Peggy Noonan blasts today’s pathetic Republican Party. She’s not saying anything new. She just has a way with words, and her essay sums up the problems nicely.
These problems, however, have been apparent for years, and even Peggy has been late to the party. In Kansas in 2006, old Republicans bolted from the party and won seats as Democrats.
The Republicans deserve to get crushed in the fall. If that happens, it will be the best possible result for the party (and the country).
Obama said he was offended when McCain said last month, “It’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.”
“I think it’s disappointing because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’ and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy on Hamas has been no different than his,” Obama said.
“And so for him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.”
John McCain has been flying under the radar as the Democrats grab the headlines, but more news organizations are paying attention to the Hagee story and his anti-Catholic remarks.
What John McCain really stands for came up most recently in light of his position on abortion. Planned Parenthood commissioned a survey showing that more than half of those women polled don’t know much about McCain’s stance, and a quarter of those who are in favor of keeping abortion legal mistakenly think the senator agrees.
These misperceptions will be corrected by November. Writers like Anna Quindlen are talking about it, and it will certainly come up in the campaign. McCain has been a favorite of many independents, but that was when he was running against Bush. Now that he faces a general election in a tough year for Republicans, his abortion stances are likely to hurt him with independents and some moderate Republicans.
She does have some helpful advice for Barack Obama, however. He can help himself by talking more about why he loves his country. Of course he has been doing this, but he always does it from an intellectual point of view. Law school geeks like me love this stuff, but he could use some more imagery. He has talked about his grandfather being in Patton’s army in WWII, and he needs to do more of that. The right is trying to paint him as a left-wing radical, and he needs some stories from his life that contradict that silly caricature.
McCain’s lame attempt to offer something about the mortgage mess just two weeks after saying he would do nothing to bail out homeowners shows he will say anything and propose anything to get elected. Conservatives are not happy.
Once the general election starts, McCain’s inability to articulate and defend clear positions on the issues in a consistent manner will be his undoing.
She’s starting to tank in the polls. Gallup has her down 9 points and Rasmussen has her down 10 points. The polls are tightening in Pennsylvania, and slowly the superdelegates continue to break for Obama.
It’s only a matter of time. Obama will be the nominee by June.
Also, McCain has not been able to build on his earlier lead when Obama was dealing with the Wright issue. The polls are now basically even, which means McCain is in trouble as well.
Can a conservative former congressman who helped impeach President Clinton, is a board member of the National Rifle Association and has done contract work with the ACLU dent Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid?
That’s exactly what Mr. McCain would face if Bob Barr, the former Republican who joined the Libertarian Party two years ago, wins his adopted party’s presidential nomination.
Barr is one of many Republicans who are fed up with today’s Republican Party that has embraced the religious right and has abandoned the principles of small government and freedom. The Ron Paul candidacy showed that there is real support for traditional libertarian positions, and Barr could present a protest votes for conservatives who are fed up with the GOP.
It’s statements like this that explain I always liked Mike Huckabee and why he was able to generate so much support. I don’t agree with many of his policies, but the man is a true Christian. He has empathy for other people and tries to understand their plight. He also understands that we’re all human and we make mistakes.
And one other thing I think we’ve gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say “That’s a terrible statement!”…I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told “you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus…” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
Reverend Wright said some very stupid things. They should be condemned and Barack Obama condemned them. But, it’s clear this man is very angry about the injustices that blacks have endured in this country. This does not justify his statements, and as Obama explained, this anger can cloud one’s judgement. Wright could not see the progress we have made.
That said, it was incredibly gracious for Huckabee to show some compassion and understanding, and to not kick Wright while he’s down. Here’s the video.
Over the past several days, John McCain has twice repeated a ridiculous statement about al Qaeda in Iraq, saying that Iran (a Shiite nation) was training al Qaeda terrorists (who are Sunnis). This is almost as ridiculous as his recent statements that al Qaeda would take over Iraq if we left, as if the majority Shiites would ever let that happen.
Now we know what we’ll hear from those like John McCain who support open-ended war. They will argue that leaving Iraq is surrender. That we are emboldening the enemy. These are the mistaken and misleading arguments we hear from those who have failed to demonstrate how the war in Iraq has made us safer. Just yesterday, we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shiite, Iran and al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war with a country that had no al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely fails to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America’s enemies than any strategic choice that we have made in decades.
I’m amazed that McCain worked for this endorsement, and I have no idea why he is sticking with Hagee. This man is a nut, and his anti-Catholic statements are disgusting. This will be a story in the general election.
On the right, Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is objecting Hagee’s extremist writings, particularly his denunciations of the Catholic Church. For example, Donohue pointed to instances in which Hagee has referred to the Catholic Church as, “The Great Whore,” an “apostate church,” the “anti-Christ,” and a “false cult system.” Is Tim Russert going to repeat any of that to McCain, in the same way he read out Farrakhan’s “gutter religion” line about Jews?
“Senator Obama has repudiated the endorsement of Louis Farrakhan, another bigot,” Donohue wrote. “McCain should follow suit and retract his embrace of Hagee.”
Obama never sought the endorsement of Farrakhan and has repeatedly repudiated him. McCain, on the other hand, has embraced Hagee, just like he pandered to Jerry Falwell last year.
TPM might be the most influential blog on the net, having pushed the attorney purge story last year and then receiving a Polk award for their excellent work. It will be interesting to see if their coverage of this endorsement leads the national press to pick it up.
Howard Dean and the Democrats are not going to let McCain get away with his attempt to game the campaign finance laws. McCain is bound by the public finance limits unless he gets a letter from the FEC releasing him from that obligation. That might not happen since he decided to accept public funds and gained the advantage of having his name automatically placed on state ballots.
McCain has been making an issue of public financing with Obama, but McCain’s current problems with compliance will make it difficult for him to press that point.
Looks like McCain’s flat denials regarding the lobbying issues in the New York Times piece might not be accurate:
McCain said and his office later released a statement claiming that McCain hadn’t met with anyone from either Paxson Communications (the broadcaster wanting the favors) or Alcalde & Fay (the lobby shop trying to get them the favors). Today, though, Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff dug up a 2002 deposition in which McCain said that he had discussed the issue directly with Lowell Paxson, the head of Paxson Communications. Now the Post has asked Paxson himself, now retired, and he says, Yep, I met with McCain and asked him to write the letters. And he thinks he remembers Iseman being in the meeting too.
In a USA Today Op-Ed piece, Barack Obama responded to the issue of spending limits in the general election. He will seek an agreement, but it will not be an easy agreement to craft since supporters on both sides can cheat the system.
Let’s see if the press is capable of reporting on this issue in a fair manner. They will actually have to dig in and understand the issue, which means it might take longer than a 30-second explanation. They have 24 hours per day available on cable news, so one would hope they could deal with this responsibly. Unfortunately, that might be too much to ask.
