McCain’s Dilemma: Romney or Palin More Qualified in ’08?
Politics makes for strange bedfellows, as we all know. It also makes for rather odd, cold evenings where we find out who’s going to be sleeping on the couch. Such was the case when Politico confronted 2008 GOP presidential candidate Senator John McCain on the subject of why he didn’t select Mitt Romney as his running mate.
Politico chose to posit the idea that Mitt’s tax returns, delivered to McCain during the vetting process, somehow turned up some dirt which disqualified him. Let’s go to the quotes, shall we?
“Of course not,” McCain told POLITICO when asked if the contents of Romney’s tax returns disqualified him from the selection process. “I don’t know what depths these people won’t reach. Obviously, it’s just outrageous. That’s just outrageous. It shows the – it’s so disgraceful for them to allege something that they have absolutely no knowledge of.”
Asked why he chose not to go with Romney, McCain said: “Oh come on, because we thought that Sarah Palin was the better candidate. Why did we not take [Tim] Pawlenty, why did we not take any of the other 10 other people. Why didn’t I? Because we had a better candidate, the same way with all the others. … Come on, why? That’s a stupid question.”
This is one of those stories which pops up during the hazy, lazy, days of mid-summer in an election year and is fun, but will sink off the radar long before the rest of the nation begins to realize that they actually have to vote this year. Senator McCain finds himself placed briefly on the hot seat, tasked as a surrogate for Mitt Romney 2012, while being challenged to defend his failed attempt of four years earlier. What’s a former candidate to do?
Thrust into this unenviable position, McCain has to simultaneously tackle two NFL quality runners while wearing six-inch spiked heels. On the one hand, he has to defend Mitt’s decision not to release more than 1.5 years of tax returns. This is a tough sell at best, given the current nominee’s history of his father setting the standard. But he gamely carried the torch, bolstering Romney’s claim that there was nothing in there which was politically damaging.
But if that’s the case, why not take Mitt along for the ride back in ’08? Here’s where the treacle gets a bit stickier. Given little time to ponder the response, McCain chose to claim that Palin trumped Romney by virtue of being the “better candidate.” In another season, such a remark might well have flown under the radar. But this season sees an impressive online movement to “vet the Prez,” pushing the assumption that President Obama’s pre-election check list wasn’t examined closely enough. Romney himself — part and parcel of the question at hand — is open to suggestions that his financial history remains in need of a closer look before we hand over the keys to the White House.
Many people don’t like Sarah Palin. Her honesty is too much for them.
Oh, please. She was a better candidate, that is, more exciting. That’s what he said. (The attack on Quayle is not appreciated, either, but never mind.) She was thoroughly vetted.
The only possible way McCain’s loss to Obama could have been worse, is McCain managed to select someone further to the left than he is. He’d have lost by 10 or more.
If he would have put Hillary on the ticket he would have won by a land side.
“possibly the most rapidly chosen and least-vetted candidate for residency in the U.S. Naval Observatory in recent history”
Says who? Jazz Shaw? If you are going to make s statement like that back it up with solid sources.
It is always fun to see conservative pundits jump on the Journolister bandwagon.
It is always fun to see conservative pundits jump on the Journolister bandwagon.
No it’s not. And Shaw is not a conservative.
His own bio: Jazz Shaw is a heretical, Northeastern former RINO
Yikes! And he’s damn proud to say so, too — which may explain the hat, glasses and all-around limp look of one who just missed the casting call for W*nk Week.
Just move on.
nothing “former” about his RINOship.
I would not wish the Presidency of this Divided States of America on such a fine human being as Sarah Palin. I second the first two comments above, and would only add, I don’t think the country as it is today is good enough to have her as President. “Casting pearls before swine”, it would be.
I have heard a lot of speculation about why McCain picked Palin. Most of the people who have speculated are just guessing and so am I.
One thing about John McCain that isn’t mentioned very often is that he loves to play poker. He tends to make large bets more on hunches than calculation. Sarah Palin was an all-in bet.
He was down in the polls and he felt he needed something to really shake up the race. Pawlenty wasn’t a game-changer and neither was Romney.
Palin, on the other hand, had lots of charisma. She was adored by social conservatives who weren’t thrilled about McCain. It didn’t hurt that Palin looks fantastic (there I said it).
In the end, the Palin gamble didn’t work out. But if a gambler isn’t prepared to take a loss they shouldn’t be gambling.
Romney (from rumors I’ve heard) was being pushed by Karl Rove. If there was something terrible in Romney’s tax returns I’m sure Rove wouldn’t have been a Romney supporter. McCain didn’t like Romney (still doesn’t). His first choice was (once again, rumors)his old friend Joe Leiberman. Of course conservatives would have been disgusted with that choice so in the end McCain made a big bet on Palin and lost.
If I haven’t made it clear yet, I’m just guessing about all of this. The difference between me and all the “pundits” out there is I admit I really don’t know the true story. I’m waiting to hear any so-called expert admit they’re only guessing. I’ll probably be waiting a long long time.
I disagree when you say “he made a big bet with Palin and lost. He made a big bet and lost the electioons. Not the same thing. He made a big bet with Palin and won but that win was not enough to compensate for the kars, hostile (and lying) MSMs, disbaolization of GWB and maost of all McCin’s own mistakes (the wobling about debating or not with Obama), the silly decision to stop the camapiagn then restarting it) and shortcomings (one of them being he began becoming jealous about Palin’s popularity and pushing her aside). Palin by herself was unable to turn the tide but she was not that far from it. In Viking mythology the god Thor is tricked into trying several impossible tasks like lifting the world or drinking the oceans. He fails but to the atonishment and terror of those who tricked him he comes much closer than it was thought godly possible: he partially lifts the world and significantly lower the sea level. Same for Palin.
Is wasn’t Palin that lost him the presidency. It was him.
I remember those same rumours about lieberman on mccain’s list. and yes – conservatives would have had a fit (and rightly so.). while I like leiberman more than mccain (dont’ like either of their politcs, but I think lieberman has more integrity – not saying much.), and they would have been to the right of obama – that isn’t saying much in their favor.
McCain was smart enough to pick Palin but he was not smart enough to give her her head and let her run.
Palin destroyed the Political Process of the Good Ole Boys and the Oil Companies in Alaska in one fell swoop and ended up being the Gov. and a damn good one at that.
McCain could have beat Obama except he wanted to be in charge of Sarah too. Big Mistake. He selected as Bull Dog to run with and he should have let her attack because that is exactly her mode of operation. Let her figure out the situation and then let her fly the way she wants to fly.
McCain did not do this and he lost because of his stupidity…..
“Palin destroyed the Political Process of the Good Ole Boys and the Oil Companies in Alaska in one fell swoop and ended up being the Gov. and a damn good one at that.”
And you know all this how? A Palin press release? We’re still trying to recover from the mess she made of the Alaska Republican Party and of the State government, and to restore our relations with the oil industry, which has essentially left Alaska oil provinces for friendlier environnments to explore and develop.
Disappointed in this article. Why are we talking about this? As McCain said, it came down to which VP candidate he felt he needed, not who was “the best” person. Based on who McCain is, he felt he needed someone like Palin, period. So what I need for our pundits to do is to grow up, stay focused on what’s important now, and stop trying to divide Republicans just months before the most important election in a generation or more.
Really? Do you have no idea why one VP candidate is selected over another? Why did Kennedy pick Johnson? Was it to average out the “handsomeness quotient”? Was there any voter that Romney would have attracted that wasn’t already a McCain voter? What did you expect McCain to say, the truth that he despises the Conservative base and that the Conservative base despises him? But I do understand the vitriol, Palin attracted Conservatives and, according to the Ruling Class, repulsed moderates – who were never going to vote for McCain over Obama anyway. Nice effort to keep Condi alive for VP though, because “we all know” Romney just isn’t moderate enough…
I think McCain picked Palin in 2008 because he thought his campaign was in trouble and he needed a game changer. And boy, did he get one! If the campaign was run differently, I still think McCain would have won. McCain should have run a much tougher campain and questioned all of Obama’s lack of experience and his past associations with people like Bill Ayers and the “Reverand” Wright. McCain wanted to look like he was “above all that,” and he lost badly. You don’t bring a knife to a gunfight, not with these people from Chicago. McCain and Palin learned that the hard way.
Do I really care why McCain didn’t pick Romney in 2008? Not one bit. In fact, Romney lucked out because now he can’t be associated with a failed campaign. What matters is how Romney goes after Obama, and if his last two speeches are any indication of what’s to come, Romney has finally gotten the message that he has to go for Obama’s throat. Nice guys finish last in politics today.
It is theorized in games theory but you see it at work all time in sports and, through history, in war. If you are losing and what matters is who wins and not by how much, when they gove no medals for second places then instead of going with the strategy one who gives you teh highst yield in time, score, money, votes but has a 100% proabability of losing you should select the one is who gives you 1% chance of winning even if it means that in the remaining 99% you will lose 60 to 0.
“I think McCain picked Palin in 2008 because he thought his campaign was in trouble and he needed a game changer.”
I think you’re giving McCain too much credit; he simply wanted to counter the Democrats’ cool black dude with a woman and Palin was a pretty woman who was also an elected governor. The political caste system is something like this: the highest caste is of course those who’ve been elected President, then there is those who’ve been elected to a statewide office, senators and governors, though you’ll get argument over whether senators are higher caste than governors, then those who’ve been elected to something lesser, US House, State Legislature, Mayors, local offices. Below that are those who’ve held political appointments and they’re ranked by who they were appointed by or reported to. Below that are those who’ve worked for elected or appointed officials and they too are ranked by who they worked for. Then there’s everybody else, and, frankly, to most elected and appointed officials, caste means more than ideology. That’s why a McCain would be drawn to Lieberman despite the ideological differences.
McCain, Romney, and Palin were all the same caste, though McCain as a US Senator would probably think he was higher up the food chain (I don’t; I think a governor outranks any legislator – governors have real jobs.). As much as I don’t like her, I think she was probably a better choice for McCain than Romney or any of the others out there, though the only advantage politically that she had over KBH is that she’s better looking. The real issue is that the old white guy couldn’t have another old white guy on the ticket, and I think that was the right analysis; two old white guys would have been innundated by the cool black dude tsunami.
It’s an open question that will never be answered whether giving Palin her head might have produced a McCain/Palin victory. Palin has never done any homework, never listened to subject matter experts on staff, and can’t stand to hear anything she doesn’t want to hear, so giving her her head might as easily have produced a spectacular failure as a miraculous victory. (She’s better prepared and more polished now than she was back in ’08, but she still can’t always handle a follow up question.) So, in sum, Palin was the better candidate in the sense that she brought more to the ticket than Romney would have; Romney or any other white male would have been a liability. the sincerest form of flattery from the left is an unconstrained attack on you, so I guess they thought she was the best choice too.
“In 2008, our team began by preparing vetting reports on a list of more than two dozen individuals who, unbeknownst to them, had been selected for consideration by Sen. McCain. We mined public databases, media archives, political blogs and other sources that allowed our search to remain discreet. Those who survived the winnowing from long list to short were rewarded with the most intimate examination known to politics.
Short-listed potential VP nominees are required to hand over tax returns, medical histories, financial statements, court records, and anything else labeled “private and confidential,” while also answering the most probing questions about themselves, their spouses, their children and their extended family—questions I would not dream of posing in any other context.
Gov. Palin’s responses to my standard hypothetical questions—Was she prepared to use nuclear weapons to defend our country? Would she authorize a strike against Osama bin Laden if she knew that numerous civilians also would be killed?—portrayed impressive resolve and sensitivity.”
A. B. Culvahouse – Chair of O’Melveny & Myers, an international law firm of more than 1,000 lawyers with offices around the world. Culvahouse also served as counsel to Ronald Reagan in the last two years of his presidency, and was entrusted by John McCain to vet his vice presidential candidates.
I was never that impressed with John McCain (and am less impressed every day he remains in the Senate).
I was less impressed with Sarah Palin.
She does have a forceful personality. She is more capable of being decisive than McCain.
But more so than Romney? She seems to tend towards bloody-mindedness (a lot of Conservatives do, you know) whereas Romney tends to be deliberate, then resolved.
She is, I do not doubt, intelligent. But was she then and is she now ready for the the Vice Presidency or Presidency? She could be, but I do not think she is, yet.
And being governor of Alaska is not the same as being Vice President or President. It is job writ much smaller.
And lastly, when people compared her to Reagan, I found her inability to switch up from her “country” dialect disturbing. Folksy works in some places, but Reagan knew he had to have a better game than that on hand for other places.
Does Palin know this? Do her supporters know this? Denis Leary is noted for saying he does not want the President to be as smart as him; he wants the President to be smarter than him. So should we all.
It was not about Palin being better than Romney, it wasn’t even aabout being more electable. It was about McCain+Palin being a better ticket than McCain+Romney.
For President being smarter than Denis Leary, it is not bout being smart but about taking the right decisions. In most issues I wouldn’t trust a rocket scientist for taking the right decision. And definitely not in front of a charging polar bear. I would have more trust in your average gum chewing, bible thumping, gun tuting red neck to know it must put a bullet in the bear’s head or he and his family will be killed.
Finally you thought Palin was not smart enough for the job and instead you got Obama and Bidden. Now ask yourself how is the economy faring, how is freedom and hard-line islamist regimes have come to power in all of North Africa with help from the Obama administration. Nice move, smart guy.
“She is, I do not doubt, intelligent. But was she then and is she now ready for the the Vice Presidency or Presidency? She could be, but I do not think she is, yet.”
You are astoundingly stupid, but I guess you have that in common with 52% of the electorate. There was no Door C in 2008; your choice was Obama/Biden or McCain Palin. Obama’s whole life is a lie and he has never accomplished anything except becoming Ayers/Soros’ made man. Hopefully three and a half years have been enough to demonstrate that he isn’t the smartest man that ever lived no matter what the lickspittle media told you in ’08. Biden is by any measure one of the stupidest people in politics, who likewise has never accomplished anything except getting elected in the post-Watergate landslide and staying elected in one of the Bluest states.
McCain did have a military career before becoming a Senator and at least had some accomplishments as a senator, whether or not one agrees with some of the things he accomplished. Palin had the executive experience of being a mayor, the bureaucratic experience of serving as an appointee in State government, and the experience of being a governor. Thus, in terms of the essential qualifications for being the executive officer of the US, she was more qualified than McCain, Obama, or Biden. And frankly, there is no way to get experience with the 3 AM phone call, and only those who’ve had executive experience as a governor or cabinet member of the US or a state have any real experience with making decisions in the face of dire threats. Palin had never had to directly deal with any real emergency in her tenure in elected or appointed office, but she at least had some familiarity with the structures and resources in place to deal with emergencies, familiarity that none of the others had.
That said, I really don’t like Sarah Palin, but I know her and know why I don’t like her. You’re just another idiot who thinks he’s wise and moderate because he can parrot what Obama’s lickspittle media told him.
Yo, Captain Art Chance, you are heading into Ad Hominem waters here. Like the mother in an African film says to her younger son who has been making a fool of himself going after a 4th wife who is way out of his league, “Have some dignity.”
I do not like Obama & Biden. I did not know enough about Obama or Biden to know that I would not like them.
I did know that McCain ran a poorer campaign than the lady lawyer I know who ran for the same city council seat three times in a row and lost each time on Own Errors.
And I did know that Palin was, and might still be, no Reagan. Those problems with her governancy were not all smears – she did use the office to bully opponents.
And she was not ready for the 2008 race, and did not have enough time to prepare.
Yes, Obama was not ready for anything either, but he did mask it much better.
Whose fault is it that the Republican ticket in 2008 could not get itself elected dog catcher if they went to each and every dog and promised not to catch them?
It was not Obama’s.
No, an ad hominem attack would be if the only argument I had was the naked assertion that you are stupid; I showed you how you are stupid. What you really said in the rejoinder you thought was clever was that you were too ignorant and lazy to form an informed conclusion about the candidates. Biden has been in the public eye for forty years and it is easy to learn that he is an ignoramus. No one with a brain could support someone with as little experience and accomplishment as Obama had and has. There was enough out there even with the media covering for him for anyone with a brain to conclude that the man was unfit even for his senate seat and had no business even being considered for the Presidency.
And all you really said with the rest is that you just believed what the media told you.
Language, language! No wonder you use a Pseudonym. Do you resort to such language face-to-face? I doubt it, you would have a multiply-broken nose and cauliflower ears if you did.
I do confess, I was not paying as much attention to what the MSM was doing to help Obama in 2008. A lot of people were not.
McCain ran such a wretched campaign, the MSM did not even have to cover for Obama.
And Palin was a deer in Katy Couric’s headlights. And Couric is strictly a featherweight.
Stop defending people who had no business being in the business they played at. We are all paying for McCain’s folly and ineptitude.
@Edward Smith – It’s not a pseudonym; I’m easy to find and Google is your friend. And what you see is what you get online or in person and many have gotten it before. I’m one of those Republican operatives who doesn’t subscribe to the notion that Republicans have to be nice.
“She is, I do not doubt, intelligent. But was she then and is she now ready for the the Vice Presidency or Presidency? She could be, but I do not think she is, yet.”
I won’t call you “stupid” but I do wonder on what basis do you base the notion that Palin is “intelligent.” Like Obama, she is poorly read, poorly educated & intellectually lazy. There is not much substance to either one of these people & both have the capacity to be quite petty & snarky. Perhaps they should have run on the same ticket.
Your opinion, while being nothing more than repetitious leftwing memes against the former Governor, is noted.
It is also, as much as an ‘opinion’ can be, comepltely inaccurate in its base assumptions. that’s a facy way of saying: ya got nuthin’ to back up your opinion of her supposed ignorance and ‘intellectual laziness’.
It, like you, is dismissed.
Idiot.
My goodness. Rude little man. Go take a chill pill & follow that with a stiff drink.
#8 chrisS your take on “moderates” illustrates the primary fundamental disconnect that those on the far right continually exhibit — the inability to discriminate between “liberal” and anyone not waving a flag or professing deep love for jesus. Fact is, you have things exactly backwards. I’m a typical moderate; I don’t vote for leftists. I also don’t vote for flag waving bible beaters, and I regarded Palin as the worst possible VP choice, ever. What “moderate” means is that we vote for the most centrist republican. And sure, in theory, given the choice between a centrist democrat and an absurdly far right nutbar, the centrist gets the vote. Fortunately this has not been put to the test. The closest it has ever come was the choice of Palin.
I don’t quite understand the Quayle putdowns. This guy understands technology and was the perfect choice to advise on matters involving tech (which in today’s world translates into “touches everything.”)
My read on letfist candidates is that generally they grasp technology at about the same level of understanding as my dog. The right leaning candidates are usually much better at this. The US role in world leadership is premised on the continued development of technology that is superior to that of any competitors. The US military rules not due to superior morals or more fervent belief in gods, but because US technological development gives them weapons that can consistently take out an enemy tank in the middle of a stormy night from 10 miles out (i.e. stuff that any would-be enemies can’t do.) Pax Americana is based on superior technology, period.
As a rule the far right nutbars (e.g. Palin) are no better at grasping these very simple concepts than the leftists are. It is almost always the more centrist candidates who have a feel for this. More centrist candidates are also less distracted by far left/right ideological agendae.
Not all moderates express their positions in terms of technology, but the point is that assessment of candidates is a serious business and there are a number of factors used to judge worthiness. Just because you don’t understand how moderate right wingers arrive at decisions doesn’t mean that moderates aren’t making them. Your ideology-centric POV prevents you from seeing this.
McSame would have lost no matter who he picked. He made double sure he would loose my state by chastising our state GOP about adds that did what he refused to do, namely, take the fight to chairman 0.
It is commentary like this that reminds me of why I am registered as an independent! Why does America need two “progressive” parties anyway, unless we are trying to mimic the Soviet Union. I suppose it is because some among us don’t want us to have a choice.
Wow is the real Jazz Shaw who completely distorted what Obama said regarding building business? I always wanted to say something to people who distort what other people say for selfish gain. Yes I know both sides do it and both sides are wrong. It’s just I marvel at the lack of integrity some people publicly show to others just to gain favor with some people. My only question is that a learned behavior or was that taught to you at a very young age?
Maybe you should tell these fine posters it was you who found that statement by Obama and you will be cheered as their hero. They will shower you with accolades no matter the distortion because they don’t care.
I have had enough of your nonsense. Everyone has.
So much education, so little actual learning. You are proof positive of the maxim: “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
And lest you inquire wherefore I should so insult you, and by what right, and that you did not come here to be insulted, I leave the first two questions already answered, and reply to the third: “Where do you usually go?”
Little Eddie, you are confusing me with someone who cares what you think. I don’t. Maybe your mommy does but I don’t.
There is something to respect in you after all. You are a fully self-aware and unrepentant Troll.
It does not make you admirable. But being an honest [CoC violation alert] is something to be acknowledged.
Edward I’ve never hidden the fact that I am liberal. Although if truth be told I am a fiscal conservative and I have governed that way. I think I would need at least one or two successful lobotomies for me to be a social conservative. As I believe it’s a mental disease.
Stoopid can’t resist getting his jollies here.
If it’s me you’re talking about, until PJMedia gets it’s CoC in order – and I take offense at language, not content (Christopher Hitchens could make you feel like he hit you with a Mack truck with nary a curse and insults that could actually help you expand your vocabulary – but he is the Gold Standard, so don’t feel ashamed if you fall short … only if you don’t try) – I will go straight to PJTV for the videos.
There are intelligent people here. But too many of you give in to easily to the Dark Side. I learned a long time ago, losing my temper means lost sleep and dyspepsia.
Don’t get your panties wound to tight he’s talking about me so don’t lose any sleep as I can assure you I won’t.
You’re a lesser man than me, Gungha Din.
Sleep well.
Es gibt kein Aufwiedersehen.
I suspect Jesus in your eyes would be a lesser man to you as well. And yes there are good bye’s
Who’s kidding whom?
McCain rejected Romney because he hated him…just like all of the other candidates hated the guy whose entire campaigns have been base on tearing down the other guys. Until, of course, the other guy is a democrat.
I don’t suppose anybody has noticed Romney’s slash-and-burn style of campaigning for the nomination?
It hasn’t exactly endeared him to his opponents, and McCain knows how to hold a grudge.
McCain would have picked anybody BUT Romney.
It really isn’t any more complicated than that.
B-R-illiant!
First of all, McCain has virtually no executive experience and no experience with the private sector, so any VP candidate would would have been chosen to compensate. He’s pretty much a RINO, so the VP would have to have been to his right.
So why Palin? To me it was all about the visuals. Not only was McCain much older than any of the men being talked about for VP in ’08, he’s pretty beat up physically. He came by it very honorably, he covers it up well, but he has very limited mobility in his arms and his neck. Any time the Republican ticket appeared together, there’d be a subconscious comparison going on for the viewers, with McCain coming out second best. A woman as VP would defuse that pretty well.
So that biased the selection towards a woman. The list of conservative Republican women with executive experience is pretty short. Palin was on it. And an older man with a vital younger woman is a whole different gestalt.
These were my thoughts also.
McCain was vulnerable enough to the legions of young voters who see him as an old man who’s completely shot physically, and who should have had the grace to retire to an ice floe long ago, without his selecting a man to stand beside him who looks far younger and much more trim and fit, and who, although incapable of verbal pyrotechnics, is leagues more articulate, sans notes, than McCain, the former classic jock, has ever been in his life.
All that aside, I will respect and revere John McCain for the rest of my life for the beating he took as a POW, and for his service during a virulently criticized war, despite a less than sterling record since that time, and no matter how foolish or inadequate he may become as the years go by. Few among us would be capable of the kind of will that somehow powered his maimed and broken body through something like 6 years of unimaginable torture with an unflagging, adamantine resistance that still takes my breath away whenever I think of it.
His chips with me are simply inexhaustible, that’s all, and to this day, I wince to hear others discuss him with disrespect and derision. It flies in the face of my sense of the fitness of things, which of course marks me as overdue for those ice floes myself!
Of all the serious subjects to write about that really need to be posted, and Shaw writes about THIS, and gets it posted?
There are old people in nursing homes with Alzheimers, that can write a story just as cognitive as this.
WHO CARES ABOUT THIS PATHETIC HISTORY.
WHERE’S THE ARTICLE ON ZIMMERMANS INTERVIEW WITH HANNITY?
I don’t really think that McCain ever intended to try to win that election. If he did, it certainly did not show during the campaign.
Experience Ain’t Everything.
Full Disclosure: I was and remain an ardent Palin supporter.
Experience isn’t as important as Common Sense and a correct (conservative) worldview. The media assault on Palin was a shocker to me (perhaps it shouldn’t have been) and the barbs from the right wing commentariat were extremely damaging.
But look at the recent playing field: Biden (wrong on everything for decades, plus a real buffoon); John Edwards (well coiffed, antisocial empty suit); Algore (’nuff said).
The Right better learn to quit bitching about the choice and start supporting the nominee. The VP candidate will turn out to be superior to what was originally thought (Quayle, Palin).
Oh yes, it is everything. But after thirty yeras some people have thirty times one year of experience.
I think it was a real loss for Sarah Palin to be with McCain on the losing ticket. Had she not been on that ticket and were a VP candidate this year, things would have been even better. McCain lost the election the day he said he was suspending the campaign for urgent financial matters to be tackled in Washington. Unfortunately, he did not even get a call from President Bush seeking his “expertise” in financial issues. Thank God we have a real strong contender in Romney.
First off, McCain nominated Palin because he desperately needed some credibility with the conservative and libertarian base. Had he nominated a fellow RINO, those of us who are conservatives were seriously contemplating either sitting out the election or voting for a third party. I must say, however, that IMHO, he lost the election when he told a supporter that (i) she shouldn’t be afraid of Obamessiah and (ii) Obamessiah was an honorable man”. Such BS may have served his collegial status on the Hill well but it destroyed his credibility as a candidate who cared about winning the election.
Romney has the advantage of running against an incumbent now revealed to be despicable authoritarian fascist but has the same tendencies as Dole (“He’s not our enemy, he’s our opponent”) and McLame. He needs to stop playing to not lose and begin playing to win. It doesn’t matter if the “progressives” hate you. One way or another, he’ll either win or lose with the real “middle class”.
In the 1964 race, they hated and attacked Goldwater. He lost but today he’s venerated as having changed the political dialog of the country. In 1980, they constantly attacked Reagan but he won and is widely venerated today for having changed the direction of the country. Bush 41 played it safe, was a one term president and is little more than a rarely mentioned footnote today. Bush 43 was largely a victim of circumstances and will go down as the President who presided over the a declining American economy while distracted by the Middle East.
Romney can choose to be a Goldwater or a Reagan or he can choose to be a Dole, McLame or Bush. Personally, if the America I love and enlisted in the Marine Corps to fight for in Vietnam is going down under the fascist progressive heel, I’d prefer that it die fighting rather than whimpering.
And true to form McCain shows how good he is by defending Clinton’s “Muslim Sisterhood” adviser Huma Abedin from a call by Bachmann, as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, to look into the potential “policies and activities that appear to be the result of influence operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood.”
YES cynic McCain’s penchant for siding with Dems on almost every important question make me sick to think I voted for him last time- I did vote NOBAMA more than PRO MC C- time for this Obama fan to retire- senility has set in and he has just lost the will to fight
The Biblical Case Against Voting For A Mormon Why Christians Who Support Romney Actually Violate Scripture.
http://pastors4huckabeeblog.com/the-biblical-case-against-voting-for-a-mormon-for-president-why-christians-who-support-romney-actualy-violate-scripture/
I’ll go to confession as soon as I get out of the voting booth. And I’m betting there will be a line.
90% of McCains votes were for Sarah, not him. What a “FOOL”
Give us a break Mc Cain, we gave you the prize show dog, at the dog show. And you put a muzzle on her so she couldn’t,t defend herself, and then you turned that vicious pack on her, and let them tear her to pieces. You had the prize. And then you blew it. I,m still angry that I wasted $1000.00 on your campaign. And that was only because, you took Palin as a running mate. After that I sat back, ready to send in the max, like I always do for a Republican ,but I could see your heart wasn’,,t in the fight. So the rest of my designated war chest went to the NRA. And then they screwed up doing a puff piece on Harry Reed in their magazine, and now they arn,,t getting any more of my money either. You politcians, need to remember that, when most of us write the check it,s a real sacrifice for us and we need performance.
This time around, I didn’t finish the pink diatribe by dear Shaw (loose that phony & passé hat, will ya, or my Rottweiler is gonna shred it, you ain’t cool, dude) nor the comments.
It looks like I’m the only one who saw through your subterfuge right off the bat just reading the title. Who gives a d***n re: your 4 y. old conjecture; it’s an old & moldy hat, capish! And mainly a distraction from the REAL issues at hand; the main one being to rid this country of the legion of the red-brown menace wrecking it.
How about this (I hope some Mitt’s people will read this). Challenge to obamination: Mitt is releasing two more years of his tax returns for your Columbia records; too more years for Harvard. How does that grab you, my dear scribe.
Readers, let’s not bicker among ourselves; that’s what the lefties want. Hammer on the issues, dear ‘O’ gives us plenty of ammo.
To PJ Media people, few more writers like this clown (belongs to MSNBC or HuffPost) & you’re loosing yours truly & maybe few others.
Especially after McCains defense of Obama admin re MuslimBrotherhood infiltration/influence,… the question about McCain is: Does he want Romney to win or Obama to win. I really think the latter.
14. BostonLib
It’s fairly stooopid getting in the crossfire of a flame war but I just gotta lay down a quote from a famous liberal;
“Politics ain’t beanbags”
-Lyndon Johnson
All’s fair in War, love and politics. Don’t remember who said that but they were right.
Back to the topic…. People today forget that the 0bumbler walked out of the Donk convention with about a 6 point lead. When the stock market crashed in October, McCain/Palin had a 2 point lead. That is because Palin is a conservative. McCain isn’t. Neither is Mitt. The GOP establishment is in love with the moderates. The uncommitted. The ’08 election was lost because of the stock market crash. The ’12 election will be lost because Romney is the turd in the punch bowl and conservatives aren’t drinking. Mitt’s ONLY hope is to find a conservative to run as VP. NOT a Republican. A Conservative.
Paw, Port and the fat slob from joisey are out.
The establishment Republicans (AKA Red meat RINOs) want Romney to go into berserker attack mode. That will turn off the independents. Which leaves the Marxist element and all their dead friends voting back in the obomination. Conservatives will be home, watching the GOP establishment crash and burn. That’s good. We can replace them and get down to business. Tea Party will deliver the Senate and 0bama will spend the next 4 years testifying and working on his perp walk.
Why the fixation on Qualifications? People vote on feeling, NOT facts.
The times they are a’changing. This inept President and his clown posse are dragging the whole world into war. The 60′s peace and love movement has immigrated. Here is what the young kids think about life;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmAjp77ovEo
Listen to it and you will understand why Greece and Spain are going down the drain.
Why go to school if there are no jobs to study for?