Looking at the 2008 Frontrunners
Charlie Cook, that is…although I would quibble with McCain being the Republican frontrunner (polls seem to indicate it’s Giuliani), there’s still lots of good info here:
The two presumptive favorites for 2008 presidential nominations each face enormous challenges, according to the new Cook Political Report/RT Strategies national poll. Indeed, their problems are almost mirror opposites of each other.
For New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrats and Democratic primary voters nationwide are highly receptive to her strengths and downplay her weaknesses. But among independents the view is considerably cooler, and is downright cold among Republicans, raising real questions of electability.
On the other hand, if Arizona Sen. John McCain were as well regarded among Republicans and GOP primary voters as he is among independents and Democrats, he’d be a cinch to be his party’s 2008 nominee.
…The bottom line is that each party’s presumptive front-runner faces an enormous challenge: Clinton has to find a way to connect with independent and at least a few Republican voters, while McCain has to bond with members of his own party. Each of their tasks are likely to meet strong resistance.
The logical next question is whether the issue of electability begins to erode Clinton’s support inside her own party, and if it does not, whether McCain’s argument that he is the only Republican who can defeat Clinton will be enough for him to prevail in the primaries.
Read the whole thing…you know you’re only waiting for the boss to tell you to go home early anyway…
To borrow from a commenter, Dave in Texas, at Rightwingsparkle’s blog:
“I would rather endure 4 years of a terrible Clinton presidency than the prospect of conservative “light” with John McCain or Rudy Guiliani.”
Boy, I wish I’d said it first.
Have you ever hear the expression “cutting off your nose to spite your face?
I think it applies well here.
I don’t want any of them within a thousand miles of the SCOTUS nominating process. The advantage (such as it is) to the Hildebeast winning (if she gets nominated–no sure thing) is that it’ll remind people of what living under an uber-liberal is like.
On a related note, the Kos Kidz have their November straw poll up. (What can I say? I have a dark sense of humor.) Hillary is in fourth place, behind Clark, Feingold, Warner and Edwards, and running even with “no freakin’ clue.”
Ironically, that lurch to the middle, which I thought was as blatantly cynical a piece of re-marketing as I’ve ever seen, appears to have convinced some independent voters and alienated the Democrats’ activist base. She’ll having a harder time winning them over than McCain would have with the Republicans, and I doubt McCain will be able to do the job.
Err… Make that “fifth place.” I was a poli sci major…
The Supreme Court doesn’t matter a damn if we’re in the middle of a war and a poll-driven Democrat (or worse, a true-believer like Dean) takes the reins as Commander-in-Chief. McCain is good on the war. Despite his stupid McCain ammendment, he is good on the war. Probably better than anyone else on the Republican side. I would say that he is more Hawkish than Bush. That’s the number one characteristic we need in the nexp president. I don’t see anyone else being willing to pull the trigger on another military operation if it becomes necessary than McCain.
Whatever happened to Mike H.?
It would be ironic indeed to elect a president who is willing to go to war to free other countries and take away the terrorists’ safe havens while at the same time packing the SCOTUS with justices only too willing to restrict OUR freedoms.
Up to a point (and Harriet Miers was well past that point) I’m willing to trust Bush’s choices for SCOTUS. McCain I trust as far as I can spit.
And not just about SCOTUS.
J.A., I still like Huckabee, while acknowledging he’s a long shot…but hey, long shots (like Bill Clinton) sometimes get the nod…and utron, I actually voted in the Kos Kidz poll for Lieberman…he didn’t even make the list of vote tallies…
Fatman, I hate arguing with other conservatives. McCain pisses off a lot of Republicans. Hell, he even pisses me off some times and I’m a supporter. Fact is, we have bigger fish to fry right now (Democratic fish who want to see us lose a war so they can beat Bush over the head with that fact). Therefore, I think we need to agree to disagree and focus on the real adversaries (Islamists) and defeat those who would put domestic political advantage before aggressively fighting our enemies.
Actually, I like to argue with conservatives; it helps clear my sinuses (and liberals are too easy).
But I’m not arguing to throw McCain under the bus today. I can wait two years until he comes knocking, looking for the nomination. And if Iran, North Korea and especially Iraq aren’t at least well on their way to being settled issues, then it won’t matter who we nominate, we’ll be cooked.
Hillary Clinton is an “uber-liberal” and John McCain is “conservative light”? When exactly did the Republican Party jump the shark?
Ryan:
It was John McCain who brokered the “Gang of Fourteen” deal. It was, and is, McCain pushing the “anti-torture” law that will give people like Dick Durbin cover to compare coercive iinterrogation tactics at Gitmo to Nazi concentration camps. It was McCain, along with Russ Feingold, who used the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act, aka McCain-Feingold, to trash what’s left of the First Amendment. It is McCain who, according to Progressive Punch at
http://www.progressivepunch.org/members.jsp?member=AZIII&district=At%20large&issue=C0
scores a perfect one hundred percent on support of gun control. “Light” enough for you?
As for the Hildebeast, do you really think it was Bill who came up with Hillary-care or “Don’t ask, don’t tell” or suggested to the IRS that audits were in order for every one who came out in opposition to the Clinton administration? I don’t.
2008 Round-up
It’s been a while since we rounded-up 2008 related info from around blogland, so here goes:
Now while Mccain did well here in 2000, I think it might be slightly premature to chaulk him up as the winner in NH in ’08. living in the largest city in NH I have noticed that there is an aweful lot of positive talk regarding the Bay state governor, I think largely, because we receive so much news from Mass. What I just want to say is that it would be foolish to send Romney packing just yet. He is a resident of our state for part of the year anyhow with his waterfront property on Winnepesauke.