November is a long way away. And many conservatives, no matter what happens, will not support or otherwise vote for John McCain regardless of the opponent or the potential consequences. That being said, the pieces necessary for some GOP unity around his campaign are beginning to fall into place.
First, Sen. McCain made huge inroads with his generally well-received speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a couple weeks ago. He didn’t change everyone’s mind who was supporting another candidate, but he did change a lot of them.
McCain followed up the CPAC speech by publicly stating - not once, not twice, but at least three times - when asked by national media, that he would veto any tax increase. While he still refuses to put that Pledge in writing - which causes concern for many who still remember “Read my lips, no new taxes!” - the words were music to a lot of fiscal conservative ears.
And then the ol’ “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” routine kicked in yesterday.
When the uber-liberal New York Times published its hit piece against McCain, all it did was rally additional fence-sitting conservatives to McCain’s side. “The man may be a fair-weather conservative on a number of issues, but he’s OUR fair-weather conservative. John McCain may not be our hero, but the New York Times editors are absolutely our enemy.”
And while all of this is going on, Hillary and B.O. are still slugging it out, sowing bitter seeds of resentment among many Democrats which will surely bloom in the fall.
Don’t get me wrong. John McCain still has a long way to go with conservatives. And his veep selection will weigh heavily on the minds of many. But for now, he’s making all the “right” moves.
Posted on February 22nd, 2008 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
I will not consider John McCain a true conservative until he publicly states that he will not only build the broder walls but deport all the illegal aliens, no matter how long it takes; or until he publicly states that he will not support human embryo stem cell research; or until he states he is in favor of a federal marriage amendment; or until he signs the ‘no new taxes’ pledge; or until agrees that global warming is a normal, cyclical thing and Al Gore is dead wrong; or until he states he is in favor of retaining the Gitmo Bay terrorist prison; or until he agrees that waterboarding is just another means for getting information from terrorists; or until he agrees to drill for oil in the ANWR.
In the meantime I will pray for a brokered convention where a true conservative will step up to the plate and challenge us to vote for him, and I don’t mean Huckabee.
Like many conservatives, the views expressed by the previous writer typify the concerns of many on the right. However, permitting the competing party to gain the throne is nothing short of placing one’s head in the proverbial sand. Senator McCain may not always respect conservative interests, but he is a far better choice than the opposition.
Thank you.
If McCain ends up being the nominee, I will vote for him, not as my first choice for a Republican, but as the ony candidate who has any sense about protecting America from terrorists. All those other issues are important, but they really won’t matter a lot if some major US city or cities are smoldering in nuclear ruins.
Hillary and Obama would both sentence us to that likely fate. With McCain, at least we have a fighting chance.
What would really be great would be to see Mitt Romney as his running mate.
I would hope that all conservatives supporting Huck and Ron will eat crow and realize that McClain has to be the person to defeat Obama(yes it will be Obama). I do not see how any conservative can fail to get behind McClain. Will Rush really keep up his rant on McClain and let Obama in? I just don’t see how he or the other conservative talk show people can desert the Rep. party at this crutial time.
“I just don’t see how he or the other conservative talk show people can desert the Rep. party at this crutial time.”
And that is exactly WHY we are leaving the Republican party.
Pardon me Mr. Matheny, but if McCain wins with all of the anti-conservative positions he holds, he will be not much better than the opposition. Anyone who fails to see that most certainly has his head in the sand.
McCain’s “Straight Talk Express” has been rife with lies and distortions of the truth. There are other issues as well, such as creating a group to fight against conservative judges appointments; favoring enactment of enviromental laws that could favor environmentalists; campaign finance law that inhibits free speech and I’m sure there are others.
I am still hoping that the GOP convention will be open to other candidates who will prove to be more Republican than Democrat such as McCain.
Mr. McConnell, please be assured that I have no argument with your views. Frankly, I maintain similar convictions and believe we are faced with a dismal lineup of candidates. Indeed, I would applaud a “brokered convention” that would produce a candidate with the credentials so urgently needed by our nation. My contention is that the Republican party is badly skewed and no longer represents the party faithful who have empowered those in Washington. Consequently, my faith in our system has eroded to the point where such wisdom can hardly be anticipated. I hope you are right, but if not, we may well experience further erosion under Democratic rule.
If you think the New York Times is attacking John McCain, that’s nothing compared to what Iran is doing to attack his character. Check out this great blog post about the Iranian government claiming McCain is involved in a Jewish conspiracy!
http://jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/2008/02/iranian-tv-commercial-ties-mccain-to.html
So, one must support the injection of the federal government into the marriage issue — which is a total violation of the whole concept of federalism — in order to be a “true conservative”? Funny, I don’t remember Barry Goldwater thinking that was such a hot idea! Ronald Reagan either!
One must support an impossible policy such as the deportation of the MILLIONS of illegals or one is not a “true conservative”? Show me a way we can do it without a) massive breaches of the U.S. Constitution, b) massive intrusion into the privacy of LEGAL residents, and c) the massive expansion of the federal government’s policing powers, authority, numbers, and costs — in other words, show me a way to do it in keeping with the philosophy of Constitutional, limited government — and I’ll gladly listen.
And oh, BTW… I hope you enjoy the massive increase in costs for your produce without migrant workers being involved. We need a functioning guest worker program and a better immigration system, not mass roundups. I abhor the law being broken, but I also abhor a police state and I abhor the fact that these people have been coming here at our behest (and if you think they haven’t, you know nothing about an agricultural economy; come and live in the San Joaquin Valley for a decade) and now we get a burr in our blankets and act like all they’re here doing is breaking our laws.
There’s a legal term for that: ENTRAPMENT.
I will not vote for John McCAin under any circumstances, nor will anyone I have any influence with. Obama will be a disaster for the country, certaiinly, but only slightly more so than McCain.
Many Republicans are holding their noses and Voting for John under the lesser of two evils theory . The problem with that is the lesser of two evils is still evil. Think of the choices more in terms of getting bitten by a snake, would you prefer to be bitten by a Cobra or a Mamba? Neither would be my choice too.
Illegals can be “Deported” in the same way they got here, at their own expense.
NO new law is needed!
Enforce the existing laws with vigor, stop ignoring the invaders abuse of programs meant to help Americans in emergencies, prosecute identity theft, end illegals illicit voting, cease allowing companies to use illegals as an end run around minimum wage laws.
It has already been demonstrated in the few states that have made an effort to do this, once the free ride ends and an actual fear of being caught begins, the invaders move on to other states.
When we finally begin to take these steps nationally, they will either have to apply for residence and SHOW UP for their hearing, or just leave.
I personally do not care where they snuck in from, Mexico, Canada, or any other country.
I want them ALL gone ASAP!
It’s time these “hard working people” stop taking the easy way out by breaking into America, they need to go home and WORK HARD to fix the problems in their own countries.
If that takes a revolution, fine. We did it, they can too.
As to the cost of goods, I routinely pay more for my insistence on buying U.S. made products whenever I can find them.
With most manufactured goods made out of the country, illegals are not saving us anything there.
The only way it is “cheaper” to use illegal labor is if wage and tax laws are ignored by the employer.
Add in the expense of shoddy unskilled work, interpreters, high incidence of theft, expense of retraining when the illegals leave for some reason, etc., and it would be cheaper to just conduct business legally.
Illegal labor is subsidized by the taxpayers, they make up the difference with free medical care, welfare, subsidized housing, etc.
The companies hiring illegals are ripping off the public, while claiming to save us money as an excuse for their own greed.
I could go on, but anyone who has actually studied this problem should know all this and more.
Rev. Swann,
Assuming McCain and Obama are the finalists, will your voice be heard by circumventing the voting booth? Would such an act be considered an intelligent expression? The idea that he masks a Cobra’s nature is extreme.
Merely curious.
The amount of enforcement to make even a dent in the illegal alien population here is just not feasible… even if we stopped enforcing all drug laws! In fact, we’d have to stop enforcing most laws to try and track these people down. Possible? Sure? Feasible? No.
What we need to do is understand some reality: these illegals are here because we asked them to be here, to work our fields, clean our hotel rooms, etc. Instead of just crying, “They cheated, they cheated, they cheated, make them stop” with our fingers in our ears, we need to find a way to feasibly enforce the border and keep an eye out for terrorists while making it legal for guest workers to be here, which is what most illegal aliens actually are.
I don’t give a damn what McCain says now. He has screwed the GOP and gave the finger to the grassroots too many times in the past.
It was all about McCain and nobody else.
And now we are suppose to forget all of that and get on board like good little republicans? Not me! I quit donating the national party long ago because of McCain and the RINO’s in the GOP.
I WILL NOT vote for McCain.
As the saying goes I didn’t leave the GOP it left me.
I will vote third party or not at all.
Too many Republican VOTERS feel as Greg M. does. It is regretful but true. I will say a couple of things that I hope will change his mind as well as the minds those that think similarly.
Barak Obama will probably be McCain’s opponent in the General Election. With this being so, EVERY REPUBLICAN VOTE will be needed to STOP Obama’s election. EVERY ONE!
Look at facts. No matter how bad McCain may (or may not) be, he could not posssibly be more dangerous to America and American VALUES!
Among Obama’s friends is, A TERRORIST (Ayers), too RADICAL Ministers, a host of RACISTS and a LIBERAL MEDIA.
These will be the White House VISITORS and POLICY MAKERS should Obama attain the Presidency.
You may be angry at McCain BUT which is the LESSER of two EVILS?
The answer is Obama will DESTROY American VALUES as well as set America back HUNDREDS of YEARS on the WORLD STAGE!
www.DesertConservative.com I am SERIOUS!