John McCain's CPAC speech as a step in the right direction, but only the beginning of the process he'll need to pursue to adequately calm his party's conservative base. Even at that there will still be understandable doubters.
Mitt Romney's CPAC speech was the classy, gracious exit from the race that started to look inevitable even after Florida.
James Dobson's backing of Mike Huckabee looks like all the world to be a spite endorsement. The endorsement has very little meaning (at least in the primaries) with Romney out of the race and the delegate math dictating a McCain nomination. Moreover, yesterday's endorsement of McCain by former Virginia Senator and Presidential hopeful George Allen, former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, and Senator John Cornyn had all the feel of a nomination race coming to a close...even if it isn't quite official yet. Much like Dobson's anti-endorsement of McCain released on Super Tuesday, the timing is oddly late if the goal was to actually have an electoral impact.
Posted by Eric Earling at February 08, 2008 08:15 AM | Email ThisNow he and his supporters don't want us to hold our nose and vote for McKennedy, they want us to bend over and grab their ankles while we vote for him.
Many conservatives listen to his "sudden change of heart", and believe him. I'm reminded of the kid who saw a pile of horse manure and starts digging in it. When asked what he was doing, he said, "With this much manure, there has to be a pony in here somewhere." You will never get a pony if you vote for John.
If you want to think tactically - short term - then by all means vote for McKennedy. In the short term America MAY be better off, but can you guaranty it? No. However, if you want to think strategically - long term - then write in Ronald Reagan when it's time to vote in November, or better yet, in the primary or caucus if you haven't voted yet. Wouldn't it be great to have a brokered convention where Ronald Reagan had two hundred delegates? Now that would be a wake up call!
In 2006 many conservatives threw there elected Republican representative under the bus. But John McCain and many of his fellow Rino's (Republican In Name Only) didn't get the message. Especially, he didn't get the message. We know we didn't vote for them because they weren't behaving like conservatives. Unfortunately, there was no tool to measure our disdain for their quasi liberal governance. The tool I am proposing is the write-in candidacy of Ronald Reagan. It is a protest that is measurable, definitive, and recognizable.
We've seen McKennedy with our own eyes. We know who he is. Now he whispers a sweet nothing in our ear and expects us to swoon. He wants to kiss and make up. Like a lover who has cheated on his wife, he thinks a box of chocolates will make everything alright. We will forget is adulterous behavior as if it never happened. However, I for one, will not get back in bed with him.
We survived four years of Jimmy Carter, perhaps the worst President in American history. We survived eight years of Bill Clinton. We can survive four or even eight years of Hillary or Obama.
I'm a conservative first and a Republican second. With McKennedy in the Oval Office we can look forward to eight more years of Republican leftist drift from which conservatism will never recover.
Now many people want us to compromise our principles, insisting that if we vote for McKennedy we will only prostituting ourselves a little bit. The problem is, being a prostitute is like being pregnant. Either you are or you aren't.
There will never be a better moment in our life time to definitively demonstrate our conviction for conservative principles. This is our chance to draw a line in the sand and say to those who want to abandon the Alamo, to abandon conservative ideals, you are free to leave. I for one will stand and fight. Remember, at the Alamo those heroes chose to fight and die defending what they believed in rather than abandon their principles.
On the other hand, in Guiana, Jim Jones had his followers commit suicide by drinking grape cool aid laced with cyanide. Now some pseudo conservatives will tell you to suck it up and drink the Guiana Grape. Indeed, McKennedy's mother said conservatives wouldn't have any choice. We would just have to hold our noses and drink the cool aid. As for me, I would rather go down fighting than drinking the cool aid.
Our obligation, our only defense, is to elect more republicans to the House and Senate while pushing McKennedy under the bus. By writing in Ronald Reagan we can, once and for all, send a loud and clear message. We are mad as hell, and we aren't going to take it any more.
It wasn't that long ago that McKennedy was calling conservatives racists. Once the election is over, do you believe for one moment he will govern as a conservative? Plleeease. Or, on the other hand, if McKennedy is President, do you believe you will see more of legislation similar to McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Lieberman, McCain-Edwards. How many of these pieces of "bi-partisan" legislation presented a conservative vision? NONE! How many of these pieces of "bi-partisan" legislation presented a liberal vision? All of them. Many of the "pseudo conservative" pundits are climbing into that pile of horse manure. But no matter how much they embrace the stink, they will never find a pony.
Will Obama or Hillary be worse? Absolutely. But if we sell our soul a little at a time and gain nothing we are only making the conservative movement and the country weaker. In warfare and politics you have to think strategically. We may have to lose a battle to win the war.
Al Anderson, Chairman
RONALD REAGAN IN 08
A 527
If you can help build our website, or can help in any way, please contact me at al.andrson@netzero.com
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Maybe this is his way to protest.
I noticed no one was able to ask questions of the speakers. How is John McCain going to handle that? How is he going to answer the tough questions without submitting to a good healthy debate/talk with his supposed base? I would think Hewitt will lead off with an hour segment and then once the thaw has started, other talk show hosts will have their own chats.
Thank goodness, the pressure of non-stop campaigning is over so the old fella can take a rest for a few months. By rest, I mean he can go from 20 hour days to 12 or 14 hour days and reduce his schedule by 25%.
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 08:24 AMPlay the hand your dealt... not you guys! Your MO seems to be pound on the table, throw your chips, whine and stomp home.
Yippee. Adults.
I guess old Al Anderson only remembers the words of Reagan he CHOOSES to remember and forgets the inconvenient ones.
Al, grow up. I would not send you one single penny. I stopped my kids tantrums cold; I despise seeing them in other peoples kids and I absolutely loathe them in (what should be) adults.
I have never seen such poor sportsmanship after winning. It kind of reminds me of Bill Bellyache and the SuperBowl.
You poor winners/whiners need to realize your high-fiving and chest-thumping after the primaries is a sign of a loser. You need to show you have been there before and that you have not gotten the prize- the Presidency- yet. The Super Bowl is in November and not February. You people are the ones who need to grow up.
For example, some of the old Hall-of-Famer basketball players would look at the faces of the players after they won a key game or a semifinal game or series and figure out whether that game or series was their championship. Then, they would pass judgement on whether that player or team would succeed with the NBA championship based upon how they reacted before the series even started.
You gentlemen remind me of the players who have won the semifinal game and are satisfied with that prize when there is a bigger prize out there- the Presidency.
Ragnar, be above the fray; convince the rest of us that McCain is the Real Deal; we need you for stalwart support when we see such a flawed character who will get more warts when the Democrats take after him. We need you to stand tall and say you understand our problems with McCain, but tell us you will help us work through them.
Frankly, if everyone rallied around McCain now, he would start tacking to the left and there really is no room to tack. The rest of us are needed as constant reminders to the man with a big ego (his words) to remember where he came from.
I think you will find people (at least most) will gather around McCain when the other side starts hammering on issues near and dear to us. However, that time is not now. McCain needs to show us he means business.
Enough for now.
Posted by: swatter on February 8, 2008 09:15 AMThe people crucifying McCain today must all be younger than 30 or have very short memories if their basis for that cruxifiction is that Reagan would never do what McCain has done.
Posted by: Truth Teller or Something Else on February 8, 2008 10:19 AMI am a conservative first and a Republican second. If the Republican party isn't conservative it ceases to provide me with the means to froward my principles. If the party each and every decade creeps to the middle, to the left while consistently telling, "Yeah, but it'll be worse if you vote for the other guy" I support that creep and I ignore my principles.
Can someone make a tangible argument as to how the party comes back to it's core by virtue of electing ever more liberal republicans? What's the strategy in producing a conservative government by electing those who are not? The only way to get the party to pay respect to it's core, hell to even admit that conservatism is its core, is not to allow it to assume it can forward lip service and count on it's principled conservatives members to support another 4 to 8 years of abandonment of principle.
I'm not foolish enough to believe that McCain would harm us as much as any Dem. I don't deny that's false. Similarly I flatly deny that we can make progress toward what the party has been and ostensibly stands for while in the contrary I argue that supporting repeatedly this drift empowers it further. Conservative support might actually be the problem.
The truth is that there's a large chunk of Republicans who are now conservative RINO's. That's because the party is drifting from us not the other way around. We are left now only to accept and endorse the lesser of evils. I can't see how doing this can have the effect of bringing the party back to it's roots.
I believe an object lesson of the consequences of true liberal/socialist ideals doled out by democrats would have a vastly more impact at moving this party where it needs to be than endorsing it's becoming the conservative wing of the Democratic party.
Posted by: Cecili on February 8, 2008 11:10 AMConservatives didn't really present a combination of a good candidate and a good campaign this time out. I personally thought Fred would have been the best, but he Just Didn't Do It?
So we have a nominee, and he'll be one hell of a lot better than the (D) people, so we need to get over it and try to participate in this administration as best as possible. It's still possible for a McCain administration to be a good, conservative adminstration, but it won't be if we take our marbles and go home.
Let's not forget Canada's Tory-Alliance split which guaranteed two decades of unconstrained liberal socialism, only now getting sorted out.
Posted by: bfr on February 8, 2008 12:12 PMPosted by: Cecil on February 8, 2008 01:11 PM
Walking away and giving it to the Democrats is like standing under Niagara Falls because you're tired of getting peed on.
Posted by: sro on February 8, 2008 04:41 PMI don't think we can convince most of America of the need for real conservatism without (you'd have thought the soviet union or other socialist experiments would have worked) an object lesson. Give them what they think they want with no one to blame and let the pain come. There's only so much you can tax corps and the rich without killing the economy yet there are trillions in promises that exceed it, there will be failure. We are making the same illusory promises in our party. Med drug bene, new medical insurance programs, soc secy as is. It's fake. I'd prefer we accelerate the breakdown having stopped making the promises that are lies. Having told the truth so that when the time comes the truth will be clear and the differences stark between conservatism and the Democrats.
I'm no conspiracy theorist or Ron Paul nut. If you look at the SS obligations, the drug benefit and the proposed new entitlements not including the issues that will come with the increasing costs of energy the math simply does not work, somethings gotta give and I'd prefer that our party had been the one telling unpopular truths rather than passing pleasant lies hoping to buy time... sticking their finger in the dike.
Posted by: Cecil on February 8, 2008 04:58 PMLook at what has been done w/ the health care issue over the years. They regulate, make a mess, and point to the mess as proof that more intervention is needed. And it works like a slam dunk.
Posted by: russell garrard on February 8, 2008 06:04 PMMcCain was NOT my 1st choice, not my 2nd choice, not my 3rd choice, not even my fourth 4th choice. I never thumped my chest, nor high-fived anything AND had you even paid any semblance of attention you might have noted I never came out for anyone actually in the race (although I firmly came out and still stand against Ron Paul).
BUT, I'm starved and desperate to keep destructive socialists out of the White House If that means choking down a stale boloney sandwich rather than a juicy prime rib, I will raise my glass to toast boloney and old bread.
I will neither starve nor commit suicide for a WhorrabillaryObamination, nor will anyone succeed in shaming me for it. Suicide is the ultimate act of cowardice and attention whoring. It's the ultimate in 'look at ME, pay attention to ME' acts and ultimately, it is a meaningless, empty, sad gesture in which no one actually gets what they want. How adult is that? More or less adult than calling out the tantrum throwing whiners?
I wonder if Ragnar realizes how much he actually hurts the Republican party with his comments. Posted by Andrew Brown at February 8, 2008 10:27 AM
What's more destructive to the party, coming together and finding points of commonality or suicide? I wonder how Andrew figures suicide helps the party.
Play the cards your dealt.
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 8, 2008 06:57 PMHow's that windmill tilting coming, Sancho Panza?
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 8, 2008 07:52 PMMcCain's people got in the main ballroom non-McCain people came in. Not a conspiracy, just that McCain people were more motivated to show up an hour early for the speech and dominated the floor during his speech. The fire marshall closed the room off, with a bunch of McCain supporters still outside, and most of the anti-McCain people just starting to show up. I'd guess about 500 McCain people arrived at the hotel just for his speech and then left and haven't been seen since. Most of the anti-McCain crowd were in the over flow rooms and sat silently listening to him.
Biggest Hypocrite award goes to a Romney supporter who was virulently anti-McCain in the morning when I spoke to him, and I saw him after the concession of Romney the next night wearing McCain stickers. Lots of folks here make a living selling political software, political services, are running for something, so they go with whatever way the wind blows.
The non-politician types like myself are doing the Lord's work in making sure McCain's record is always in front of the party leadership. All the leadership here seems solidly McCain, and they are republicans first, anti-christian second, conservative third. Yes, they love to make fun of Huckabee all the while telling us that Republicans need to get along - Bob Novak really ripped Huckabee, that guy is a pompous arse - I say that even if I agreed with him 100%.
Saw the mother-daughter banger John Fund. Another shining example of a non-cheap date conservative.
Note they started the conference with out the pledge of alligence, without the singing of the national athem, just a couple of old codgers talking about a book they wrote on Reagan and how he would not have gone into Iraq. Boring as all get out. No music, no lights, jeez is the entire leadership of CPAC over 85. Only good speaker was Laura Ingram! AWESOME.
Posted by: John McDonald on February 8, 2008 08:19 PMIf you had, you would know it was not about the futility of lost causes, but about the nobility of having principles, and fighting for what is right, even if you battle alone, and even if you lose again and again. It is about the passion that can be inspired by virtue, and the happiness that comes from toiling in a just cause. It is these great ideas that have the power to stir mens' souls.
I would be honored to be compared to this noble knight.
But then, I guess we all knew that even though you claim to have read Atlas Shrugged, you seem to have missed the whole point of that great novel as well.
What the Republicans need is more principled, fiscal conservatives.
They need to stop alienating the small "l" libertarians and the limited government fans. Until they embrace this third leg of the Reagan coalition, it is in our interest to take our votes and our money elsewhere. Until they can appeal to all three legs, they deserve to lose.
And I will happily vote Libertarian.
It is not in my long term interests to support a party that violates my principles.
Posted by: Bruce Guthrie on February 9, 2008 11:44 AMGet your nose out of FICTION Bruce and join the real world in facing REALITY.
Posted by: Ragnar Danneskjold on February 9, 2008 11:52 AMThe reason he needs to scale back and focus on his reelection for his congressional seat?
Because now more people have seen some of his true positions and he is being challenged.
His challengers have made the case that the local congressman is gallivanting around the country on a quixotic quest, has lost touch with the folks back home and has taken stances out of line with the district. His challenger for his home state seat is Chris Peden, a Friendswood city councilor who has touted his conservative credentials.
Galveston County Republican Chairman Kerry Neves said that, because of the national attention Paul's presidential campaign has received, many voters unfamiliar with his anti-Iraq war stance and harsh criticism toward President Bush have taken a second look at their congressman.
"The more the voters down here find out about Ron Paul, the more they realize he is simply not a conservative, and the less they like him," said Peden spokesman Dallas Frohrib.
The good news for Paul though, is that he can take all the donations he has received and transfer it to his congressional treasury.
... he can take all the donations he has received and transfer it to his congressional treasury.
WELL DUH! HIT ME WITH A FEATHER AND CALL ME **SHOCKED**!