Anyway a McCain truce (notice he did not mention the immigration running-sore) might allow a civil, organized presidential campaign but he cannot beat Obama or Clinton (his fellow senators, also lacking in executive experience or substantive ideas).
McCain did bring up immigration, and actually laughed, so I can only conclude he finds conservative opposition to amnesty amusing. What I heard was, in so many words, “yes, I know you all believe in the rule of law, so I’ll close the damned border for you. <smirk, smirk> But when push comes to shove, I’m John McCain and you’re not, so suck it up and vote for me because I’m the true conservative.”
I wanted to vote for Thompson but never got the chance. But because McCain is going to get the nomination, I am not going to shoot myself in the foot and either not vote or vote for a Democrat for the first time in my life. We would all be wise to take the best we can get and encourage McCain to move right.
Remember, if conservatives attack McCain, McCain will owe us nothing and will see no reason to kiss our backside. Be smart!
SB: “However, when your man or either of the other two Donks gets elected and when you’re asked to lodge a few of our new, immigrant families in your house or garage by our compassionate government, I’ll be big hearted and won’t say a word.”
Sorry, Sal ...
What FEW illegals USED to be ‘round these here parts have left for Canada because WE are so inhospitable.
Remember, if conservatives attack McCain, McCain will owe us nothing and will see no reason to kiss our backside. Be smart!
Be smart, kiss his ass or he won’t kiss our ass, is that what your saying?
I have lost tens of thousands of dollars in business because I refused, throughout my life, too ever kiss anyone’s ass. I sure as hell ain’t about to start now.
After the first 2/3 of his speech I was ready to work for his campaign, but then he got to his AIPAC pander:
Among his many shortcomings, McCain is—strangely—not ready for prime time.
The difference in the presidential stage and the senate stage is the difference between Broadway and dinner theater in Dubuque.
McCain has gotten away with even more than is usual for a senator, because he has been the pet of the media. They love a guy who shoots his mouth off...especially when he gets after conservatives.
But that comment about a hundred year in Iraq. ROFL Well, sure, Mac, we all know you didn’t exactly say that American boys would be dying in Iraq for a hundred years. But because you are loose cannon who shoots his mouth off, you came close enough! The Dems are going to stick that comment down your throat until you choke on it. The surge has caused a bubble of popularity for the war. But the big picture is that most Americans are sick of Iraq and angry that we are there.
When them Dems cream you with that hundred years comment and you squeal like a stuck pig that you have been taken out of context, well, I am going to remember what you did to Governor Romney over the “secret timetables” quote. What goes around comes around Johnny Boy! And the professional GOP pols with their polls of you devouring Hillary or Obama...what a bunch of clowns.
I think McCain can sell the 100-years idea and make opposition to it by the left a “so you want to surrender” liability for the Dems. American voters are smart an patriotic enough to see through the Dems on this one. Only the hard left will think it’s wrong, and they’re out in left field by themselves.
I am now a man without a party, which to be honest, is somewhat liberating.
I am so totally with you, Trader.
I, too, am breathing the sweet, clean air of independence.
I declare myself entirely free of any allegiance to the GOP.
In fact, I may actively work against it. It is my natural home,but as I watch these party hacks line up behind McCain, I see that most of them are hopelessly compromised, if not actually corrupt.
Forrests can be tangled, overgrown, and unhealthy. After a fire sweeps through, the scene looks like utter devastation. But within two weeks, healthy new green shoots are pushing up through the ashes.
The GOP establishment needs to be burned down—destroyed, if you will, to save it. (It may be Viet Nam logic, but it works for me.)
"John McCain reached out to conservatives today in a well-received speech to CPAC.”
Well-received? Did you watch the same video the rest of the world saw? He nearly got booed off the stage. It took direct intercession by the CPAC organizers to get some phony applause going so the thing wouldn’t become a complete catastrophe. Way to use that memory hole.
SB: “However, when your man or either of the other two Donks gets elected and when you’re asked to lodge a few of our new, immigrant families in your house or garage by our compassionate government, I’ll be big hearted and won’t say a word.”
Sorry, Sal ...
What FEW illegals USED to be ‘round these here parts have left for Canada because WE are so inhospitable.
.
Pax, big guy. And apologies for the hypersensitivity. My only excuse is that I seem to be in the throes of depression and disbelief. I like you and enjoy your posts--most of the time. I recognize graveyard humor when I see it and you remind me a lot of my little brother who liked nothing better than to throw a bomb into the middle of the room, like the time he told one of my John Bircher uncles that he thought that Communism was a good idea, so I also recognize a mischievous personality when I see one.
I truly am in a quandary. Absolutely do not trust or like the backstabbing,little bastard but until a few months ago thought that in the extreme long chance he got nominated I could hold my nose, as his mother told us to do and now I can see where he gets it, and vote for him.
Time has passed, I remember too much and I really don’t think that I can do it. However, I can do as Ronald Reagan, the darling man, admonished us to do, and NOT speak ill of my fellow Conservatives. Or fight with them.
I seem to remember McCain is a senator. (Though he couldn’t manage to get to a recent important vote!) Well, let him put his money where his mouth is. He should start introducing bills right now to seal the border, drill in ANWR, get tough on ALL illegal immigrants, and the other items of concern to those he wants to vote for him.
What’s stopping him? Come on, he’s supposed to be a ‘maverick’. I want actions, not more words!
You’re on the right track, Rohan, but of course the Maverick hopes never to hear the words ‘immigration reform’ and ‘amnesty’ spoken again until after the general election.
Too bad for him! the Dems have other plans. Mark it down, they will reintroduce McCain-Kennedy at a moment of their choosing later this year. And Mr. Straight Talk Express will be on the horns of one hellacious dilemma--support his pet bill and kiss border hawk votes goodbye, or oppose his namesake, and p/o Hispanics and the WSJ crowd. Among the GOP candidates, Sen. McCain is uniquely vulnerable to death by Comprehensive Immigration Reform.’ Every other candidate could have opposed it. Prediction: Mr. Straight Talk will duck, and refuse to take a definitive position, and make no one happy. I don’t see how his campaign survives the ordeal. Poetic justice, no?
Many politicians forget their campaign promises as soon as they win the office they seek.
McCain has not yet attained the office, but he just made a rare appearance in the well of the Senate to vote for the idiotic stimulus package. He did this less than 24 hours after telling his CPAC audience that he will be a big pork buster and spending hawk.
Many politicians forget their campaign promises as soon as they win the office they seek.
McCain has not yet attained the office, but he just made a rare appearance in the well of the Senate to vote for the idiotic stimulus package. He did this less than 24 hours after telling his CPAC audience that he will be a big pork buster and spending hawk.
Well, see now, McCain’s on the horns of a dilemma here.
Will his potential voters be pissed if they don’t get their “rebate checks” or pissed ‘cause he votes to pander-check with another packet of borrowed money?
What to do, what to do?
No principles? Then it’s finger-in-the-wind time, innit?
ultima - I agree with you - talk is cheap ... which is why Romney is cheap, cause he’s nothing but talk ... the voters figured that out.
But as Romney would tend to say, let’s look at the numbers:
American Conservative Union Lifetime Ratings:
B. Obama - 8
H. Clinton - 9
J. McCain - 83
When a man has a 25-year legislative career, we have far more due diligence data on which to judge his actions vs. his talk than almost any other candidate. Romney had only four years as governor of an extremely blue state, in which he could blame every one of his failures to lead by pointing to all those bad ole dems who stood in his way. The voters heard no excuses from John McCain.
John McCain is certainly no knee-jerk ultra conservative who agrees with other knee-jerk ultra conservatives 100% of the time. But clearly John McCain is a conservative.
Aside from his ACU ratings, we also have the evidence of John McCain’s personal strength and honor in his service as a fighter-bomber pilot in the hostile skies of North Vietnam ... and his perseverence in his imprisonment for five and a half years as a POW, enduring daily tortures and privations, and his refusal to be repatriated early because it would have provided the commies a propaganda victory (as the “fortunate son” of a high ranking US Naval officer).
We also have McCain’s more recent commitment to complete victory in Iraq, and his support of the surge, when most of his so-called conservative brethren in the Senate were hedging their bets, and trying to cut surrender deals with the Dems. He ran on that commitment long before anyone had any reason to believe the surge would actually work.
And we also have McCain’s commitment to solutions for our border control and immigration failures. He never threw in the towel, and he remains committed today to the same end of solving these problems, even when he has been skewered repeatedly by a bunch of radical loud mouths for even daring to try.
Charles Calthrop demands an “apology” from John McCain ... that’s just about the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard in years ... it ranks right up there with Harry Reid’s and Nancy Pelosi’s demands that George W. Bush surrender to the terror masters in Iraq and Iran.
McCain owes no apologies to anyone for standing up for what he believes, least of all to knuckleheads who are not fit to polish his boots. What John McCain owes us is his best efforts, and his commitment to a strong America and to furtherance of conservative governance, and a humiliating defeat of the Dems at the polls this November. Then after that, he owes us leadership and a refusal to quit. After that, it’s up to us to do what we can do to support him and elect Republican Congressmen in leading this nation.
