blue) that would be more representative of the nation as a whole.
That’s nice. Thank you.
Thank you. I appreciate that. You take care.
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.