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John McCain reached out to conservatives today in a well-received <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/john_mccains_cpac_spee

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His speech at CPAC did not come near settling these matters.

Remember, that’s the most conservative and consolatory speech you’ll hear from him all year. It’s general election time and he’ll have to move left.

Dear Powerline Authors…

Sorry, I feel you must be kidding.

This was the same stump speech John McCain has made repeatedly on the campaign trail.

Even before he ran to the left, peddling Global Warming populism in NH.

The same McCain supporters cheered him on today, with the Beltway Elites and SENATE ASSOCIATES, trying to provide the ‘image’ of embrace at CPAC.

I realize now, I am going to watch the wholesale decline of credibility from so many, trying to sell John McCain.

Some want to believe in something so desperately, they will fabricate the best.

John McCain lied repeatedly in the Campaign, telling Republicans his vote against TAX CUTS were about spending.

It was CLINTONIAN in it’s spin.

So was the ugly SMEARING OF MR. Romney in Florida and at the Reagan Library.

John McCain is unethical…

It is regretful, but that is reality.

Today, just like the Clintons before their base, after running to center to win an election, Senator McCain plays the game to recoup some support.

The key words ?

“INTEND TO”
They mean nothing…

This is a Senator of 24 years, who has no accomplishment (but a Campaign Finance Bill that limits Free Speech), who is pushing a GASOLINE taxation as a global warming solution !

Oh my…

And some are going to pretend, after one speech, what a wonderful Candidate John McCain is?

His age, deceit, anger, lack of any CEO experience, etc…

John McCain won’t even pour water over the face of a terrorist, when thousands of lives are risk.

It is the same old swindle…

Ignoring the ugly, to maintain a victory over the opposition.

I cannot support that…

One will lose all credibility - sanity in the end.

Our side will recover, but not with John McCain’s deceit and liberal placation.

John McCain is not the future.

The fools who empowered the old Keating 5 Member, those who voted just to ‘win’, the others who have a bias against Mormons, probably have just cost themselves, the GOP, and this Nation dearly.

Republicans will continue to sink because of the tired, bitter, McCain.

He will appear so poorly in the face of a classy, youthful, articulate Mr. Obama.

So many liberals voted to save John McCain in NH, and for good reason.

They know he is easy pickings in the General.

It is no wonder why Liberals are thrilled with the defeat of Mr. Romney.

Perhaps sound reason can make a stand in the Congress, limiting the power of whoever the liberal Senator wins in the end.

Maybe the ethical Republicans remaining in Congress can limit the damage.

John McCain is part of the problem, and supporting him only will make matters worse.

After the first 2/3 of his speech I was ready to work for his campaign, but then he got to his AIPAC pander:

They won’t recognize and seriously address the threat posed by an Iran with nuclear ambitions to our ally, Israel, and the region.

I intend to make unmistakably clear to Iran we will not permit a government that espouses the destruction of the State of Israel as its fondest wish and pledges undying enmity to the United States to possess the weapons to advance their malevolent ambitions.

Good speech.  Did he mean it?  Will he remember what he said?  Guess it doesn’t matter at this point.  He could have taken the podium, looked at the audience and told them all to go to hell.  Nothing they could do about it.  It wouldn’t have mattered, he’s going to be the nominee whether we like it or not. 

Notice that he never said anything about McCain Feingold Campaign Finance.  Nothing about how it should be re-written to make it a full disclosure law instead of a speech prohibition law.

He said he will uphold the 2nd Amendment.  That would be nice.  An optimist would say that if there is even a 1% chance that he means it that’s a lot more than we would get from Hillary or Obama.  But isn’t it appalling that such doubts exist about someone who claims to be a conservative?  If he still has no respect for the first amendment, does he really care about the 2nd?  Will he look in the mirror tomorrow morning and say to himself, “Screw ‘em.  I have it in my pocket now.  I don’t need those bastards anymore!”?

Moot questions.  It is what it is now.  McCain is no doubt thinking, “Deal with it.”

Everything HILLARYNEEDSAVACATION said just now is true. 

That said, I’m going to take my cue from my preferred candidate, Mitt Romney.  If anyone has reason to be angry with John McCain, it’s him.  But Governor Romney is right that we cannot afford to lose this election.  Once the Republican Primary is settled, we need to get behind our candidate and get him elected as the next President of the United States.  It now appears, much to my chagrin, that Senator McCain will be that candidate. 

This doesn’t mean that we should give up all hope.  Yes, John McCain strikes me as deceitful; that means that if he gets elected, we’ll need to be especially vigilant.  Don’t forget that the whole reason why he gave this speech was that he needs our support.  That means that he’ll owe us; and as long as we can keep that fresh in his mind, we can avoid the worst of his excesses. 

The next four years are going to be bad; I have no illusions about that.  The question now is “how bad”?  From what I have seen, John McCain is everything you say he is - and the scariest thing is that he’s still far better than either of his alternatives on the Democrat side.  I’ll be damned if I’m party to a Clinton or Obama Presidency because I didn’t support the best hope left of defeating them.

Patrick n ABQ - 08 February 2008 01:01 AM

No way will I vote for someone who’s taking the US to war for Israel.

I will. In fact, as much as I can’t fathom voting for McCain, his pledge to protect Israel is likely to make me vote for him.  Protecting Israel protects us, you fool.

Don’t forget that the next president is likely to have 1, maybe 2 Supreme Court Appointments. Do you want Hillary or Obama making them?

I cannot trust McCain.

See: http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0408,schanberg,51276,1.html

And:http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0408,schanberg2,51267,1.html

Among the many forgotten or poorly reported sins of his past . . . his collusion in the early 90’s with John Kerry in whitewashing the fate - or perhaps sealing the fate - of the American POWs never accounted for by the Vietnamese communists.

Kerry was chairman of that Senate sub-committee charged with investigating the many claims and suspicions that the North Vietnamese had never fully accounted for POWs and MIAs they had in their custody at the end of the American participation in the war in 1973. Any credible evidence or witnesses of left-behind POWs was quashed by that committee. There was a document shredding scandal in the aftermath which itself was also quashed. The final report and conclusion was a total whitewash in favor of the Vietnamese communist government - not one credible report of any unaccounted for POW ever held by them - and led to normalization of relations with the Hanoi regime.

It also led to a $905 million contract for the developmemt of the port at Vung Tau by Colliers International, a Boston-based real estate development firm then headed by John Forbes Kerry’s first cousin, Stewart Forbes.

I was never able to swallow these shenanigans, considering the enormously scandalous consequences and hideous humanitarian implications for perhaps 700 POWs and their families, not to mention the awful dishonor to our country. The 700 number was attested to by a high-ranking Vietnamese military officer in a speech he delivered some years after the war and transcribed in Russian in a declassified Soviet-era document. In his typical fashiion, McCain is ruthlessly defensive about the integrity of his efforts and the duplicity and character of those who question those efforts. And considering his own history as a POW, it is all simply mind-boggling in its implications about his character.

Powerline has supported McCain from day one. As for me, I’ll be voting for Romney in 2012.

So will I.  But what will be your vote in 2008?

If McCain was a conservative he wouldn’t have to reach out to us, we would be carrying him on our shoulders.

postBot - 07 February 2008 11:26 PM

John McCain reached out to conservatives today in a well-received <a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/02/john_mccains_cpac_spee

» View the article

Talk is cheap.

Actions speak louder than words.

Trust, but verify.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…

Don’t be banging your spoon on your bowl demanding your chocolate ice cream just because Juan McCain came to CPAC and broke a little wind in your face. The odor of Campaign Finance Reform, tax cut treachery, Supreme Court treachery and amnesty should have given the true substance away.

But Romney did what he had to do. Let’s not be wasting valuable time and money on a Bob “Viagra” Dole candidate for the Presidency. Someone pointed out (I didn’t verify) that Hillary and Husein Obama each received more votes than McCain, Romney and Huckabee combined. If true this has an ominous feeling to it. Of course many of Hilary’s supporters would flip to McCain if Obama wins and believe me that McCain will do what he has to to win Hilary supporters and he’ll damn conservatives in the process.

Better to focus on a veto-able Senate and a veto-able House followed by majorities. A conservative Presidency is going to require that Americans be taught the meaning of freedom.

After treating you like dirt for years he comes and whispers into your ears everything you want to hear, hoping you will get into bed with him.  After he gets what he wants he will throw you on the trash heap.

Words cost nothing.

This anti-McCain petulance sounds like the Code Pinkie Panties.  You want to ‘get even’ with the Senator...?  Will you go camp out in his front yard?  Sure, he’s not Newt, Mitt, or Ronaldus Magnus.  But he’s far closer to them, and to us, than two other possible outcomes I can imagine:  the half-Klingon-in-name-only Barak of the Windy Tongue, and Hilary Rodham anti-christ.  Does Mitt Romney’s decision to stand aside for the good of the fight against the Jihadist’s mean nothing?  What would we think of him if, instead of saying what he did at CPAC, he sounded like the commenters here?  Is this character?  Think about the wounded and dead among our Armed Forces.  What does it say to them to hear, “I’m staying home”?  NO ONE IN UNIFORM SHOULD EVER HAVE TO SALUTE ANOTHER CLINTON!!!  Have you forgotten the contempt she showed to General Petraues at the show trials, er hearings? Firearms owners-would you like the laws of Barak’s home state to spread across the country?  These people will weasel and stoat and rat and slime to vote for defeat.  These peoples’ constituents are the Mouth of Sauron, “Little Eichmann’s” and “Screw ‘em’s”.  Well screw them! If the Dhimmis win, and they vote to lose, how many of you will put bumper stickers on your cars reading, “Don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for the guy who wanted to win. I stayed home.” Well, silence gives consent.  Do you consent to lose?  How selfish is that?