Another daily update with a spattering of McCain news.
Of course, as we the case yesterday, McCain has to live in the shadow of SpitzerGate. As always, Malkin has great updates for your reading pleasure. Spitzer finds himself out of a job and with very few friends. His is a simple case of utter abuse of power (in the way he publicly threatened people without ever proving the charges). Obviously the headiness of such unbridled power led him to believe that he was invulnerable. Thankfully, there is still the rule of law.
Astute readers of all things political will remember there’s a curious question concerning McCain’s eligibility to be president. It has to do with clause in the constitution that the President must be a “natural-born citizen.” Now, there’s no denying that McCain is a true citizen of the US. But the question is simply, does he meet the “natural-born” test? The potential problem is that he was born in the Panama Canal area while his father was stationed there. The matter will be given some court time soon and we’ll be anxious to see the outcome. Prediction: despite our dislike and distrust of McCain, he qualifies as a natural-born citizen and the courts will so find.
In a New York Times/CBS News (NYT/CBS) poll, 58% said the U.S. should never have attacked Iraq. Yet again McCain gets the highest score on “making the right decisions on Iraq”; 58% are confident about McCain (27% “very” confident), 57% about Obama (only 20% “very” confident), and 50% about Clinton. Among the crucial independent voters, McCain gets 62% confidence, while Obama gets only 54% and Clinton 51%. Though 83% of Democrats say the war was wrong, a whopping 42% are confident McCain will make the right decisions on the war, while 21% of Democrats have no confidence in Obama and the same number no confidence in Clinton.
How to explain these surprising numbers? Part of the explanation lies in the changing view of the war. Over the last year, the number who say the war is going well jumped from 30% to 48% in the LAT/B poll. The NYT/CBS poll records a similar jump since last June, from 22% to 43%. In the WP/ABC poll, the number who see “significant progress” jumped from 31% to 43% in just the last three months. That increase tracks very closely with the growing political fortunes of McCain, who was all but counted out last summer.
What this reiterates to us is that this is where McCain is strong. His fortunes, as he has expressed, rise and fall on the Iraq war. Where he is dreadfully weak and vulnerable, is in the utter lack of support among true conservatives in the Republican party. We will believe they simply won’t get out and vote for McCain in the fall, and the steamroller Obama will prevail due to huge support among his base.
An excellent video from hotair.com and jihadwatch.org. Very much on-topic since John McCain refuses to get serious about the security of our border with Mexico.
A little update from the front lines of the conservative rebellion. Things are a bit quiet today in Conservative news - in part due to the prostitute scandal involving Elliot Spitzer.
As a general note, McCain is going to have to work hard to stay in the spotlight. Between the meltdown in the Democratic Party (roughly akin to a Jerry Springer episode) and occasional bombshells ala Spitzer - McCain will have to fight to stay in the media limelight.
The AP reports that some of McCain’s top advisors lobbied for Airbus to get the $35 billion Air Force tanker deal. Why is it that this guy has a reputation of being clean on campaign finance, lobbyists, etc. yet he was part of the Keating 5, has questionable dealings with a female lobbyist, has his own campaign finance mess to contend with, and now has people on his staff that lobbied on behalf of a foreign aircraft company?
Malkin tunes us in to an opportunity for true conservatives to get active and involved to help end race and gender preferences. Remember that little business about “all men are created equal.” Quite a nice idea huh?
And remember, although we’re guaranteed not to have a conservative in the White House - there’s plenty of other important positions where we ought to work for conservative causes and candidates.
But the interesting point of application concerns John McCain. The tension of a big blowout in the Democratic Convention, and the eventual rise to power of Obama will block John McCain out of the news and give him lots of trouble.
Morris says:
Hillary won’t withdraw. That much is for sure. The tantalizing notion that 800 insiders can offset a season of primaries and caucuses will drive both Clintons to ever-escalating rhetoric. Will their attacks hurt Obama? Likely all they will achieve is to give him needed experience in the cut and thrust of media politics.
Left out of the entire equation is poor John McCain. Unable to get a word in edgewise and unsure of which Democrat to attack, he will have to watch from the sidelines as Hillary and Obama hog the headlines. If the superdelegates deliver the nomination to Hillary in the dead of night without leaving fingerprints at the crime scene, McCain’s nomination will be worth having. If Obama prevails, it won’t be worth the paper on which it is written. The giant killer, Obama will have soared to new heights of popularity and McCain won’t be able to bring him back to Earth in the nine weeks that will remain.
We say that a real conservative could have overcome Obama. The base would have been so energized by the conservative message, and by the starkly different liberalism coming out of Obama. But alas, we’re stuck with a liberal (McCain) who won’t be able to defeat another liberal (Obama).
Seems every time somebody starts to draw a contrast between Senator McCain and Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, McCain apologizes for them and then throws them under the Straight Talk Express bus.
First Bill Cunningham, then John Hagee, now Iowa Rep. Steve King.
Seems King pointed out that if Obama is elected, and withdraws troops from Iraq (as Obama has promised to do) - terrorist groups will be dancing in the streets. That seems pretty much a no brainer to me. We retreat, terrorists win. We stay, terrorists die. We leave, terrorists live.
But, never content to allow a point of distinction between himself and his opponents to be made, McCain’s campaign quickly throws King under the bus:
“The Senator has been clear that he intends to keep this campaign about the issues. He has condemned similar comments by (radio talk show host) Bill Cunningham. He doesn’t agree with King’s comments,” Buchanan said. “He intends to run a respectful race and keep it about the issues.”
Its hard to envision how McCain intends on running on his national security credentials and experience, and yet when a clear contrast of consequence is rightly portrayed - McCain disavows such conservation.
You can be guaranteed that Obama will have no such qualms about painting a portrait of the differences between him and McCain.
McCain seems a bit sensitive about the John Kerry subject. We’re referring of course to the widely reported discussion John McCain entertained back in 2004 to become John Kerry’s running mate.
The NY Times (newfound disdain for McCain) gives attention to the matter, and a recent testy exchange aboard McCain’s campaign aircraft re: John Kerry.
Senator John McCain fielded a question at a public forum on Friday morning in Atlanta that he said he had never been asked before. Because Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, had approached him about being his running mate for the White House in 2004, would Mr. McCain now return the favor?
Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, who has long been distrusted by conservatives as a Democratic sympathizer, quickly said no he would not — and just as quickly said he had never considered sharing the ticket with Mr. Kerry, a friend.
Fair enough question: since Kerry asked you to be his running mate in 2004, will you ask Kerry to be your running mate. By the way, doesn’t the very nature of the question acknowledge that John McCain is no conservative. Can you imagine someone asking Reagan if he would make Tip O’Neill his running mate?
McCain’s answer:
“He is, as he describes himself, a liberal Democrat,” Mr. McCain said of Mr. Kerry, adding that he meant no offense by the term. “I am a conservative Republican. So when I was approached, when we had that conversation back in 2004, that’s why I never even considered such a thing.”
Well, certainly we can agree that Kerry is a liberal democrat… but I continue to be dumbfounded that McCain can claim with a straight face that he’s a “conservative Republican.” Not hardly. I resist the temptation to recite the standard list of McCain’s liberal accomplishments.
Even for Conservatives like me who rebel against John McCain - this commercial of his is fairly compelling. Obviously, its intention is to get you to focus on the dangerous world in which we live, and to forget about McCain’s compromising ways. Of course, its possible to appreciate the danger of radical Islam and its threat, and yet also remember that McCain is no conservative.
Speculation today that McCain may choose Florida Gov. Charlie Crist for his VP. It would be a nice payback for the Governor’s endorsement which is seen as being critical to McCain’s important win in the FL primary.
Some new polls show challenges ahead for McCain. 52% of people polled identity themselves as Democrats. Just 35% as Republicans. Another poll shows support for Obama vs. McCain as 52% to 40% and support for Clinton vs. McCain as 50% vs. 40% respectively in hypothetical matchups.
And Michael Steele, former Lt. Governor in Maryland writes about Conservatives who complain about the damage John McCain will do to the Republican party and equates them to “Chicken Little.”
So, the sky is definitely not falling. And while some may nitpick at Sen. McCain’s record or even the words on this page, Republicans should still recognize the great opportunity we have in electing Sen. McCain this November. We all would be wise not to be misled by the cries of a few Chicken Littles. Instead, we must embrace this new opportunity to go out and show voters a strong Republican Party with candidates who can lead this nation and who will not simply inspire hope but show the American people the power of results.