McCain Train Wreck Update
First, the guy who wants to be the Republican nominee loses the CPAC straw poll to the only full spectrum conservative in the campaign, Mitt Romney, and then the rumors start to bubble up that “political operatives” close to Pres. Bush are floating the name of ex-Rep. Rob Portman of Ohio as a possible VP running mate for John “Open Borders” McCain.
My understanding is that Mr. Portman has a 89% rating from the American Conservative Union, which is a good thing. However, I have only the vaguest memories of hearing his name once or twice, some time ago, and couldn’t tell you anything about his political career or his policy stances, which is a bad thing. I don’t mean to be disrespectful of Mr. Portman, my only point is that if I have almost no knowledge of him and my guess is that most of the voters will have about the same amount of name recognition as I do (or less). That being the case, what possible strengths can Mr. Portman bring to this ticket?
If Sen. McCain picks anybody but a household name for his VP, then it’s getting to the point where I’ll have to stick my fingers in my ears, because the sound of the crash when his train collides with Hillary’s/Obama’s train is going to be deafening.
~~John Cronin~~
February 10th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Speaking of train wrecks… I think Louisiana & Kansas have made a strong statement against McCain today. And Washington! Wow! Almost even numbers for McCain, Huckabee and Ron Paul! Who would have guessed. And Romney still got 16+ percent of the vote!! The 13% uncommited (significant for this late in the race) are probably also Romneyites. At our caucuses today, there was a sheet of paper in front of us showing 6 republican candidates. They had simply put an “X” through Thompson, Giuliani, and Romney. Our precinct was able to choose 3 delegates. Our results: 1 uncommited, 1 Romney (me :-)), and 1 Huckabee. Interesting….
February 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
If McCain keeps getting humiliated this way (He may recover in Washington), how long before Huck finds a horse’s head in his bed?
February 10th, 2008 at 1:18 am
Amazing, 78% in Washington with McCain with a 2% lead. Maybe Huckabee can pull the biggest upset so far on the G.O.P side. If you add Romney and Huckabee they about equal McCain’s? Huckabee/Romney? Quite possibly, but I prefer Romney to stay out and be the torch bearer in 12′ for the conservatives/republicans.
February 10th, 2008 at 1:31 am
Steve - Quite possibly, but I prefer Romney to stay out and be the torch bearer in 12′ for the conservatives/republicans.
********
my thoughts: absolutely!
February 10th, 2008 at 1:39 am
Wow! This race is turning into a nightmare for the Republicans. Maybe Mitt should have stayed in. He might have had a chance to win this thing. But you know what? It’s not the Republicans year, period. Mitt would have taken it all the way to the convention. And then what? So he wins, and the party remains fractured. So, in the end, it’s all for the best. They’ll all appreciate him in 2012!
February 10th, 2008 at 2:10 am
The republican elite created this nightmare by not getting behind Romney. I think Romney would have been good for Washington but Washington is not good for anyone. What a bunch of corrupted people. Americans are so ready to elect OBAMA. What are they thinking? They don’t want to stand on principle, they just want to stand on ideals.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:15 am
Romney got 10,000 votes today in Louisiana! Huckabee won LA because Romney got out. At least this helped hurt McCain.
February 10th, 2008 at 3:55 am
I think it really shows Huckabee’s ego when Romney drops out for the good of not only the Republican party, but for the good of the American people. You can see how stubborn Huckabee and how much pride he has. Being a Christian (yes, I’m actually one of the ones who values our Constitution and doesn’t believe in divisions among us; ain’t that something) I find that ol’ sinner man Huckabee doesn’t read his Bible much.
I could go and look up some Scripture but I do not find it necessary, because frankly, Huckabee hasn’t read what Jesus said about pride. Candidates should not be ashamed of their religion and all the best presidents have embraced God. Persecution does at times seem to be knawing at one’s foot but all of us enlightened ones realize that we are and always be persecuted for our beliefs but it is our responsibility to deter any misconceptions and share Him. I wish Huckabee would be a better advocate and say yes, I believe in this and this and so be it.
I believe that if Huckabee was in the situation that Romney was/is in with his Mormom faith Huckabee would crumble and succumb to the pressures.
God! Isn’t it nice to have an opinion?!
February 10th, 2008 at 4:01 am
I agree. Let’s all support a McCain/Romney ticket then.
Here is the growing list of reasons why Governor Romney would be the perfect V.P. choice for McCain - and everyone else:
There is widespread agreement that if John McCain loses this year, Gov. Romney will run in 2012. If Gov. Romney were on the ticket as V.P. next in line for the GOP nod in 2016, Mr. McCain would not have to worry about whether Mr. Romney would work as hard as possible for a McCain/Romney win this year.
Governor Romney is very intelligent, and I think would be very comfortable dealing with foreign dignitaries.
Governor Romney is very rich and has a well-oiled fund-raising circuit that would be very beneficial to Mr. McCain.
Governor Romney would bring expertise to economic matters that Mr. McCain seems to be lacking.
Governor Romney would bring executive experience as a Governor to the ticket.
Governor Romney would bring almost all of his supporters to help with a McCain/Romney ticket, thereby assuring that his supporters aren’t trying to bring him attention to a potential 2012 run, nipping such conversation quickly, before it takes root and is hard to break apart.
Governor Romney appeals to social, economic and defense conservatives, bringing the whole Party and most of the Conservative Movement - including talk radio - on board with the ticket.
Romney supporters are very enthusiastic and dedicated. You cannot buy this kind of endearment, but McCain would be able to pick up his supporters, and their already-in-place organizational and other skills they would have to offer to the ticket.
Romney would help John McCain in purple states such as Michigan, Nevada and Minnesota, and could even put Massachusetts in place in November.
Governor Romney brings all the necessary ingredients to John McCain’s campaign that he so desperately needs to succeed against Hillary - and especially - an Obama Democratic opponent.
You cannot buy loyalty like Governor Romney has with his supporters. You have to EARN it. By giving Romney the nod for the V.P. slot, McCain would be showing the Conservative Movement in America that he will not abandon them in the future. If he does this, he will almost be unstoppable in the fall against the Democrats.
Governor Romney is now widely seen as heir next in line to be the GOP nominee if McCain were to be defeated, or if McCain served two terms, then 2116, if Romney stays in the game that long. The move to make Romney V.P. would silence many evangelical and social conservatives who now would support Gov. Romney, including Dr. Dobson and others. This would shore up support among Mr. Huckabee’s supporters to Mr. McCain, endearing McCain as the one who actually DID bring the Party and Conservative Movement together to defeat the Democrats and take BACK both Houses of Congress!
Gov. Romney was the clear “change” candidate - and ran on that theme. The move to make Romney V.P. would be a tough ticket against a Hillary/Obama ticket. Change wins almost every time. We would now be able to bring that on-the-ground message IMMEDIATELY!
As the man who actually did something about - and has earned him wide recognition of - healthcare reform, he is the ideal man to blunt the Democrat’s BillaryCare proposals. This item would essentially be OURS as Republicans, which would deflate much criticism against the Republicans for not adequately addressing this critical issue thus far!
By picking Romney, we come out a totally unified Republican Party AND Conservative Movement - ready to fight against the Democrats NOW!
McCain IS the President-elect. He WILL be the Commander in Chief. McCain WILL be the boss - apple sauce -non debatable. McCain will get his way on very many things. But, Mr. Romney can still use cabinet meetings and gestures to try to persuade Mr. McCain to go all the way toward Ronald Reagan’s principled road of social, economic and military-might conservatism. Mr. McCain will ALWAYS win. But, Romney will be RIGHT there to balance McCain as needed.
Romney would be good for McCain, since Romney is NOT a “yes” man. Romney is a principled, determined conservative who is GRACIOUS -yet stern when applicable - who can turn the other cheek when needed, after his opinions are known and rejected. He PROVED that by bowing out graciously and promising to work hard for Mr. McCain as the GOP nominee-to-be. Mr. McCain does NOT need a “yes” man, but rather someone who can keep his temper and political wavering’s from right issues in check.
An informal straw vote among those present to see who they might prefer for President after the CPAC convention showed Romney winning it with 34%, followed by John McCain at 33 %, and Huckabee way down at only 14 percent. This vote proves that adding Gov. Romney to the ticket would quell the right and go along way toward making sure they aren’t complacent on election day.
If McCain does not pick a well-known conservative for V.P., it may take MONTHS for the Republican electorate to get know and accept him, as was the case with Gov. Romney. Conservatives now know that Romney is “one of us,” after his gracious exodus speech at a stunned CPAC convention. People cried. My wife cried. I cried. You CANNOT buy that kind of endearment! Governor Mitt Romney EARNED IT!
John McCain is old, grey, and not very attractive overall. A V.P. pick that is younger, more handsome, and without so many grey hairs will help McCain with some voters concerns about such things. Romney fits the bill here.
No other governor fits as many specific criteria that a V.P. should have than Governor Romney. A pick that is OTHER than a governor for the V.P. slot isn’t as attractive to some voters. Executive experience does matter, and Romney can balance a McCain ticket in this way.
A V.P. pick should already be politically battle-hardened so that there won’t be embarrassing moments for the campaign. Romney took punches from virtuously everyone - and still stayed a gentlemen under pressure.
A V.P. pick MUST be a scandal and corruption-free life that under the intense scrutiny of the media’s microscope, will not be a negative for the campaign. Romney is about as pure as snow as one could get. His first and only wife, along with ALL his children, are fine, upstanding citizens with no baggage to bring to a McCain campaign.
Many Romney supporters feel like they were shafted by McCain due to his mis-characterization (some say lie) of Romney’s stance on time tables and troops withdrawal from Iraq right before the Florida contest. Romney supporters are keenly aware of the extreme distaste McCain and some of his supporters have for Mr. Romney, and this is feeding a movement for him to run in 2012, ceding the 2008 election to the Democrats. If Romney becomes McCain’s V.P. choice, most of this talk, including the movement, would stop, with Romney supporters instead working hard for the McCain/Romney 2008 ticket.
Most Mormons feel betrayed and bitter about what many see as Mr. Huckabee’s overt anti-Mormon bigotry. The history of the Republican Party and Mormons goes back many years, and Mormons have ALWAYS been a strong, reliable source of strength for our Party. By putting Mr. Romney on the ticket, they will feel that Mr. McCain is really not going to let our Party leave them feeling left out, possibly losing this constituency for a long time to come. Let’s be a party of inclusion that the voters approve of, not of the bigoted few that only divide us to eventual ruin.
Mr. Huckabee’s wins on saturday against McCain are a harbinger of what is in store for the McCain campaign if they don’t act QUICKLY to put this fire of his out. This will become a movement in short order if not stopped immediately, leading to a full-blown retreat from McCain. If McCain doesn’t make Romney the V.P. choice very soon, then Huckabee may be in a position to demand he be on the ticket with McCain. If McCain must do this, he will effectively cause a rift in the Republican Party that will not heal for possibly many years to come. Huckabee is unacceptable to far too many than he will ever attract.
That’s 26 reasons and counting for a McCain/Romney 2008 ticket!
February 10th, 2008 at 4:41 am
Denny,
You make a good case for McCain/Romney. I think it may be a good idea, but will the Republicans even win the White House this year? Democrats are coming out in record numbers to support their candidate(s), and nobody seems to really care about the Republicans. Also, I don’t think Mitt will be asked because the more coverage Huck gets, the more the media types will push a McCain/Huck ticket. It will come to a point that people will expect it, and if Romney is put on, it may upset our lovely bigoted evangelical friends., who will refuse to vote for the Mormon.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Huckabee will be with Russert Sunday morning on Meet the Press! Perhaps he’ll finally get some hardball questions. Obama is already calling for debates with John McCain over foreign policy. If you think McCain looked old before just wait till you see him against the brillant mind and physical stature of Obama. Romney would do great things on the ticket but I’m not sure Obama can be beaten. The Washington power brokers of the Rupublican Party have done it to themselves this time! Let the games begin! Romney watches from the most expensive box in the stadium with a crown on!
February 10th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Rob Portman ? Can you say Bill Miller ? Bush is obviously suffering from an extended case of battle field fatigue.
February 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Denny,
Good arguments. The best one, for McCain, is to put Romney on the ticket Monday morning. That is the end of the primary contests and they can buy critical time for the generals while Hillary and Obama trash each other out. I doubt McCain, so ego driven, wants to win more than he wants to prevail, so this option will be invisible to him. But McCain would sew the nomination up by next Wednesday, mathematically and otherwise and add 10 % to his chances of winning rather than spend the next 2 months fighting Huckabee and ruminating among the Rob Portmans of the world
February 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Leslie is right. It’s not the Republican’s year. We’ve come full circle to the point where too many people genuinely believe religious conservatism is bad for America and bad for the party. I can’t imagine the pressure on Huckabee, like him or not, to get out of the race now as he is exposing what a farce this is.
Before I comment on McCain, I wanted to spotlight this comment by Lawrence Auster made about the chasm in the party, well before McCain ascended and Giuliani dropped out:
“…If they had acknowledge the obvious truth that this guy [Giuliani] is totally unacceptable, then Giuliani would not have consumed all the attention and oxygen, and better candidates might have arisen. But they puffed up Giuliani from the start. Which shows that they’re not just motivated by the desire to find a candidate who can win. They positively want Giuliani to be president. That’s what this is all about. After all, how can Blankley state so positively that Rudy is the only one who can beat Hillary? What is his basis for being so sure about this? How does he know that Romney would not fare better? What this suggests to me is that they don’t want Giuliani out of a merely pragmatic calculation that he is the one who can win; they want him because they want him to be president. And conservatives who want Giuliani to be president have busted conservatism wide open. It is they who are the destroyers of the GOP and the conservative movement, not the Giuliani opponents.”
It’s been made abundantly clear by now how intolerant the moderates are of conservatives, especially now that they are on the precipice of power. Romney needs to stay away from this trainwreck which has already begun as this blog has demonstrated.
Finally, this is an extremely good article about why it’s not the Republican’s year and McCain and amnesty will both lose
http://www.vdare.com/guzzardi/080206_amnesty.htm
“Coming after eight years of the disastrous George W. Bush administration and its legacy of war, lunatic immigration enthusiasm, indifference to the middle class and the crushing mortgage crisis, McCain would have a tough climb even if he were the ideal GOP candidate.
But in most ways, McCain is the worst possible candidate. He’s Bush all over again—maybe worse. Open those borders! Let’s stay a hundred more years in Iraq! (See McCain’s speech on YouTube here).
Good luck to McCain campaigning on a platform that echoes Bush and his 30 percent favorable poll rating.”
Related: http://vdare.com/sailer/two_incomes.htm
Discusses that things have gotten worse for the middle class. Steve Sailer was the writer for American Conservative Magazine who found out that the G.O.P. was the party of “Affordable Family Formation”; Bush had a slightly higher I.Q. than Kerry; debunked the Freakonomics argument that abortion cut crime and many more (may have even been responsible for Paula Jones and the Clinton impeachment as he had written to the “American Spectator” that not every man bats 1000 and in the age of sexual harassment, focus needed to be on finding the woman who said, “No” rather than, “Yes” to adultery. He had been in Arkansas and heard of many stories. A couple of months later, David Brock was dispatched to Arkansas and turned up Paula Jones).
http://isteve.blogspot.com/
February 10th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
The only way I’d vote for a McCain/Romney ticket is if I was 100% certain that McCain would die quietly of natural causes within the first six months of taking office!
February 10th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Did it occur to anybody yet that Romney is a Kingmaker? Just add up Romney’s delegates and Huck’s delegates and this is a contest again with momentum on Huck’s side. A Huckabee/Romney ticket accomplishes two big things: it brings out the entire evangelical base (something a McCain/Romney ticket can’t do) and also all of Utah and the southwest, including Michigan. It may not help so much with swing states, but if McCain can’t even get republicans to vote for him, he’s in big trouble this November.
I think Huck is a lot smarter than any of us are giving him credit for. People think Romney helped McCain by dropping out. Maybe he was actually helping Huckabee too.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
S Clark- LOL! Same here and make sure it’s in writing.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Who is this Portman guy and how do they think he will excite the base in any possible way?
He has no name recognition. Mitt does. He doesn’t have a ground game organized in each state. Mitt does. He doesn’t have grassroots activists ready, willing and able to fight for him to get in the WH. Mitt does. He didn’t win the crucial swing states of MI, MN, CO & NV. Mitt did.
I think we need to push for a McCain/Romney ticket. If by some miracle McCain were to win without Mitt we’d never forgive ourselves for failing to fight to put Mitt on the ticket. And if McCain did win without Mitt, I think that ends Mitt’s chances for the presidency. Forever. If McCain wins, his VP will be the Republican frontrunner in 2016. McCain’s VP would be next in line. Do we want to take a chance that it might be someone other than Mitt? Isn’t that a big risk to take?
We could suffer another terrorist attack on our soil before November and McCain’s stock could skyrocket. Some sort of scandal could befall the dems. We just don’t know what will happen. And, right now, McCain leads in a head-to-head match-up with Hillary. He could win. It’s not impossible, especially if Hillary is the dem nominee. Better safe than sorry. Even if the McCain/Romney ticket were to lose, at least Mitt will have had all that additional exposure and would surely be the frontrunner in 2012. The more people get to know him during the general, the more they’ll like him. He always comes off as presidential during debates. It’s a win-win.
The scary thing is that there is no sure thing for Mitt or any Republican in 2012 should the dems win this year. Incumbents are quite often reelected in recent history, aren’t they? So hanging all of Mitt’s hopes on a mere chance of knocking the dems out in 2012 is not good enough. Why not fight to get him on the ticket this year and fight to win the WH? I think conceding the VP spot is dangerous. There’s no better route to the presidency than through the VP’s office. And there’s no better time than now. I think if McCain choses Mitt, the base would be reinvigorated and would rally towards victory. How could we ever forgive ourselves if we didn’t push for a McCain/Romney ticket and McCain/Candidate X ticket wins? I don’t see the downside in at least pressing for it. Here is the contact from for McCain. Tell him who we want and tell him who we definitely don’t want (you know who):
http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/
February 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Claire:
Agreed. Get Mitt on the ticket. That’s the way to go.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
We need to email McCain on behalf of Mitt. Mitt would, by far, be the best candidate for a VP. McCain badly needs his knowledge of the economy.
February 10th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Leslie:
Go here and comment why Mitt should be the one:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120243266768552299.html
February 10th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Not only has the fat lady not begun to sing, she hasn’t even started warming up . . .
and is probably on vacation . . until at least late Summer.
One thing that is a good bet is verbal fireworks between John and the witch . . . .
should they be the nominees. Neither is “a lead pipe cinch”, no matter what is said.
I think that McCain is going to eventually self-destruct: I’ve never seen such an
unstable, erratic, unpredictable public figure . . . who has become the “media
darling” . . . and the TV media eventually “turns” on their own, with a real
vengeance.
I continue to literally pray for a miracle. But for the long run, we need to think
about reversing this “moving up the dates” phenomenon that was definitely
“pushed” by the TV media. Anything that can be done to minimize the opportunity
for those rotten TV people has to be an improvement. The way it is now, why
bother with having a convention at all?
And you know right well that an old-fashioned “smoke-filled room” OR a “brokered”
convention is probably better than what we have now. I say this not because I
don’t believe in state’s rights: I emphatically do. What I don’t believe in is the
unjust power of the TV media: the tail that wags the dog. And you know what’s
right below the tail!!!
It’s sad that America is not producing the quality of candidates (and people!) that
it once did . . . with one notable exception: W M R.
Jerry
February 10th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Carl Rove is supporting McCain. Bush is floating Portmans name. I guess the Bush Administration is Pro McCain for the sake of the war. Washington seems determined to control the election. Americans are going to be extremely humbled in the coming years and at some point they must be willing to stand on values and principle and take back Washington from all of these crooked politicians. Washington is really messed up. Hopefully conservatism will not die but grow stronger over the next several years.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Check ithttp://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=JSUyn_62fTE out!
February 10th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Bush has only done two things that fit the conservative’s bill in his 8 years of Presidency: tax cut and appointed two conservative judgers. With McCain’s led opposition, the tax cut was only temporary until 2009, if I am correct. The war in Iraq didn’t managed well, and the economy is tanking. He wants McCain to take over his legacy, and continue the war in Iraq. He didn’t fight the war on terrorism intelligently, and McCain will make it worse if he takes over. McCain is non comparable with Eisenhower by any means, and he was only a solder and POW, no a General in military. If McCain claims that fighting a war is his best capability, I would think that Oliver North is a lot better than him.
February 10th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
I’m on the side of Mitt staying out of it in 2008. I’d like him to attend the convention, give another awesome speech (who remembers when the unknown black senator from Illinois wowed the Demo convention in 2004?), plays the kingmaker, and comes out smelling like a rose for 2012….while McCain and/or Huckabee board the train that will surely wreck in November.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:21 am
I agree with Leslie on that. It would be better then a McCain/Romney ticket but I still am on the side of Jan Myers. I am ready to hear a very big crash in November for the McCain train. It is going to be loud and then we are going to suffer for it. I hope everything works for the best. No… I pray everything works for the best. I am right now wavering from gearing up for a fight and/or giving up and putting everything in the hands of God. Lets do one thing though on the way of advice. Whatever happens, find high interest saving loans. Get a stockpile of money. We are entering into hard financial times.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:22 am
I mean savings account.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Karl Rove is supporting McCain? Wow, didn’t know that. Boy it just gets crazier by the day. Maybe the train wreck already happened …….LOL Hang in there Mitt : )
February 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
ROB PORTMAN is another amnesty fanatic.
Check out his “immigration report card” at BetterImmigration.com
http://grades.betterimmigration.com/testgrades.php3?District=OH02&VIPID=623&retired=1
He received an F- on amnesties! It seems that the Bush Administration is trying to keep its open-border policies moving right along.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
My political senses tell me that the republicans are headed for defeat unless something drastic happens. McCain has said nothing about out he would handle terrorism which is still a huge threat. I am very concerned about our country. But there is no one currently running in either party that would be good for our nation. Romney was our greatest hope and with the democratic swell - I not so sure he could have won in 2008. So I guess what will be, will be.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I have never heard of Rob Portman, and feel that it would be best if Romney stayed away from the likes of McCain and Huckabee! But feel that Romney would like to try to make a difference and be of service so might accept if asked to be vp.
February 11th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Hello everyone,
I believe that Governor Romney had a post on this board and is under the title of “CNN, MCCAIN, ROMNEY, CONSERVATISM”, with post # 11. Please go there and read it. He seemed very optimistic about the future.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:43 am
I can’t be bothered with anything these days. I guess it doesn’t bother me. What can I say?