extreme Catholic 

1. McCain will be rolled on the economy. He simply hasn't a clue. Every paycheck he's received since the age of 17 says at "United States Treasury."

2. I have never understood what drives him to give amnesty to illegal aliens in the United States. What is the self-interest or national interest there? There are plenty of good reasons believe that border enforcement, secure identification cards, and employer sanctions for hiring illegals will start to fix the problem.

3. On abortion, McCain was never a leader here and signals his abandonment of his positions by talking up alleged risks to women if Roe v. Wade is repealed, and doesn't now support the Human Life Amendment (and I don't know if he ever has.) He can easily reach out to the moderates.

Later on, I will take on some of the personality issues.

Labels: mccain

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 1:09 PM   Permalink  

Let's look at the outcomes from the political scene on February 9, 2008: McCain defeats Clinton or Obama

If McCain wins, then we face an opponent we helped elect. McCain will hold us in contempt and condescension and undermine any effort to restore conservatism to the mainstream of the Republican party. He can't change and wouldn't change that aspect of personality.

On one hand, he may focus on the war, considering everything else small potatoes. On the other hand, he may carry on his grudge from 2000 when he blamed his losses in the primary on conservatives. I hope he's indifferent to whether his successor follows his political style.

In any case, I hope we can identify the man who is the Reagan-of-1977 to become the Reagan-of-1980. It may just be Mitt Romney. Even if McCain wins, he may not be the nominee in 2012.

Prediction:A 4- or 8- year distraction of fighting McCain's agenda and dealing with his insults and undermining of the conservative movement by marginalizing it as extremist. It will be nasty. We need to dedicate some of the fight to reclaim the soul of the Republican party from the people we were calling days ago "RINO"s. Meanwhile the country digs itself into a hole like Jimmy Carter's single term.

Clinton or Obama defeats McCain

There are no serious differences between these two except for personalities. I think Democrats are looking to the future and not the past (I give the edge now to Obama). Either of them brings defeat to the war on terror, socialism to the economy, and Quebec- (or Belgian- or Balkan-) divisions to this nation making the notion of "an American culture" a matter of nostalgia. Many will welcome each of these, and the President will proclaim their mandate for this.

Prediction:A 4-year rush to implement everything while they have the White House, Congress, and 2 or 3 upcoming Supreme Court vacancies. I think they have the political savvy to know how far too go without disturbing the American electorate. The Democrats believe they are writing the obituary for the Republican Party and a permanent electoral majority at the federal level.

Even if, a conservative gets the 2012 (or 2016) Republican nomination and wins, he or she faces not only the same challenges as Nixon, Reagan, and Bush-43 did cleaning up after an activist Democrat but the accumulation of entitlements and pork spending as obligations for their term of office. The next conservative may face a government essentially locked-in to a socialist track and demographically transformed by 25 to 50 million immigrants.

Labels: clinton, mccain, obama

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:27 AM   Permalink  

I don't buy common sense -- as in the positions we have are neither liberal nor conservative but just common sense policies for America.

This is nonsense. There really are distinctions to be made in these positions. Politics is the process of defining them and gaining popular support for them.

I don't like that McCain arrogantly defines the mainstream of conservatism to the margins. He can either engage them in a debate or just ignore them. What he seems to do is snipe at them with that half-laugh.

McCain just heaps his disdain for the movement conservatives, embraces the establishment Republicans who sat on the sidelines when it came time to confront the libs. Such as getting advice on judicial nominations from Warren Rudman.

I'm not talking the Ann Coulter position of vowing to campaign for Obama or Hillary, but I have if it were not the Supreme Court seats held by Stevens and Ginsburg, and Iraq and Afghanistan, I would be ambivalent.

The lesson for conservatives for 2012 is to unify behind one standard bearer before Iowa. We can't trust the primary process to identify the best conservative.

Labels: election, mccain, politics

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 8:03 AM   Permalink  

The great crime of McCain and the Gang of 14 was that it signaled to the Senator and the People of the USA that the Republican leadership won in the 2004 holding 55 votes would not be able to get even a majority vote on its reforms -- the first and most important of which was to end the threat of judicial filibuster. But that was only one of many forms of assistance that McCain gave to frustrate the agenda for America that true conservatives and true Republicans held out in 2003 and 2004. Just as Republicans wanted to engage in great political even historic contests in the Senate, McCain grabbed the spotlight for himself and make that 2005-2007 term so full of possibility a Republican Titanic.

Labels: mccain

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 9:09 AM   Permalink  

I just wonder if the conservatives that I align with like Rush Limbaugh and the National Review are going to be burning their bridges with McCain and Huckabee should one of the get the nomination.

The more we learn about Huckabee, the more he seems to more like a Republican Jimmy Carter rather than a Ronald Reagan. Huckabee is simply unelectable. The country has more people who fear this evangelical than want him in the White House.

And of course we know how McCain disappointed us: interfering with the filibuster rules, McCain-Feingold (i.e. first amendment restrictions), and McCain-Kennedy (i.e. amnesty for illegal immigrants), the lawsuit against Wisconsin Right-To-Life, his frequent criticism of elected Republicans including the President and conservative leaders, his inconsistent support for tax cuts, and his pandering to the media to get the "Maverick" label. Some people always make a point that McCain called "waterboarding" torture when it doesn't physically harm the interrogatee. In respect for McCain's experience as a POW, I don't slam McCain for that.

Can the so-called movement conservatives embrace either McCain or Huckabee as their champions?

Labels: election, huckabee, mccain

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 11:08 PM   Permalink  

Andy McCarthy in the NRO Corner mentions something that I had only a retained a vague memory. It was this case it was "McCain (etal) v. Wisconsin Right to Life"

In June 2007 the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 (New York Times) that ads which avoided the explicit identification of candidates could run within the 60 day limit set by McCain-Feingold.

Correctly and ominously, the Times said the decision would hurt McCain's standing with conservatives. I add only if we remember seven months later.

Labels: election, mccain, pro-life

posted by Patrick Sweeney at 6:55 PM   Permalink