Behind Today’s Endorsements
Shaun Mullen beat me to the punch on the Robertson-Rudy endorsment, but there is another endorsement of some note in the GOP race: Brownback for McCain. Politico has the details on both.
And what are we to make of all this noise?
The Brownback-McCain pairing is logical and (though not yet official) may already be helping McCain who (discounting margins-of-error for the moment) seems to be edging into second place in national polls. According to RCP’s averaging of the polls — as of 9:15 a.m. CDT — the Senator from Arizona was a thumbnail’s width ahead of Thompson, 16.5 vs. 16.2 percent.
In contrast, the Robertson-Rudy pairing may be the most illogical development of this everlasting campaign. In fact, I had to read it several times to make sure I wasn’t confused, dreaming, or inadvertently smoking crack — which, it turns out, I’m not, proving yet again that real life is more bizarre than the movies ever could be.
But more than that, I think Robertson’s newfound love for Rudy suggests: (1) the prior walk-out threats of the Religious Right were overplayed; and (2) the RR may be breathing its last gasps of power.
When a prominent, founding member of the RR “stoops” to endorse a clear pro-choice, pro-gay candidate, it would seem to suggest they’ve now fully sacrificed principles for politics; that they’re now more interested in beating Hillary than advancing their agenda. Granted, the RR has always been highly political, but they’ve generally (love ‘em or not) been true to their narrow-minded, two-plank platform. However, if Robertson’s endorsement does, as I suspect, signal that they’ve now sacrificied their platform simply to beat the D’s, then frankly they have litttle-to-nothing left to stand on and maybe (hopefully, finally) we can wave them “buh-bye.”
On the other hand, Robertson is only one voice in the RR, and his prominence has flagged of late, so perhaps we shouldn’t count the entire movement out for the count just yet. Accordingly, I’ll hold off on buying the keg, party balloons, and kazoos … for at least a little while longer.
Update: Steve Benen — whose politics I generally don’t share but whose intelligence I respect — has a much different take on the Robertson-Rudy development.
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14 Responses to “Behind Today’s Endorsements”
Is Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy a blessing or a curse? Even many RRs think Robertson’s nuts.
Shaun outdid Robertson with his latest GOP-bashing.
Who cares who Pat Robertson endorses because the Republican nominee has so little chance of winning in the general election. If the Republicans are having to compete in Colorado and Virginia and with New Hampshire a safe state for the Democrats, it really just does not matter who the Republicans nominate or what their positions.
Maybe a better use of time would be who Senator Clinton’s Attorney General will be and what their opinion is on international surveillance or waterboarding or what status should be given to someone who is not in uniform and attacking the U.S. Military?
Superdestroyer – While I generally agree we will be saying “Madame President” often in 2009, it ain’t over till it’s over. A McCain-Brownback or McCain-Thompson or even McCain-Huckabee ticket could be quite formidable, regardless of what we might individually think of those candidates. And yes, I still believe the Senator has a chance of winning the GOP nomination. And yes, I still believe he’s better situated (especially with the correct VP choice) to beat Hillary-Whoever than Rudy-Whoever is.
Peter,
A McCain nomination would lead to a massive rout. McCain burned his bridges with the core of the Republican party when he supported amnesty. Funding raising would collapse for the Republicans and many would stay home when faced with a McCain v Clinton ticket. It would probably be worse than Dole-Clinton in 1996.
Superdestroyer – with all due respect, McCain has burned many bridges with the “core” of the GOP, and yet he’s polling remarkably well of late. Further, hypothetical match-ups between he and Hillary have frequently found him closer to her numbers than Rudy would be. Net: I’m just not as convinced as you are of the future; my crystal-ball is a tad-bit cloudier.
The Left “cares” more about what Robertson and the rest of the Religious Right says than anybody else, particularly us mainstream voters, who don’t blow up the Religious Right into some kind of demonic monster to compete with Bush in the psychotic-behavior-object department.
What’s laughable is that Mitt Romney, who is similar to Giuliani in being much less than truly conservative, presents himself as a “real conservative,” and has gotten nothing from the social-conservative celebritities.
Mitt Romney offers Americans…nothing but a smile. And the people who would vote for someone because of his or her smile are for Obama (with Edwards and Clinton behind Obama).
Pete, you’re right to point out that McCain is making a remarkable comeback. The only problem is… he isn’t going to win many polls according to state polls.
Many states that should be.
Weyrich to the rescue
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Now who didn’t make the news? This guy.
It really looks like a “beat Clinton” strategy rather than promotion of the interests of social conservatives.
Meanwhile, yesterday produced winners and losers and much of the public still seems positive about having voted for Dems in 2006.
[...] I opined on the endorsements of the day: Brownback for McCain, Robertson for [...]