Bradley in DC
02-04-2008, 11:25 AM
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=/Commentary/archive/200802/COM20080204b.html
[He wants a brokered convention to nominate Mark Sanford!!!]
Slit a Vein or Vote for McCain?
By Chuck Muth
CNSNews.com Commentary
February 04, 2008
On the eve of Super-Duper Tuesday, some Drive-By Muthings:
* While the conservative knock against Mitt Romney is that he started out as a moderate and has since moved to the right, John McCain started out on the right but has since moved to the left. Which is worse?
* That McCain is now successfully campaigning as a conservative apparently proves you can fool an awful lot of Republicans an awful lot of the time.
* GOP party pooh-bahs are now pushing McCain under the assumption that he's the one Republican who can keep "that woman" out of the Oval Office. But he's also the one Republican with a Ross Perot-like temper problem who could similarly suffer a meltdown next fall and hand the election to her on a silver platter. Talk about a "risky scheme."
* Conservative columnist Ann Coulter said this week she'd vote for Hillary rather than vote for John McCain. Sounds pretty extreme, right? But guess what? She's not alone. I overheard a Republican woman at a GOP event yesterday who said, "I'd rather slit a vein than vote for John McCain." Nice bumper sticker. Many conservatives aren't just saying "No" to John McCain. They're saying, "Hell, no!"
* So tell me again why McCain is the best Republican to defeat Hillary in November?
* As long as Mike Huckabee stays in the race, he's helping John McCain by taking conservative votes away from Mitt Romney, the only remaining GOP candidate with a shot at stopping the Double-Talk Express. So the question for Huckabee supporters on Tuesday will be this simple: Do I vote for McCain by voting for Huckabee...or Romney?
* Jason Wright over at Political Derby notes this week that "it seems (Huckabee will) be as satisfied with a McCain win as he would his own." One of the early criticisms of Huckabee was that he could care less about the conservative movement or the Republican Party; that's it's always all about Mike. Looks like those reports were pretty accurate.
* Some conservatives have come to the conclusion that the ONLY hope for the conservative movement this election cycle is a brokered GOP convention in which a dark-horse consensus candidate can ride in to save the day. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And these are desperate times for the Right.
* In the unlikely event conservatives can somehow force a brokered convention, who might the dark-horse savior be? Many, of course, are talking about Newt Gingrich. But others are quietly suggesting a candidate who they believe could unite all the factions of the Reagan center-right coalition without inflaming the Left the way the former House Speaker would: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. And Sanford is someone even the Ron Paul folks could support.
* Do it! Do it! Do it!
* It's been pointed out that no nominee coming out of a brokered convention has ever gone on to win the White House in November. True. But as my friend Phil Sheldon notes, that was before Al Gore invented the Internet. Point taken.
* And finally, even if Newt or Sanford lost in November the way Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in '76 after the conservative GOP primary challenge by Reagan, at least conservatives would be united in their opposition to Hillary (or Barack) for the next four years. That would probably result in regaining at least one, and maybe even both houses of Congress in 2010, followed by a Reagan-like win against a failed Democrat incumbent president in 2012 by a true conservative.
I can think of worse scenarios. So can a growing number of other conservatives.
(Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are those of the writer.)
[He wants a brokered convention to nominate Mark Sanford!!!]
Slit a Vein or Vote for McCain?
By Chuck Muth
CNSNews.com Commentary
February 04, 2008
On the eve of Super-Duper Tuesday, some Drive-By Muthings:
* While the conservative knock against Mitt Romney is that he started out as a moderate and has since moved to the right, John McCain started out on the right but has since moved to the left. Which is worse?
* That McCain is now successfully campaigning as a conservative apparently proves you can fool an awful lot of Republicans an awful lot of the time.
* GOP party pooh-bahs are now pushing McCain under the assumption that he's the one Republican who can keep "that woman" out of the Oval Office. But he's also the one Republican with a Ross Perot-like temper problem who could similarly suffer a meltdown next fall and hand the election to her on a silver platter. Talk about a "risky scheme."
* Conservative columnist Ann Coulter said this week she'd vote for Hillary rather than vote for John McCain. Sounds pretty extreme, right? But guess what? She's not alone. I overheard a Republican woman at a GOP event yesterday who said, "I'd rather slit a vein than vote for John McCain." Nice bumper sticker. Many conservatives aren't just saying "No" to John McCain. They're saying, "Hell, no!"
* So tell me again why McCain is the best Republican to defeat Hillary in November?
* As long as Mike Huckabee stays in the race, he's helping John McCain by taking conservative votes away from Mitt Romney, the only remaining GOP candidate with a shot at stopping the Double-Talk Express. So the question for Huckabee supporters on Tuesday will be this simple: Do I vote for McCain by voting for Huckabee...or Romney?
* Jason Wright over at Political Derby notes this week that "it seems (Huckabee will) be as satisfied with a McCain win as he would his own." One of the early criticisms of Huckabee was that he could care less about the conservative movement or the Republican Party; that's it's always all about Mike. Looks like those reports were pretty accurate.
* Some conservatives have come to the conclusion that the ONLY hope for the conservative movement this election cycle is a brokered GOP convention in which a dark-horse consensus candidate can ride in to save the day. Desperate times call for desperate measures. And these are desperate times for the Right.
* In the unlikely event conservatives can somehow force a brokered convention, who might the dark-horse savior be? Many, of course, are talking about Newt Gingrich. But others are quietly suggesting a candidate who they believe could unite all the factions of the Reagan center-right coalition without inflaming the Left the way the former House Speaker would: South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. And Sanford is someone even the Ron Paul folks could support.
* Do it! Do it! Do it!
* It's been pointed out that no nominee coming out of a brokered convention has ever gone on to win the White House in November. True. But as my friend Phil Sheldon notes, that was before Al Gore invented the Internet. Point taken.
* And finally, even if Newt or Sanford lost in November the way Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in '76 after the conservative GOP primary challenge by Reagan, at least conservatives would be united in their opposition to Hillary (or Barack) for the next four years. That would probably result in regaining at least one, and maybe even both houses of Congress in 2010, followed by a Reagan-like win against a failed Democrat incumbent president in 2012 by a true conservative.
I can think of worse scenarios. So can a growing number of other conservatives.
(Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a public policy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. The views expressed are those of the writer.)