New Republican Poll - Page 12

JAD_333 · 11-19-2007, 00:54 AM

This editorial comes closest to why I support McCain...and I believe that given time to solo in the spotlight as the GOP nominee, he'll convert a lot of voters to his side. He's the only candidate in the field with true candor and the guts to do what he thinks is right.

Quote:

November 13, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist [New York Times]
The Character Factor
By DAVID BROOKS
Rochester, N.H.

About six months ago, I was having lunch with a political consultant and we were having a smart-alecky conversation about the presidential race. All of sudden, my friend interrupted the flow of gossip and said: “You know, there’s really only one great man running for president this year, and that’s McCain.”

The comment cut through the way we pundits normally talk about presidential candidates. We tend to view them like products and base our verdicts on their market share at the moment. We don’t so much evaluate their character; we analyze how effectively they are manipulating their image to appeal to voters, and in this way we buy into the artificiality of modern campaigning.

My friend’s remark pierced all that, and it had the added weight of truth.

Eight years ago, it was fashionable for us media types to wax rapturously about McCain. That vogue has passed, but I’m afraid my views are unchanged. I have seen McCain when his campaign was imploding, and now again when he’s rising in the polls. I have seen him shooting craps and negotiating in the Senate. I have seen him leading delegations like a statesman and bickering with his old Hanoi Hilton prison-mate Bud Day like a crotchety old lady.

And I can tell you there is nobody in politics remotely like him.

The first thing that still strikes one about McCain is his energy. In his book, “The Nightingale’s Song,” Robert Timberg runs through primal force metaphors to describe the young McCain. “Being on liberty with John McCain was like being in a train wreck,” Timberg wrote.

Prison in Vietnam gave him self-respect and a cause greater than himself, but it didn’t diminish his dynamism. His office in the Senate isn’t tucked away in a tranquil corner of his suite; it’s right in the vortex, and it’s always empty because he’s walking around. Campaigning last weekend in New Hampshire, he was his old restless self, never alone, craving contact, conversation and fun.

Timberg wrote that McCain fought against the system at the Naval Academy as if it were some hostile organism, “as if any compromise meant surrendering a part of himself that he might never retrieve.”

The years and the Senate have smoothed some of his rebelliousness, but he still fights a daily battle against the soul-destroying forms of modern politics.

If you cover him for a day, you’d better bring 2,500 questions because in the hours he spends with journalists, you will run through all of them. Last Saturday, we talked about Pervez Musharraf’s asceticism and Ted Williams’s hitting philosophy, the Korean War and Hispanic voting patterns.

He analyzed the debates he won and the times he was wooden. He talked about his failures as a fund-raiser and said he’d like to pick a running mate with formal economics training because he’s weak in that area. He won’t tell you everything, but there will never be a moment as the hours stretch by when you feel that he is spinning you, lying to himself or insulting your intelligence.

Telling the truth is a skill. Those who don’t do it habitually lose the ability, but McCain is well-practiced and has the capacity to face unpleasant truths. While other conservatives failed to see how corporations were insinuating themselves into their movement, McCain went after Boeing contracts. While others failed to see the rising tide of corruption around them, McCain led the charge against Jack Abramoff. While others ignored the spending binge, McCain was among the fiscal hawks.

There have been occasions when McCain compromised his principles for political gain, but he was so bad at it that it always backfired. More often, he is driven by an ancient sense of honor, which is different from fame and consists of the desire to be worthy of the esteem of posterity.

Other Republicans used to accuse him of kissing up to the news media. But when the Iraq war was at its worst, and other candidates were hiding in the grass waiting to see how things would turn out, McCain championed the surge, which the major Republican candidates now celebrate.

He did it knowing that it would cost him his media-darling status and probably the presidency. But for years he had hated the way the war was being fought. And when the opportunity to change it came, the only honorable course was to try.

And now he pushes ahead, building momentum, but desperately needing a miracle win in New Hampshire. Everyone will make their own political choices, and you might plausibly argue that the qualities John McCain possesses are not the ones the country now requires. But character is destiny, and you will never persuade me that he is not among the finest of men.

That human point seemed worth remembering, even amid the layers of campaign pretense.

dalem · 11-19-2007, 14:50 PM

McCain-Feingold.

Gang of Fourteen.

Immigration arrogance.

He'll never be President, at least as a Republican, nor should he be.

-dale

Bluesman · 11-19-2007, 15:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

McCain-Feingold.

Gang of Fourteen.

Immigration arrogance.

He'll never be President, at least as a Republican, nor should he be.

-dale

Agree with ALL of that.

But he's rock-solid on the war, and if he's the nominee for the GOP [shudder], I'll vote for him with an enormous feeling of bitter resignation.

But I'd cast my vote for him in a primary in absolutely no case that I can conceive of, EVER.

dalem · 11-19-2007, 23:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluesman

Agree with ALL of that.

But he's rock-solid on the war, and if he's the nominee for the GOP [shudder], I'll vote for him with an enormous feeling of bitter resignation.

But I'd cast my vote for him in a primary in absolutely no case that I can conceive of, EVER.

I agree with all of that too. Actually, a McCain-Lieberman ticket would be one of the most entertaining things to happen in a long while. The Lefty's heads would pop like the Martians in Mars Attacks! once the Slim Whitman starts rolling.

-dale

Bluesman · 11-19-2007, 23:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

I agree with all of that too. Actually, a McCain-Lieberman ticket would be one of the most entertaining things to happen in a long while. The Lefty's heads would pop like the Martians in Mars Attacks! once the Slim Whitman starts rolling.

-dale

WOW, that would be a dream come true: a third-party 'go' that actually had some territory right down the middle.

It WOULD be fun to watch it.

dalem · 11-20-2007, 00:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluesman

WOW, that would be a dream come true: a third-party 'go' that actually had some territory right down the middle.

It WOULD be fun to watch it.

Even better if it's the Repubs. I mean, assume worst-case and it's McCain that gets the nomination. Then you HAVE to go for Lieberman to split the Dems. We could survive 4 years of McCain-Lieberman.

-dale

JAD_333 · 11-20-2007, 00:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

Even better if it's the Repubs. I mean, assume worst-case and it's McCain that gets the nomination. Then you HAVE to go for Lieberman to split the Dems. We could survive 4 years of McCain-Lieberman.

-dale

Survive it! You'd be in heaven. Two guys who call a spade a spade. We've got domestic problems I think these guys would go at head on. Social Security for starters.

**astralis** · 11-20-2007, 10:45 AM

hahaha, dale, that is the best idea i've heard here for a long time.

i wouldn't even mind if they went for a third-party- it'd certainly shake the complacency out of the existing two party system.

or, as the more cynical side of me suspects, both parties will land on THAT one like a pile of bricks.

**Julie** · 11-20-2007, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

Even better if it's the Repubs. I mean, assume worst-case and it's McCain that gets the nomination. Then you HAVE to go for Lieberman to split the Dems. We could survive 4 years of McCain-Lieberman.

-dale

I have to say Dale, that is the best thing that could ever happen at this time. Kudos. You come up with some of the most brilliant ideas. You should be a consultant.

Bluesman · 11-20-2007, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by astralis

hahaha, dale, that is the best idea i've heard here for a long time.

i wouldn't even mind if they went for a third-party- it'd certainly shake the complacency out of the existing two party system.

or, as the more cynical side of me suspects, both parties will land on THAT one like a pile of bricks.

Too right; they'd go after that like a pit bull on a gravy-covered toddler. If you've ever wondered what a true political fight for survival would look like, this would set a new level of heat and noise.

smilingassassin · 11-20-2007, 12:50 PM

Well you Yanks sure do need a third party, sounds like Dalems the new party's spokesman!

dalem · 11-20-2007, 15:43 PM

Nahh, I'm not a third party guy. I'd rather take over the Repubs.

-dale

**Julie** · 11-20-2007, 16:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

Nahh, I'm not a third party guy.

Compared to some dim-wit with crappy credentials, like Karl Rove, you would be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dalem

I'd rather take over the Repubs.

You would do them justice, in that, the Framers of the Constitution was seeking political balance. The McCain-Lieberman ticket would do just that, and you in the position such as Karl Rove was, would be icing on the cake.

HistoricalDavid · 11-20-2007, 17:54 PM

A summary

ArmchairGeneral · 11-22-2007, 12:48 PM

Someone at school actually predicted a third party McCain-Lieberman ticket last year. Personally, I would vote for 'em just for the heck of it. And to send a message to the GOP.

View Poll Results: What Republican candidate do you want to see elected President?
Sam Brownback	0	0%
Rudy Giuliani	12	13.04%
Mike Huckabee	2	2.17%
Duncan Hunter	4	4.35%
Alan Keyes	1	1.09%
John McCain	17	18.48%
Ron Paul	25	27.17%
Mitt Romney	4	4.35%
Tom Tancredo	4	4.35%
Fred Thompson	23	25.00%
Voters: 92. You may not vote on this poll

11-20-2007, 10:45 AM	#173 (permalink)
astralis *Foreign Service* Moderator Lei Feng Protege Join Date: 08-23-05 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 3,164 Country:	hahaha, dale, that is the best idea i've heard here for a long time. i wouldn't even mind if they went for a third-party- it'd certainly shake the complacency out of the existing two party system. or, as the more cynical side of me suspects, both parties will land on THAT one like a pile of bricks. __________________ Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

11-20-2007, 12:50 PM	#176 (permalink)
smilingassassin *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 12-12-03 Location: Vancouver Canada Posts: 2,734 Country:	Well you Yanks sure do need a third party, sounds like Dalems the new party's spokesman! __________________ Facts to a liberal is like Kryptonite to Superman. -- Larry Elder

11-20-2007, 17:54 PM	#179 (permalink)
HistoricalDavid Distant Deeps or Skies *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 07-19-05 Location: North London, UK Posts: 2,063 Country:	A summary __________________ HD Ready?

11-22-2007, 12:48 PM	#180 (permalink)
ArmchairGeneral Devil's Advocate *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 05-03-06 Location: The boonies of NC, USA. Posts: 2,872 Country:	Someone at school actually predicted a third party McCain-Lieberman ticket last year. Personally, I would vote for 'em just for the heck of it. And to send a message to the GOP. __________________ "Apocalyptic thought is curiously pleasurable." -Theodore Dalrymple

11-19-2007, 14:50 PM	#167 (permalink)
dalem Lord High Hullabalooster *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 11-23-04 Location: Columbia Heights, MN Posts: 8,513 Country:	McCain-Feingold. Gang of Fourteen. Immigration arrogance. He'll never be President, at least as a Republican, nor should he be. -dale

11-20-2007, 15:43 PM	#177 (permalink)
dalem Lord High Hullabalooster *Senior Contributor* Join Date: 11-23-04 Location: Columbia Heights, MN Posts: 8,513 Country:	Nahh, I'm not a third party guy. I'd rather take over the Repubs. -dale

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