McCain Understands
It seems that Senator John McCain (mostly) understands why the GOP suffered a tremendous loss. He said ‘that Republicans had lost the midterm elections because “we abandoned our principlesâ€? on fiscal policy and government restraint, inviting a backlash from Americans over what they saw as widespread hypocrisy.’
“Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins — and the people will punish it,� said Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona. “We were elected to reduce the size of government and enlarge the sphere of free and private initiative. We increased the size of government in the false hope that we could bribe the public into keeping us in office.“We lost our principles and our majority,� he said. “And there is no way to recover our majority without recovering our principles first.�
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Mr. McCain, speaking here to the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, said the outcome did not represent a rejection of “our values and governing philosophy.�“On the contrary, I think they rejected us because they felt we had come to value our incumbency over our principle,� he said. “And partisanship, from both parties, was no longer a contest of ideas, but an ever cruder and uncivil brawl over the spoils of power.
“Americans had elected us to change government, and they rejected us because they believed government had changed us,� he said. “We must spend the next two years reacquainting the public and ourselves with the reason we came to office in the first place: to serve a cause greater than our self-interest.�
About Iraq:
“In no other time are we more morally obliged to speak the truth to our country, as we best see it, than in a time of war,� he said. “So let me say this, without additional combat forces we will not win this war.�“As troubling as it is, I can ask a young marine to go back to Iraq,� he said. “What I cannot do is ask him to return to Iraq, to risk life and limb, so that we might delay our defeat for a few months or a year. That is more to ask than patriotism requires.�
I strongly believe that if the Republican party wants to win the Presidential elections in 08 it has to come up with a new program, based on old values: a conservative agenda.
If Republicans want to appeal to Independents Рwho, as always, will determine who will win elections Рthey have to reform their own party. The GOP has changed for the worse during its years of hegemony. Power corrupts is more than just a clich̩.
12 Responses to “McCain Understands”
Yeah a conservative agenda that supports ethanol and farm subsidies and massive entitlement spending and tax cuts!
I was a big McCain supporter until 2004. His actions since then have really knocked him down on my list. It started with his baseball inquisition while he kept quiet about the lack of Congressional oversight of the White House on issues of actual importance. Then he runs around the country during the 2004 elections with his lips surgically tied to Bush’s butt. Over the last year he has been courting the most extreme of the religious right leaders in an attempt to have them not throw him out again in 2008 like they did in 2000. Next he supported the draconian anti-gay amendment in Arizona (the one that was so extreme it didn’t even pass in a red state). He’s right, the GOP needs to get back to their core message. Unfortunately he’s been running from such a principled stand for the last several years.
But our Nation game has been tainted by drugs. South Park had a repeat of the Chris Reeves fetal stem cell show last night. If Sammy Sosa was eating fetal tissue then I could see hearings. Bush now wants 180Bil more for Iraq. Will McCain ask for hearings on Iraq. I would vote for Hagel over McCain anyday. JC has sold his soul to W and Falwell, let him rot in political HELL.
McCain would be a lot more persuasive if has hadn’t spent the last 5-6 years kowtowing to and apologizing for the administration that does everything he claims is stupid and unpatriotic.
For JMc to utter “Hypocrisy, my friends, is the most obvious of political sins — and the people will punish it,� and then flip flop on his own stances like none of his words could be re-read is beyond hypocrtical.
His chances of luring the center/moderates into voting for him have taken a MAJOR hit, from which I’m not sure he can recover. His maverick credability is gone with his rollover on torture, arse kissing Falwell, and constant cuddling up to Bush (literally). The opposition ads on JMc will be EASY to do, and that huggytime with Bush picture is going to haunt him.
And I would have voted for him in 2000 if Bush/Rove hadn’t done the hatchet job on him and won the race.
I actually fell for the whole “maveric republican” scheme for a while. But then he got all cozy will Jerry Falwell, whom he had previously called an “agent of intolerance” (flip-flop, anyone?) and he stood up against torture, but then let the president in effect do whatever he wanted without complaining. You gotta wonder about a guy who’s actually been a POW and yet will not fight TORTURE to the bitter end.
Unfortunately for Senator McCain, there’s a new maverick in town – and this one’s for real.
Thanks for the link Mike P, I’m looking forward to following the new class of populist Democrats.
Populist…
Yes, we’ll see how long that lasts…
I just want folks to keep the country together and try to manage something worthwhile in these next few years. I felt real hopeful just as the elections happened that it would be a time for unity, but that hope has really been picked at. I just want them all not to destroy everything they have the opportunity to build.
He could still get my vote. It depends. I’m not going to fault him for whoring. All ’08 candidates will be someone who has done the exactly what he’s: Ho’d for their party while promising to be “different–i.e. honest”.
Matter of fact, politicians who don’t ho’ for their party WILL NOT be on the ballot in 08. Here I am on a moderate site for a “honest” debate and we can’t seem to admit that one fact.
– wasn’t it only a few days ago this site put up a comment about how great it was for the Democratic Party that they wouldn’t have to worry about Feingold running for president (one of the few politicians who stands for what he believes)
AND yet this site praises McCain’s Democratic alter ego, Lieberman (a guy who talks a good game but don’t do JACK) — .
Whose fault is it anyway that ethical politicians like Feingold don’t stand a chance in Hell; and a 90 day wonder like Obama get all the buzz. The press feed us this garbage and we swallow it whole. it happens all the time.
I don’t like either Lieberman or McCain. McCain is working hard to become the choice of the segment of Republicanism I like least, the Taliban Lite crowd. I think some of those who support him so strongly don’t realize how close to them he already was. Lieberman has a lot of stands I like but the attacks on the video game industry and his extreme level of support for the current course of the Iraq war temper my opinion of him a great deal.