NRO's Michael Graham, an orthodox anti-McCain conservative, is pretty amusing as he tries to reconcile himself to McCain getting the nomination. Expect much more of this in the near future. Meanwhile, it's interesting to see McCain kissing Huckabee's ass in his victory speech . . . could be VP material. If you squish Huckabee and McCain together, the combination looks more like a regular Republican than either does on his own.
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Stages of Grief
29 Jan 2008 09:50 pm
Comments (22)
If you squish Huckabee and McCain together, the combination looks more like a regular Republican than either does on his own.
In the same way that Frankenstein's monster looks more like a regular person than the constituent parts do on their own.
I think kissing Huckabee's ass was 90% about creating a reasonable context to ramp up Guliani hype ahead of tomorrow's endorsement.
Don't underestimate Huck as the Dem manchurian candidate as McInsane's running mate.
Huck is the most likeable, kinda like the crazy uncle locked up in the nut house for believeing he is realy Shirley Temple.
McCain / Huck can easily beat Hillary / Anyone.
This is the night the Democratic Party lost the 2008 Presidential election.
Barring some miracle, it looks like it will be McCain vs. Clinton, plus at least one strong independent candidate. I see almost no way in which we can win that race, barring a deterioration of the situation in Iraq.
barring a deterioration of the situation in Iraq.
Ooh. There's a troubling thought. What if the situation in Iraq were to deteriorate? I mean, it could get really bad over there, couldn't it?
What nobody seems to be noticing is that the turnout in the meaningless Dem primary, with no ad money or campaigning, was 95% as large as that in the fiercely contested and crucial GOP contest. This in a state that splits 50/50 in party affiliation. I think that's a hell of a good sign for the Democrats in November.
I don't know why everyone thinks McCain is so inevitable in November. Loony policy ideas aside, he seems really old. Even my mother-in-law, who worship McCain and who is also old, thinks he looks old. Bob Dole probably thinks McCain looks old. And since McCain doesn't give a shit about the economy, he really has a non-trivial chance to look like Admiral Stockdale in the domestic policy debate.
Also, there is no way the economy could really deteriorate and become a major issue in the general election. That would probably help either Democrat candidate facing McCain, but I don't see anything bad happening to the economy. Too bad.
The Dem side of the race is totally out of character with the rest of the primary races.. where the Democratic Turnout has been significantly higher in each race--even in heavily republican states like South Carolina, where the Democratic Turnout was nearly 20% higher than the Republican.
Florida doesn't really determine much of anything on the Democratic side.. at all..
Still. I do think that McCain/Huckabee would have decent shot against Hilary/?, mainly because I, as a lifelong democrat, cannot stand Hilary's campaign in the slightest.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that.. Super Tuesday will be telling..
Maybe Mac will assign Huck to the Pakistani Illegal Immigration Problem.
Reminds me of the final season of The West Wing. The top of the Republican ticket was a 72 year old, non-traditional Republican Senator from California who was supposed to be a straight talker. The first pick for VP was a preacher from Virginia. He turned it down so they went with a southern governor who was still very acceptable to the Theocon wing.
Also, there is no way the economy could really deteriorate and become a major issue in the general election
This is satire, right?
A McCain-Huckabee administration would be a propaganda gift to Osama bin Laden: with a war-monger and a Bible-thumper running the US, he will find it much easier to pin the "crusader" label on us.
-- TP
"barring a deterioration of the situation in Iraq."
Well, that's pretty much a guarantee.
However, it might not happen in time. The 12-party nationalist coalition forming in Iraq to depose Maliki is aiming at the 2009 parliamentary elections. If they win, they get to tell the US to get the hell out. When the US doesn't, which it won't, of course, they'll ratchet up the insurgency and drive us out.
That might be a bit too late for our elections this year, unfortunately.
McCain's win is bad, bad news. Say hello to the next president, folks--the biggest warmonger in the job since T.R. WILL win thanks to the media's open adoration of him.
Meanwhile, I have visions of the Obama-fans all voting for Bloomberg in the general since Hillary is too "partisan" and "divisive" (meaning, Republicans and the press hate her for no good reason). But it scarcely matters who wins on the dem side at this point, as Obama would just get eaten alive by "Honest John's" Republican attack machine.
There is plenty of time for Democrats to recognize that it would be extremely foolish to put Clinton up against McCain. And of course it would be foolish: he'd chip away some older, conservative, and "experience" oriented Democrats, and flatten her among Independents. I don't think he actually needs Huckabee on the ticket to bring Huckabee's voters to the polls to vote against Clinton, but if he did pick Huckabee it would certainly help.
Note by the way I am not guaranteeing that Clinton would lose to McCain, nor for that matter that someone else (Obama or Edwards, say) would win against McCain. But I really believe it is completely obvious that among the three top contenders on the Democratic side, Clinton has by far the greatest chance of losing to McCain.
What's with all the loser talk? Just because McCain might be the nominee does not mean its curtains for the Democrats (even if its Hillary). This election is ours to loose. So don't give up even before trying. Jesus, don't act like a bunch of pussies.
So, for seven years movement conservatives were happy to go along with all of Bush's right wing but non-conservative policies, because he was "right" on the war on terror, but McCain, who is more "right" on the war on terror, is unacceptable?
Huck as VP might be dangerous. Some flat-earth millenialist might be tempted to off the stinker McCain, so that Huck could be elevated to Commander in Chief of the Rapture.
If it's McCain vs. [gulp] Clinton, I think McCain's obvious move is not to the theocon right, which would never vote for Hillary under any circumstances, but to double-down on the experience/militarist theme. I have a friend who thinks he'll pick a retired (or not yet retired) general, but I think there are middle-aged politicians with credible military experience he could choose. A married-with-kids Lyndsey Graham would be a lock, or maybe a Colin Powell who still had a shred of public trust.
Duncan Hunter ought to be looked at, his major weakness is that he's a Californian. John Kline from Minnesota seems to have the right biography, though it would be better if he were a Southern Baptist from Florida.
But Huckabee doesn't really help McCain much at all. If he wants to go all evangelical, McCain would be better off picking John Thune from South Dakota, who at least is a conventional conservative.
Comments closed February 12, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
For the record, folks: I've been predicting a McCain-Huckabee ticket since Thanksgiving, when Giuliani's collapse became apparent. A McCain-Huck ticket is the only way to pump up the evangelical turn-out the GOP will need to win.
Posted by BryklynLibrul | January 29, 2008 9:57 PM