A Stunt Or A Principled Stand?
Either way, a whole lot of the air has been let out of the trial balloon that the Hotline was sponsoring. I’m talking about the much-talked-about straw poll to be taken tomorrow at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Pat Hynes may have been the first to blog about it, and John McCain has made it official; there’s a movement afoot to vote for…George W. Bush. Why?
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will urge SRLC conference registrants tonight to write in the name of Pres. George W. Bush when they vote in the Hotline’s ‘08 presidential straw poll.
McCain, in a copy of his prepared remarks distributed to reporters by a top adviser, says that “straw polls are entertaining, my friends, even extremely early ones.” But “I think we have bigger things to worry about. So if any friends here are thinking about voting for me, please don’t. Just write in President Bush’s name. For the next three years, with the country at war, he’s our President, and the only one who must have our support today.”
I like the cut of that man’s jib…
UPDATE 3:04 p.m.: Patrick Hynes has an update with a fuller version of the McCain release, including these strong sentiments that are music to my ears:
One of the things I’ve learned is to concentrate on the problems at hand, and let the future work itself out. Our most immediate political priority isn’t the 08 presidential race, but the 06 midterm elections, and all of us here this weekend are and must remain focused on returning Republican majorities to both houses of Congress, and winning governors’ races from Tallahassee to Montgomery to Columbia to Columbus to Atlanta to Little Rock, Austin, and Lansing. It’s going to be a tough fight, and we can’t let ourselves be distracted.
Our most important national priority, however, is a far tougher and more consequential fight – the war in Iraq and the war against Islamic extremists. There is much more at stake in this war than an election. The fate of the world may hang in the balance, and we should all of us keep our personal ambitions a distant second to standing with the President, and the troops he has the honor to command, in good times and bad, in a difficult and costly struggle to make this dangerous world, another, safer, better place.
Let’s see George Allen top that…
You could probably come up with a milliona variations of why he’s doing this, ranging from idealistic to cynical, but overall that sure sounds like the words of someone who wants to take on the mantle of heir apparent.
I’ve got my disputes with McCain, and I still prefer Giuliani, but if he’s the nominee in ‘08, I can easily see myself voting for him. If it’s some second-tier guy like George Allen, and the Democrats get sane and nominate some moderate like Mark Warner, I’m not sure how I would vote.
And leaving McCain out of this, it’s nice to think this will probably send a few more Kossacks off the deep end. “See? They’re trying to make Chimpy McBushaliburton president for life! Fascists! Fascists everywhere! They’re coming through the windows!”
Rudy’s my guy, but I’ll vote for McCain if the Dems send up Hillary! for her coronation. It’s not just that half of the country dislikes her – it’s the thought of her hubby lurking in the background during her tenure in the WH. Remember what Bill and Hillary said during “their” (ahem) first run for office -”this is a partnership, as well as a marriage.” True enough.
No more political dynasties, please (and that includes Jeb Bush) – this is the US, not 18th Century Europe.
I’m no McCainiac but he is lately, by design or principle, waxing my ass right where it needs shinin’. The SOTU performance… I’m not sure why that didn’t make a blogospheric crash when he was banging his hands together like a clockwork chimp to praise the indictment from Dub of porkbarreling. He’ll always have a credit in my account for that. And I know his paws are far from clean on pork, CFR, borders and a host of other of my pet issues; though I’m as certain as I can get that he would be immaculate on the war. But I’m no swing voter. I’d go for a nice, ripe pineapple before a Clinton and Arlen Specter over any Democrat (probably) so Johnnie or Rudy or Mitt or whoever have already demographically banked me. Still, McCain is, I’m sure, making headway in the base at large as he is in my own, self-contained and irrelevant, estimations.
Classy speech by Johnny Mc. I am a Rudy guy too. But I will pull the lever for McCain if he’s our nominee.
I don’t agree with him a lot of the time. But he is a respectable man that has served our country almost his entire life.
I was a McCain Republican … but he lost me when he teamed with Ted Kennedy (now there’s a marriage made in hell!) on the McCain-Kennedy proposal for dealing with illegal aliens and border security. I will never vote for anyone that supports a guest worker program that gives amnesty-that-isn’t-amnesty-but-really-is. NEVER.
I vote for stunt, but a shrews stunt nonethtless. Establishment frontrunners and candidates perceived as insufficiently Republican tend to underperform at these kind of straw poll events. This allows McCain to dodge a result that would have almost certainly been spun as a defeat, without shunning the base of the party, like Rudy did by avoiding the event altogether. I’m still nominally in Rudy’s camp, but McCain is showing quite a bit more tactical smarts than I originally gave him credit for.
[...] John McCain took his turn at the SRLC last night, as we’ve already discussed, and, as Sean P points out in the comments, it wasn’t necessarily a friendly crowd. However, in addition to his much-appreciated comments on Bush and the War on Terror, he also was strong on the ports fiasco: Among the “straight talk” he offered to the delegates was the view that killing the Dubai ports deal was a mistake. McCain talked about depth of our relationship with the UAE, especially with regard to how much logistical assistance our Navy receives from Dubai, and how it was harmful to America’s effort to win the war for the hearts and minds of the Arab people around the world. He said he felt the decision to kill the deal was premature and not handled particuarly well by Congress: “The president deserved better,” McCain said to a smattering of applause. Now, I’ve been spotlighting McCain a lot lately, and I would vote for him in a minute if he is the Republican standard-bearer. However, I also like other candidates, notably Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. Keep one thing in mind, though, particularly with Rudy G. and McCain. [...]