"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, March 17, 2007

MCCAIN: A PSEUDO-MAVERICK WHO CANNOT AND WILL NOT WIN

The MSM likes to call McCain a maverick. But this is BS. McCain always bucks the conservatives if the anti-conservative position leads in the MSM and/or polls. McCain is a dangerous panderer. THERE IS ONE EXCEPTION his CONSTANT call for "MORE TROOPS ON THE GROUND!" McCain was relentlessly calling for MORE TROOPS ON THE GROUND during the Kosovo Air Campaign. Which worked - and worked WITHOUT ANY TROOPS ON THE GROUND. "More ground troops" is NOT always the answer, but it's all we ever here from McCain.

McCain is too conservative for liberals and too liberal for conservatives. His mix of positions alienates BOTH IMPORTANT wings of each major party. He cannot win the GOP niod and would NOT win a general election. Besides: he is too old, and has had recurrent cancer.

Rudy is also a liberal hawk, but his extraordinary leadership of NYC - well before 9/11, when the city was dying from crime, taxation, anomie, etc. - makes him a credible war-time president.

Mitt has taken ALL the right positions, and is a proven leader with extraordinary management skills - but they are skills which have not been burnished in the cauldron of intense public scrutiny and constant antipathetic if not belligerent MSM harassment, (as was the case with Rudy). He hasn't yet shown me he has the gravitas of a war-time leader. He must confront this issue. It is more important to me than his sectarian beliefs.

A true conservative with the gravitas to lead a nation at war might still enter the race for the GOP nod - and WIN. Maybe FRIST. (Maybe Jeb is things turnaround in an obvious and undeniable way.) Maybe Ridge.

Right now, I prefer a Rudy-Mitt ticket. Or Mitt-Rudy.

And I worry that an early poor showing by McCain might entice him to run as a third party candidate. AND MAKE Hillary or Obama president.

1 comment:

Dionne said...

100% in agreement with you on all of this. I'm pretty sure McCain doesn't have a prayer but like you point out I'm concerned that his arrogance will have him run on a 3rd party ticket.

I was at a Republican dinner last night and the consensus as usual is that everyone despises McCain and likes Rudy.