We Lose By Less

I think the fact that John McCain, who's way behind in the GOP primary, had his campaign send out an email touting the fact that he doesn't lose as badly as other Republicans do to Hillary Clinton in polling matchups counts as a sign that these are desperate times for Republicans:

In a matchup against Hillary Clinton, John McCain is the only Republican candidate neck and neck with Senator Clinton and within the poll's margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. Rudy Giuliani trails Hillary Clinton by four points; both Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson would lose to her by twelve points. General election matchups, according to the October 9-10 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll.

It still seems to me that conservatives should probably back McCain. He's pretty conservative, still has a pretty good rep, and has a cult-like following in the press. A McCain surge in the polls would probably also be good for sales of Matt Welch's book on why McCain is whack so that'd be good as well.

Comments

John McCain supports the Third-World invasion of the U.S., and thus is guilty of treason.

Unless Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, or Duncan Hunter gets the nomination, I'm voting Constitution Party.

Posted by Bede | October 18, 2007 2:40 PM

A McCain surge in the polls would probably also be good for sales of Matt Welch's book on why McCain is whack

The correct word here is, of course, wack. Whack is a verb, meaning

1. To strike (someone or something) with a sharp blow; slap.
2. Slang. To kill deliberately; murder.

Yeah, it's a pet peeve. So sue me.

Posted by ethan salto | October 18, 2007 2:47 PM

"It still seems to me that conservatives should probably back McCain. He's pretty conservative, still has a pretty good rep, and has a cult-like following in the press."

Thanks for the tip, Matt, but no thanks. McCain's embrace of illegal immigration is a non-starter. And since he is a strong supporter of stabilizing Iraq, he no longer has a "cult-like following" in the press. After a career of cultivating the press by taking on "maverick" positions on issues like immigration (i.e., positions most Republicans disagree with), McCain has now worn out his welcome among the press and Republicans.

Posted by Fred | October 18, 2007 3:04 PM

McCain is old, closely associated with Bush's Iraq fiasco, and part of the Washington establishment. If conservatives wanted to actually try to win the election, they would instead go for somebody like Huckabee not McCain. Fortunately for the Democrats and the country conservatives are dumb.

Posted by Ron | October 18, 2007 3:14 PM

McCain is also taking public financing for the primary, which means if he squeaks out a win he'll have zero money until the convention and will have to depend on third party groups and Fox News to defend him from $100+ million of Democratic ads and campaigning. The Clintons, at least, have played this game before when they beat Bob Dole. McCain will enter the convention with a 20+ point poll deficit.

Posted by Dave Weigel | October 18, 2007 3:22 PM

Ron,

Huckabee also supports the third-world invasion of the U.S., and thus is guilty of treason.

Posted by Bede | October 18, 2007 4:00 PM

It's amusing to see the box conservatives have put themselves in with McCain. He is, by almost every measure, MORE conservative than George W. Bush and also happens to have a fairly appealing personality. But the right wingers like Rush Limbaugh who sided with Bush in 2000 have spent so much time demonizing McCain to conservatives, they can't bring themselves to embrace him.

It's almost as amusing as conservatives' failure to rally around Huckabee, the most obviously Reaganesque (whether you mean that positively or negatively) of all the GOP candidates, seemingly just because he's not angry enough for them.

Mike

Posted by MBunge | October 18, 2007 4:13 PM

"He is, by almost every measure, MORE conservative than George W. Bush"

Frankly, if conservatives had known back in 2000 what they now know about Bush, I doubt he'd have gotten the nomination. There's a lot of buyer remorse in the party.

"and also happens to have a fairly appealing personality."

Actually, he's got a reputation for having a nasty temper. He's only got an appealing personality if you're going along with what he wants.

Posted by Brett Bellmore | October 18, 2007 4:41 PM

The U.S. constitution has an explicit definition of treason, which is as follows:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

I'd like to see how McCain and Huckabee are guilty of treason according to Bede.

Posted by Julian Elson | October 18, 2007 4:56 PM

I think I can save Bede the trouble, Julian Elson. He refers to a "Third World invasion" of the US." This indicates that he sees illegal immigrants as our enemies. By not being sufficiently anti-immigration, McCain and Huckabee are giving aid and comfort to these immigrant invaders.

It all makes perfect sense if you are a rabid xenophobe.

Posted by Blorp | October 18, 2007 6:18 PM

Blorp,

we are trying to understand the reasoning, or better yet, the reasons, for rather minor degree of success of Huckabee and McCain, compared with rootless mercenaries like Rodney, Guliani and Thompson.

Thompson appear most Reganesque, a dim-witted amiable actor. Except that some reports say he is not all that amiable.

Posted by piotr | October 18, 2007 11:01 PM

Thompson appear most Reganesque

I wonder how many elections the GOP is going to lose by trying to recapture the Reagan magic. I think Reagan's success was the product of a particular set of circumstances (the tail end of the 60's/70's liberal overreach combined with the OPEC-induced oil shocks and Vietnam) and the fact that no one like him had been president before. Plus the fact that the Dems of the time were offering the likes of Mondale as an alternative.

They keep coming up with these middle-witted celebrities (Arnold, Fred) hoping they can get the same thing to happen. Dubya was really a similar play (a famous name attached to a seemingly affable dim bulb), and he's been a political catastrophe for them on a scale I think they have only the vaguest notion of.

If the Republicans want to win again, they are going to have to stop thinking in terms of repeating a magical formula, and think more about coming to terms with reality. They need to concentrate on finding ways to make the government work instead of blindly following ideology. Oops, if they did that they'd be Democrats.

Posted by jimBOB | October 18, 2007 11:57 PM