John McCain’s three year implosion?
Posted by Moonage on 13 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: 2008 Presidential Race, 527's
There’s a lot of talk about John McCain’s presidential bid implosion. Some are saying it’s because he’s not liberal enough, citing his ties to Bush a few years ago. Others, in the same thread, are claiming he’s not conservative enough, citing his failure to support a lot of Bush’s agenda. I think it’s a totally different reason. Nearly two years ago to this date I did a thingy on a Patrick Ruffini straw poll that shouwed George Allen barely edging out Rudy Giuliani for the lead. John McCain wasn’t even close. During the 2004 election he stood solidly behind Bush in supporting the war in Iraq. One month after the election, he was critical of people leading the war in Iraq. So, he’s immediately drawn the ire of anti-war folks and pro-war folks at the same time. This has been a trademark of McCain for as long as I’ve kept up with him. It’s not that he’s John Kerry wishy-washy on topics, he comes armed with facts and makes a strong case about something, then immediately makes a strong case against what it was he expected you follow him on in the first place. In other words, the average guy learned that to trust him was assured of getting burned. I like moderates, people who dwell in the middle with the ability to go against the stereotypes of conservative or liberal. I have wanted to like McCain for a long time. But, I just never could. He’s just too darned aggressive when he flips sides on issues. On many, many, issues, Republicans learned they couldn’t rely on McCain. For me, the straw was the McCain-Feingold “reform” legislation that ignored the most obvious transgressors of national elections, 527’s. Teaming up with Russ Feingold sent shivers down a lot of Republican and conservative voters. I wasn’t blogging at the time of the legislation’s inception, but I said somewhere that this legislation would bite McCain in the butt. It’s just symptomatic of who he seems to respect in the Senate, which in this case, is the most bizarre character in DC who I wouldn’t allow to babysit my kid for an hour. McCain attaching his name to Feingold’s just ended it for me with John. Then, he buddied up with Ted Kennedy……
So, back to the original question about the “McCain Implosion”. My only response to the “implosion” is, what implosion? He’s been losing since 2004. Probably always was. Having a few personnel issues doesn’t change that fact. Considering he’s been losing for three years or more, if he didn’t make major personnel changes going into the final stretch, THEN I’d be surprised.
( No sooner than I clicked Save, I saw this from Prose Before Hos. The beauty of their article is they make the very compelling argument that even with teaming up with Feingold and Kennedy, McCain was moving his image to a much more strongly conservative image ( note the survey results ). That’s pretty much what I’m trying to elaborate here in a much different way. The Moderate Voice says he was walking a tightrope. I don’t think it was that so much as he never defined who he is and constantly sends out mixed signals. Much as John Kerry did in 2004. That lack of definition raises doubt with a lot of people. Because of that, those that do define themselves beat McCain like a drum every time. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, that’s just the way it is. )
Bottom line to this implosion discussion is there is no implosion, there was nothing there to implode. It’s been a mess since about 2000, it’s just getting a little worse now.
1 Comment »
on 19 Jul 2007 at 9:21 am 1.Moonage Political Webdream
said …
Honeymoon over for Fred?…
Fred Thompson, the non-candidate that was to save the neo-conservative element of the Republican Party from the dismal crop of current candidates that are as much, if not moreso, conservative than Fred, has enjoyed pretty much a free ride so far.? I h…