Posted on 02/27/2007 4:26:35 PM PST by pissant
It’s been a steady downhill slide for John McCain ever since rumors began that he was jumping into the 2008 presidential race. The GOP in Arizona elected anti-illegal immigration champion Randy Pullen as its state chair last month, sending a message to McCain that his moderate views would not control the GOP in Arizona. Immediately after Pullen’s election, the entire staff of the state GOP resigned, ostensibly because the candidate for state chair they saw as pro-McCain had lost. In addition, the New York Times recently reported that the recently elected Maricopa County GOP chairman (greater Phoenix area) Lyle Tuttle occasionally sports a button with “McCain 2008” crossed out.
Arizona’s local liberal PBS station, KAET-8 reports that 54% of Republicans in Arizona support McCain. However, their polls have been widely discredited in Arizona because of bias in the way the questions are phrased and the sample of voters surveyed, which frequently include registered voters not likely to vote (who tend to vote more liberal). And this particular poll was taken in response to a presidential straw poll by the Maricopa County GOP of Republican precinct committeemen which put McCain in 4th place behind U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. McCain also came out 1st in the straw poll’s list of “unacceptable candidates.” The straw poll was dismissed by skeptics for various reasons, many of which are discussed in detail on the Sonoran Alliance Arizona political blog. However, the question remains, which poll of likely Republican voters can you trust more – one which surveys Arizona Republicans active in GOP politics, or a poll by the local liberal PBS station which surveys all Republican registered voters, whether they vote or not?
McCain’s lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union is only an 83 – it’s continued to go down over the years. In 2002 his lifetime rating was 85, but in 2004 it plummeted to 72 and stayed at 80 in 2005. In comparison, presidential candidates U.S. Senator Brownback has a lifetime score of 95 and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter has a 92. McCain isn’t beating Republicans for the liberal Republican vote either, Giuliani is beating him by huge margins in virtually every poll.
McCain has alienated most Christian conservatives by calling them “agents of intolerance” and voting for federal funding of fetal stem cell research. His temper is well-known and considered a potential liability in the White House where life-and-death decisions must be frequently made in tense situations. His waffling on issues over the years have become frequent fodder for political shows like Chris Matthews’ Hardball as well as a barrage of videos on Youtube displaying his contradictory positions on multiple issues. Most conservatives don’t agree with the campaign finance bill he sponsored in 2002 with liberal Senator Russ Feingold, which cut off groups like the NRA and the Christian Coalition from contributing money to political parties – restricting free speech. As has happened in the past when campaign finance restrictions are passed, others just found a way around it, as was seen in the 2004 presidential race by 527’s such as Moveon.org and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Most recently, McCain’s criticism of Bush’s former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld angered a lot of Republicans who view Rumsfeld as a hero. “We are paying a heavy price for the mismanagement, that’s the kindest word I can give you. I think Donald Rumsfeld will go down in history as one of the worst secretaries of defense in history,” McCain said on February 19, 2007. This is how a Republican presidential candidate characterizes a top cabinet official from the prior Republican administration, with a barb declaring his secretary of defense as worse than even the most liberal Democratic secretaries of defense? Continuing to say off-the-cuff remarks are adding up against McCain and taking a toll.
McCain recently appointed conservative Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona to chair his presidential exploratory committee in Arizona. Unfortunately for McCain, it probably will not make a difference; his support among Republicans has eroded too deeply; his second wind at a presidential campaign has already run out of steam before it’s even officially started.
A bit early, don't you think? I'm not a big fan of McCain, but three polls showing him trailing Rudy by a bigger margin do not make him dead. We should wait until the campaign really gets started. He is the establishment candidate.
Think about his actions in the last 10 years or so.
He's done everything he can to get his face on the media cameras without regard to the real damage done by his actions in the Senate (McCain-Feingold....and the list goes on).
Nobody on his campaign staff would ever allow him to think it's all over because they want to draw the rest of their paychecks.
I think it's fairly obvious that he is already toast and we're a long way from when the actual campaign should even be beginning.
Lindsey will just go back to the bath house and get busy..
I know. But I wanted to write about the hearse.
He never had a first run. He was used(egos are so easy to manipulate) by the liberal media as a way to attack Bush.
Diseased, corrupt political diarrhea like this is what cost us the majority in 06. When the party schmucky-mucks insist on commiting suicide, what is a rank and file member to do?
You are not a McCain fan are you?
I like him better than Rudy.
That's the entire Rudy booster argument as well, after you peel away their talking points one by one.
What about the Mittster?
Rudy and McCain are RINOs and worthless.
Hey! That's my line.. I have been using it for over a year or more. LOL But you are welcome to use it, if you use it often.
P.S. Nice dogs. My Grandfather, Dad, and a few uncles ran Walker Hound coyote dogs all their lives.
I think the wheels are falling off the "Straight Talk Express."
Seems funny that we have to go to liberal Hawaii to get an honest conservative assessment of McLame.
Better than McCain(e).
Last question. Hunter?
I like Hunter.
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