News flash: not being a party man not the best way to become the party’s man
After today’s news, I have to look down the road to next week’s headline:
WASHINGTON (AP) – John McCain’s campaign today announced that Senator McCain has been let go from his role in the campaign. A senior McCain official stated that the Senator’s parting was “amicable” but “we needed to tighten our belts, and we were spending a lot of money on his travel and support staff and didn’t feel we were getting the best value for our dollar having him on the campaign.” A high-level strategy meeting was being held to determine next steps, but the official insisted that the campaign was “still optimistic that we can be as competitive, if not moreso, without Senator McCain.”
It’s sad, actually. John McCain is a patriot and a true American hero, and for all his flaws, his dogged support of the Iraq War shows that even to this day, he will stand his ground for the men in uniform when everyone else abandons him. He’s also a charismatic guy. I voted for him in 2000 and gave serious thought to supporting him again; if we had the McCain of 2000, he might well be the frontrunner today. But the McCain of today is seven years older, crankier and has burned an awful lot of bridges in the intervening years. It’s just not happening for him.
I sadly agree on McCain. Although not as bad as Stockdale (Perot’s running mate, and another hero who got slaughtered by an ignorant and miserable press), he has clearly shown that he is no longer capable to handle a physically difficult oval office. I still would have voted for Gore in 2000, but would have happily voted for McCain over that idiot Kerry.
I am one of Senator McCains constituents and have not voted for him in the last 2 elections, having voted instead for the Libertarian candidate. I am 68 years old and voted for McCain in every election since he first ran for the senate. Unfortunately in the last 10 years he has forgotten his roots and abandoned the voters who supported him through all his years of service. When he began supporting liberal causes promoted by Teddy Kennedy, Hillary Clinton and other Eastern liberals he lost me. Reminds me of Barry Goldwater in his late years as he suffered from increasing dementia and became unrecognizable as a conservative. I still respect his years of service and his reputation but believe he has done his work and needs to retire.
The Republicans have now lost two guys who were head and shoulders above the pack. McCain and Powell both made the fatal mistake of going along with the “base” and lost their most appealing quality, integrity above ambition.
Rene:
There are some circumstances in which the inclination to go against the base is an asset. But if a politician were to go against the base on a series of key issues that seem to define what it means to be a conservative, is that politician really conservative?
In McCain’s case, he opposed the Bush tax cuts, he was soft on interrogation of illegal combatants, he was soft on the Republican effort towards a conservative federal judiciary, he supported the rationing of political speech through McCain-Feingold, and he was whole-heartedly for amnesty.
That’s fine. Rational arguments can be developed for McCain’s positions. But once you make — and stand by — these arguments, are you still a conservative?
I think that’s where the Republican base finds itself. We respect McCain’s integrity. But we don’t see him as the standard-bearer for the things in which we believe.
Having said that, we will always be thankful for his steadfast support of the military effort in Iraq.
John:
I agree with all you say, but it’s beside the point. I said the Republicans, not the conservatives (ultra) which is the base. The conservatives never had him and didn’t want him. And he blew it with those that did want him, when he started defending the indefensible, just to try to get support from the base for his presidential bid. He had the independents, the moderate Republicans and quite a few Democrats and he blew it. I personally could care less about the purity of someone’s political pedigree and happen to be very conservative on some issues and a wild eyed liberal on others myself.
Dear Renee;
What closet have you been living in? The McCain/ Feingold bill, unconstitutionally censoring political speech and support for the amnesty bill is not going along with the base! Its going along with the American hating left that has control of the Democratic party.
RA, calling someone an America Hater because they disagree with you doesn’t make it so. It just makes you wrong.
Well, I agree with RA that there are some America Haters in the left wing of the Democratic Party. There is a few in the Right Wing of the Republican Party too. Of, course, they both claim they love America and the Right Wing is specially adept at shrouding itself in the flag. Cindy Sheehan hates America, but so does Dick Chaney. Neither values Democracy, The Bill of Rights or even the law. They just want their way and will trample the Constitution and every principle that America stands for in order to get it.
So you see, even someone like RA, who thinks that name calling constitutes an argument and that parroting the party line constitutes thinking, can be right about some things, some of the time. After all, even a stopped clock is right once a day, twice if it’s not digital and fails to distinguish between A.M. and P.M.