John Bolton on why those who want to throw our country to the Democrats are espousing a view that is quite similiar to Lenin’s saying “worse is better”
Plus Fred Thompson endorsed McCain since he has all but wrapped up the nomination.
Fred Thompson, the one-time Republican presidential candidate, endorsed Sen. John McCain Friday, calling on the party to “close ranks” behind the presumed nominee.
“This is no longer about past preferences or differences. It is about what is best for our country and for me that means that Republican should close ranks behind John McCain,” Thompson said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.
Thompson’s endorsement was expected. The two men were colleagues for years in the Senate and shared what associates called a friendship. But while he was in the race, Thompson had bristled at the idea that he was going to drop out and endorse McCain.
I do find it quite humorous tho that the media, such as Michael Shear above, and many bloggers are saying this was all to be expected. Which I find ludicrous. If that were so Fred would of done this when he dropped out.
But he didn’t.
He waited until the nominee was chosen, and make no mistake, the nominee has been chosen. If Mitt had won, his endorsement would of went that way.
He understands that this fight is too important for petty bickering and will back any of the Republicans who win the nomination. Just one more reason why I respect the man so.
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I agree with you on that but without him coming out personally then I consider the AP version as suspicious
You are right, the fight is too important. Time to forget our loser nominee, Bob Dole II in a sombrero without the inspiration, energy and charisma of the original, and turn our focus on to the bigger job, the House and Senate. Unless conservatives take back the house or senate, the war effort won’t matter, the budget will be cut and the troops will be brought home, once congress fills up with Dems.
Because of our nominee’s age, maybe he will see fit to pick a young conservative — Remember the 64 year old Thompson was too old, the 72 year old is just right …
The media will shred McCain in due time, wait until they get to his first wife’s tales and his Vietnam propaganda films, and his … but I digress. Vetting has never been one of our strong suits …
I am already putting together my list of potential adoptee congressmen from other states. Mine is an OK conservative and there are plenty of others who can use some help. Delay’s and Foley’s old seats are obvious targets for recovery.
Yes, I will vote for the loser, but won’t give him a dime’s worth of effort. All my money, time and effort will be directed at conservative House and Senate races, regardless where they may be. Adopt your own conservative today, don’t just sit idle if your only choice is a loser liberal.
I was off by two days
Guess I owe somebody ten bucks…
For my next prediction, I think it will be Condi, not Huck or Fred for veep candidate.
McCain is the GOP nominee because we had a weak conservative field. Be honest; neither Thompson nor Romney could inspire (and politics are about more than policy positions), Huckabee’s appeal it too limited, and none of the others could even remotely be called real conservatives.
And although Romney was my guy I don’t think he could have beaten either Obama or Clinton. Certainly Thompson, Huckabee, or any of t he others couldn’t.
So we are were we are. Some conservatives are indicating that they may “sit out” the election, the idea that we can stage a comeback with a true conservative as was done in 1980. The theory says that we were better off with Carter in 76 because the public came to see how bad liberals were and flocked to Reagan in 80. I agree with Amb Bolton that it would be crazy to try that this time for the following reasons:
1) There is no reason to think that we can retake the White House in 4, 8, or even 12 years. Counting on another Carter is at best highly risky. Obama or Hillary might prove just competent enough to keep the White House.
2) There is insufficient reason to think that putting a Democrat in the White House will revitalize the conservative movement. It is at least equally likely that such a move would marginalize us forever, or at least a generation and lead to a new generation of Nelson Rockefeller Republicans
3) Clinton or Obama would do enormous damage to the country, even if they were only in 4 years. They’ll certainly have a Democrat congress for 2 years, and counting on the GOP to stage another takeover like we did in 1994 is at best highly risky.
4) Most of the damage Obama or Hillary dowould be irreversable. If Reagan could not get rid of the Dept of Education do you think a Republican will be able to get rid of their health care monstrosity? Good luck taking away universal healthcare. Once the troops are out of Iraq and the war lost it’s lost. Once Iran gets the bomb the game there’s up.
So although McCain is hardly perfect, he’s no Bob Dole, and if we get behind him I think we stand a good chance of winning against either of the Democrats.
These aren’t “past preferences or differences” these are current ones. McCain hasn’t changed his stance on anything at all. He’s playing mealy-mouthed word games.
No surprise that the same people he and Lindsey Graham were calling bigots because we opposed amnesty that they’re now calling us Communists for not hopping on the Smacktalk Express. All laughable charges but the modus operandi of smearing your own side remains the same.
The only difference now is that there are those of us who knew what McCain was/is/will be and not so much our fellow bloggers who’ve mindlessly picked up his banner. What a difference two weeks makes.
I don’t get the “I’m more conservative than you” now going around. If you can’t vote for McCain, could you find it within yourself to vote against Hillary or Osama? There’s a war and we are winning.
I wonder if some people would burn their house to the ground because they saw a few roaches.
Fasternu426 — simple question, do you see any difference between the three candidates McCain, Hillary or Obama? I left you two choice for differences :-). And then down that does — Do you think McCain will be able to get confirmed any of the conservative judge picks you may like if the Democrats run the table on the House and the Senate? Do you think McCain would be able to save war funding with a Democrat House and Senate? See the problem? Unless we put all our emphasis behind the Senate and House races, America will lose big time and the symbol for that failure will be the fascist global warming religion and all the taxes and economic destruction it brings — Which BTW McCain supports, called McCain-Lieberman, if you don’t know how bad that is do some research.
And don’t tell me McCain is going to convince the public to do anything but go to sleep. Vision isn’t his thing, probably why he teams up with Democrats to get anything done, or plays the court jester for the media, he just can’t convince anyone to go along with him unless it’s in their own interest to do so..
That leads you to single conclusion that it is far better to maneuvre to be able to block or filibuster the other side, than it is to try and go against your own President(Think Bush and the stupid drug plan which is an abomination). Hence, forget McCain, put your emphasis where it might do the most good. Adopt a conservative anywhere, find one that suits you and support them. We need to work on improving the brand and the number.
Just trying to help … reality is what it is, and you can’t change that. But you can analyze and act on the facts as they are.
Anyone who can’t see any difference is deluding themselves. Complete hogwash.
Holy crap, you mean you predicted he would support the nominee after super tuesday? Wow! You really went out on a limb there.
Rofl
I don’t understand someone who refuses to vote for the person they believe is the best available candidate. For any conservative Christians who might be considering some convoluted plan to teach America a lesson, I would like to point out that it is best to leave such matters in the capable hands of God. Vote the best you are able.
Even if all of the conservatives DO support McCain can he be elected ?
Yes
I had not hear that Fred endorsed Fred, but I supposed it had to happen. They are friends.
The only thing McCain can do to try and redeem himself and win over Conservative voter, would be to choose a TRULY CONSERVATIVE VP that we could get behind as a president in waiting. I don’t see McCain winning a second term, if he wins the first one that is. We need some hope for the future and a truly conservative VP is something we could support. Just my opinion.
Sigh….
If the reason he endorsed him was because they were friends they why did he not do it the minute after he dropped out?
No, he endorsed him because he is the nominee. He would of endorsed whomever to the nomination.
“do you see any difference between the three candidates McCain, Hillary or Obama?”
Uh, yes. Plenty. Socialism and dhimmitude versus just being a squishy headed horses ass. McCain is (in my book) a C- student. Obama and Hillary are not even in the class room. McCain is not even my 8th choice for president, but he will not pull victorious troops out of a theatre of war and let the enemy take the field. Obama and Hillary WILL do their best to knife them in the back. If “teaching a lesson” is the answer then the question is dicked up. Country over party.
Got Roaches? Burn the house down…. stupid, stupid stupid!
Interesting…
McCain/Feingold. McCain/Kennedy. Gang of 14 (I closed my checkbook to the Republicans after this disgrace). McCain/Lieberman.
Conservatives are being told to sit down and shut up. We have been taken for granted for too long. A Democrat in the White House would be a disaster, but McCain has taken joy in poking his own party in the eye for too long. I think that it is the ultimate in chutzpah for this man to now hope that we will fall in behind him. The fact that this is the best that the Republicans can do should cause all of us some sleepless nights.
To paraphrase a former president: I did not leave the Republicans, they left me.
“Worse is better” implies that there would be a lick’s worth of difference between a RINO presidency and a Democrat one.
Oh boy
Let’s go through this
As a conservative yes McCain has annoyed me at times over the years. I hate the McCain-Feingold bill. etc etc.
So yes I can understand that a lot of conservatives think that McCain is now just telling us what he thinks we want to hear. And yes I really do understand the frustration with not having a better GOP candidate.
But if you listen to certain radio talk show hosts – Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin – you’d think McCain was a wild-eyed liberal. This is insane. He’s got an 82.3% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, for pete’s sake. Not the best but it certainly puts him in conservative ranks.
It’s also somewhat like the war in Iraq; complain as you will about our mistakes in the early years, but we are where we are. We’ve got McCain and that’s the way it is.
So it’s him or Clinton/Obama. As Curt said in an earlier post, if you can’t see the difference between McCain and the democrats you’re willfully deluding yourself.
Lastly, do you think the Democrats have liked all of their candidates over the years? Half of them couldn’t stand John Kerry and were appalled that he won their nomination, but they united and came within a nose hair of winning the election, as you’ll recall.
So yes I too am disappointed it’s McCain. But he’s lightyears better than any Democrat.
Tom the Redhunter, you are correct for the most part. His lifetime rating with the American Conservative Union is misleading, in that he voted mostly conservative early in his career but moved left as the years passed. This gives him a rating that does not reflect current reality.
My point is that the Republican party no longer represents the conservative movement, but expects us to fall in line when we are needed. I make a lot of noise, but I will probably suck it up and do my part to prevent a Democrat (dhimmocrat?) from moving into the White House, but I will neither like it or continue to do so.
At sometime, though, the Republicans (who are looking more like a big government party every year) are going to have to learn that they can no longer take a large block of their voters for granted. Either start delivering, or relegate themselves to being Democrat light.