Unlike some of the vocal McCain bashers, I don't believe that he needs to come to the right at all. He is what he is. If I were McCain, I would tell all of those pundits saying, "He needs to come on this program and convice my listeners why they shouldn't stay home" to go shove it. Either vote for him or not. He doesn't need to become more conservative. If the GOP or the vocal wing of it would rather have the Democratic nominee as President and cannot see any difference between them and McCain, then so be it.
I like Newt Gingrich. He is smart. He learned a lot from his time in Congress. He got a little carried away with the shutting down the government bit, so he got stung. Lesson learned. His Contract with America was great in terms of having a Congress address many policies and actually pass some. In short, the Contract did not promise passage of each of the policies, but did promise to bring them to an up or down vote, which happened. So, the representative republic worked well - the issues were raised as bills, debated and voted upon. The President either signed them or not. And, Clinton passed much of the Contract with America.
I know some of his detractors point out his personal or character flaws, but I really don't care. I really don't care if someone has marital trouble or not, so the "he served his wife divorce papers in the hospital" bit is old, a half-truth and irrelevant to me.
He is a dynamite speaker, he is well read and has studied in great detail absolutely any issue that we face today. He is quick to point out good policy advanced by anyone, whether democrat or republican, and he is a student of history.
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On a profoundly personal level, I dislike Newt and always will for his role in the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But on a political level, no reasonably intelligent person can dimiss the guy's acumen. Listen to him speak for just five minutes, and you come away with the sense he's a policy genius.
He is about the most ardent of the neocons. According to Newt, the United States is in tremendous danger, and the only way we can avoid complete disaster is to attack, attack, attack.
He would be as much of a disaster as president as Giuliani would have been, from this perspective.
McCain is an uber-hawk, but at least he is not a good-vs-evil, high-threat-perception, world-transforming neocon.
...like I said, when America really sees what BO stands for -- when they actually can uncover it -- he will look like the deer in the headlights that he is.
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I am a conservative and I was pissed at McCain/Feingold, McCain/Kennedy and Kyoto support.
However, the ACU rates him at 80%, he is a budget hawk, he had the balls to support the surge before any Republican ever considered it, he is steadfastly pro-life and a free trader.
It is mystifying why the Limbaughs of the world are anti-McCain.
...it will be unifying.
He voted against Bush Tax Cuts (low taxes are important to me)
McCain/Feingold (freedom is important to me)
Amnesty for illegals
He's pro-life (I don't give two shits what someone's stance on abortion is)
He's great on defense and a war hero.
I don't want bi-partisanship. All that means is give liberals what they want. Hell, with all Bush gave, he should be a liberal hero.
When I see people on this board who voted for Gore/Kerry/Clinton actually consider McCain, I'm pretty sure he doesn't stand for what I believe in.
To be honest, I'm not afraid of a Clobama presidency, as long as Republicans are prepared to clean up the mess next mid-term and presidential elections.
The battle of ideas is a long time.
But then, look how Dems see Lieberman. Purity is everything these days. I could have lived with any of the Republican nominees except Huck and Giuliani. Huck for the whole religious right thing, and 9ui11ani for the near psychotic foreign policy. Hell, Ron Paul would have just been downright fun to watch.