McCain’s Last Stand
Written by Sam on December 16th, 2007
McCain sneers at the importance of Iowa, whose caucuses on January 3 are the first contest in the Republican presidential race. “If I don’t finish in the top 50 in Iowa, I’ll still stay in the race,” he told reporters in South Carolina last week. In Iowa the next day, McCain went out of his way in a televised debate to denounce the federal subsidy for ethanol, a popular program in the state.
So the old McCain is back, the flippant, contrarian candidate who came close to defeating George W. Bush for the Republican nomination in 2000. And amazingly enough, after his campaign to be nominee in 2008 all but collapsed this summer, McCain is experiencing a rebirth. He now has a chance–an outside chance, at least–of winning the Republican nomination.
McCain has irked me in the past and will likely do so again in the future, but the one thing I respect about the man is his honesty. While he still lags in the polls, he does seems to have experienced a rebirth, as the writer suggests. I really like his fiscal positions and think he could achieve a lot of headway in reigning in the waste in government and maybe paying down the debt. While I still haven’t officially decided who I will vote for on January 19th, I have narrowed it down from five to three now, with McCain being one of the three.
16
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I believe “sneered” is your description of the interview and not the actual account of the interview with Senator McCain, and I can tell you that Senator McCain has never sneered about any subject in his life. So if you need to sensationalize your story it needs to be at someone elses expense other than Senator McCain’s.
16
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Vicki,
Its pretty obvious to all that “sneered” is the word used in the Weekly Standard article.
16
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McCain is my number two choice at the moment. He has a record that can be unnerving at times, but he is generally consistent.
17
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He is very honest. He is a deeply principled leftist.
17
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Yeah, Drageses. Oh so many leftists support the Iraq war. What an excellent bit of political commentary.
17
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Yeah McCain is just a big stinking communist, drageses.
McCain may not be THE conservative in the race but he is:
– arguably the biggest supporter of the Iraq War
– the person with the longest record of fighting pork spending (not the most effective mind you)
– one of the sole Republican candidates who actually admits that agricultural subsidies are wrong
– the person with some of the most market-friendly health policies out there
AND he is probably the biggest supporter of free trade amongst the Republican candidates.
I’m starting to think the ideal Republican candidate would be some sort of robotic McCain-Thompson combination.
17
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Thompson should drop out of the race, endorse McCain who FDT always knew as the best man for president, and then be considered for VP by McCain (along with the Tim Pawlenty and Sarah Palin-because I’m not sure FDT could imagine doing this for as long as 16 more years-he seems bored already).
18
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McCain is a centrist. But to some of you “Far right” Ultraconservatives, everyone that disagree with you is a leftist.
As ex-military, I thought his support for the war would carry more weight than any of the other candidates. But this is the GOP primary we are talking about! Credentials with GOP think tanks outweigh personal experience.
In fact, no matter how noble an individual is, it is the political machine that matters. At least this seems to be true with both Dems and Reps.
Is the Reform party running anybody? Then again,,,,,,,,
18
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Chaotic,
You make a good point about so-called “think tanks” and their undue influence on the voters. The only reason McCain is gaining traction is that he hasn’t pissed us off recently. Its been more than a year since he informed the nation that he knew better than everyone else and pushed amnesty. Its been a few years since he and Lindsey Graham agreed that the Democrats could stop the president from fulfilling his constitutional duty to send judges to the senate for confirmation. Its been a few more years than that since he got with Ted Kennedy to waste tons of our tax money. And its been a few more than that since he got together with Russ Feingold to restrict our first amendment rights.
But hey, when the Club for Growth says jump, we say “How high?”
18
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Sam,
As another undecided Republican I’m curious which five candidates you were considering and your thoughts on how you narrowed the field down to three.
18
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” Its been a few years since he and Lindsey Graham agreed that the Democrats could stop the president from fulfilling his constitutional duty to send judges to the senate for confirmation.”
When there’s an extremist liberal judge, you all act like it’s the worst thing to happen to the U.S. government, but extremist conservatives like the ones McCain stopped would have been great. Well over 90% of Bush’s appointees were confirmed, the ones who weren’t were psychos whose values were out of step with most of America. McCain did the right thing there.
” Its been a few more years than that since he got with Ted Kennedy to waste tons of our tax money.”
I’m curious as to what you’re talking about, since McCain has been one of the most consistently anti-pork congressman of all time.
18
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Extremist judges? Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I guess Harry “The war is lost” Reid determines who is out of step with mainstream america, right? If they are truly out of step, then they should not get a majority, but they at least deserve a vote.
McCain and tax dollars: Yes, in general is he is good, but the earlier version of the “McCain is smarter than america” amnesty act was atrociously expensive, even more so than the 2006 one.
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“but extremist conservatives like the ones McCain stopped would have been great. Well over 90% of Bush’s appointees were confirmed, the ones who weren’t were psychos whose values were out of step with most of America. McCain did the right thing there.”
If following the Constitution makes one an extremist then count me in.
19
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Dustin,
The five I was considering were Paul, Giuliani, Thompson, Huckabee, and McCain.
I liked Huckabee because of his endorsement of the Fair Tax, but knowing that has little chance of getting passed combined with Huckabee’s big government policies, I have tossed him out.
Giuliani was the other one I have tossed out. I thought for a while that he might be the only viable candidate who could win and keep us from another Clinton White House, but I don’t think that’s the case any more. I would be fine with Giuliani as the nominee and would vote for him in the general, but not the primary.
I’ve narrowed it down to Ron Paul because I think he would be the best on cutting down on government, Fred Thompson because of his Federalist views, and John McCain because of his fiscal record.
20
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I still do not see Thompson finishing the primaries.
I think I need a deeper look into his platform and restudy conservatism. I am missing something with this guy.