Maybe Jones was right about that McCain guy ...

I would prefer it if McCain remained in the Senate.

 

Every serious presidential candidate panders to special interest groups... McCain didn't do it in 2000 and the result was, well... We all know what the result was...

I think he's too old to get elected, and I'm amazed he's still in the race after all of the stuff that happened earlier this year, but this is a great, great man who is worthy of our respect...

 

This is a greatly flawed man who deserves our respect.
He did more than just pander. He completely reversed himself on the greatest moment of the 2000 campaign -- his post-SC speech about the "agents of intolerance" that had hijacked his party. He was right then, he was proved even more correct -- Terri Schiavo anyone? -- over the past four years. He continued to truckle. Add to that there isn't one position on which we'd agree, and his sweet-tooth for executive power is strike three.

 

Of course -- but we also miss the cold calls at home, the photo ops at the diner and hardware store, the volunteers canvassing the neighborhood. And if the Boston stations weren't on N.H. cable systems, we wouldn't get the ads, either.

 

It's only a matter of time before his opponents start using his age and health against him.
The guy's a hero who would be a great president if he didn't have to pander to the Christian right to get nominated.
The GOP can't learn the average American doesn't want government telling them who they can sleep with or if they want to get an abortion.
When they lose the White House to Hilary because they couldn't nominate a socially liberal candidate, maybe then?

 

The sequence is simply horrifying. He grits his teeth when the Villiage Idiot slanders him in South Carolina, recedes into good-party-boy mode and waits his turn, kisses the tush of the the late Liberty Jerry to little effect . . . then finds out that it's all passed him by.

It's truly, no-bullshit tragic.

 

http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/mccain_planning_campaign_swing_in_iowa.php

This is either the desperate flailing of candidate about to ride off into the sunset or the beginning of one of the great turnarounds of all time -- and I don't honestly know which.

McCain has changed his schedule to head to Iowa, a state he had essentially given up. The apparent motive is a third place finish there -- the absolute best he can do, or so it seems -- which could vault him to a win in New Hampshire and put him back where he was in 1999 -- rolling the dice in South Carolina.

It's a long shot, I would guess, but it does make a kind of sense.

At this point, Huckabee has lost his new-penny shine -- and he's supposed to win in Iowa. If he does, the big loser is Romney, who has spent far and away the most money there. Thus, third for McCain gets spun as a win for him. Huckabee quite obviously doesn't play in New Hampshire, and if McCain can beat Romney there, quasi-home-turf for both of them, he's taken out Romney and it leaves the election up to he and Huckabee in South Carolina -- which will also kill Rudy Giuliani if he hasn't placed by the time it's over, anyway.

 

John McCain is Bob Dole -- the elder, loyal statesman and gentleman who everyone in the party claims they like and they'll vote for but nobody really wants to win. If McCain wins the Republican nomination, Hilda Clinton will get about 515 electoral votes.......

 

At this point, we're compelled to gently reiterate (not arguing, but reiterating) that given Huck's recent surge, Mittmeister can spin a narrow Iowa loss positively. And given New Hampshire's broad composition, Mitt should win up there, albiet narrowly, because Huck's act shouldn't play there, Rudy's largely lost his grip and McCain still has some coming back to do.
A very smart guy -- not of this board -- told me nine months ago that Romney was going to get the nomination, no question. Didn't believe a word of it, then, but can surely see the possibility, now.

 

Over the summer, McCain and Hillary were leading each side's respective national polls. Which prompted me to say the general election would come down to McCain vs. anyone but Hillary, judging by the previous 10 nomination processes.

This year is different because there are no incumbents on either ticket. But if McCain wins the GOP nomination, it would parallel Kerry winning the Dem one in 2004. McCain (Kerry) would need a massive Mitt (Dean) meltdown and a less-than-spectacular Huck (Edwards) showing in the South to do so.

 

I'm not sure there are too many people around here who have any clue what the average American thinks.