Hewitt Previews GOP Platform 2008
This landed on me like a ton of bricks tonight while reading Hugh Hewitt’s post-debate post:
Romney began by listing the series of assaults on conservative values championed by McCain including McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, the McCain-Lieberman global warming regulatory monster, the opposition to exploration in ANWR and the votes against the Bush tax cuts.
Has anyone stopped to think that if McCain gets the GOP nod, there will come a time when the party has to draft a platform with an obstinate, if not defiant, McCain – an often angry man with a history of holding conservatives in disdain? Someone pinch me, please. Has anyone thought of what that platform will look like? In 2004, it was called pablum by Novak. In 2008, I’m thinking tofu. Or, maybe cereal. Wouldn’t want to make the old folks have to chew.
Will it say we will advocate strongly against any new drilling or exploration of so-called pristine areas? That we will encourage states to pass legislation against off-shore drilling, thereby saving those precious resources for China and others using technology to stand far off-shore and drain them down?
Help me out here, someone, please.
Will it advocate mirandizing non-uniformed, enemy combatants suspected of assaulting, maiming or killing US troops in Iraq, or Afghanistan? Keeping a bevy of ACLU lawyers on hand overseas, preventing questioning, unless agreed? Because if it doesn’t, there is no way an effective prosecution could ever take place within the US Courts, as McCain insists. How do we draw distinctions between what would, or wouldn’t be a Guantanamo detainee-type without first violating protections of which they will later be assured back to their time of arrest? Does McCain even understand the complex can of legal worms he is opening up for which he and Republicans would be held to account?
Will it advocate not supporting any tax cuts for what the Left defines as "the rich?" That we will actively seek out alleged evil doers from Main Street to Wall Street who make what we feel are excessive profits, so that we can punish them, as he suggested in tonight’s debate?
Are you kidding me? Am I freaking dreaming here, or what?
Obviously it will support America unilaterally adopting anti-Global Warming measures that cripple our industrial base to improve our International profile on the issue … while we lobby China and India to please play along. I suppose, if they don’t co-operate, we will support turning that effective ogre, the UN, loose on them to straighten them out. Right?
Help me because my head is going to explode. I simply can’t get my mind around it. What is a Republican Platform for 2008 going to look like with a McCain as the nominee. I need to know, because by the time I am finished comparing it to the Dems, America might actually be better off under theirs.
Think about it. This is freaking insane. Has al qaeda poisoned our water with an hallucinogenic, or are the Republicans actually on the verge of nominating John McCain?
Watching him lie about Romney and his obviously self-satisfied preening at the debate last night was bad enough. But contemplating a political platform with this man in the lead is just too much. I feel as if there aren’t enough Republicans left in America to stop this madness.
Speaking as an Independent, you guys have gone insane. That may mean McCain fits right in, but, geez, guys, you may have to count me out.
A lot of it is the Independent and especially the (D) voters who do the tactical voting en masse in open primary states by crossing over party lines to trash our vote.
I expect that there was a LOT more of the sort of electoral hanky-panky in Florida than in the Bush-Gore contest… I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some saucy (D)s digging up dead people to skew the vote: the desire for perceived revenge runs deep.
This is one reason why the national GOP should REFUSE to seat any delegates elected from states using open primaries, and perhaps should also insist that party registry cutoffs be no less than 90 days prior to a primary.
Boo hoo. The flatearthers don’t like their candidate so its time to blame the wicked Libruls!
Dan,
Check out the Tiger Woods link on Drudge commenting on Obama. I’m with you in many respects regarding Obama. I’m not quite to the point of saying, ‘Give me an honest liberal over a disingenuous “conservative”‘. But I’m close. It won’t matter who you or I vote for anyway. BHO will trounce McCain as the media will turn on straight-talkin’ John in something under a nano-second. He might have a chance against Hillary but only barely. Same rule applies in that matchup wrt the MSM.
We haven’t been counting on you for awhile, Dan. You’re going with Obama, and if that fails, probably Hillary. Hope you like the pantsuit!
“A lot of it is the Independent and especially the (D) voters who do the tactical voting en masse in open primary states by crossing over party lines to trash our vote.”
Can you show any stats to back that up? Isn’t FLA a closed primary? Everything I’ve seen shows the crossover vote is minimal at best.
“Everything I’ve seen shows the crossover vote is minimal at best.”
How about a link to what you’re seeing that no one else seems to be?
“Hope you like the pantsuit!”
Don’t knock the pantsuit, Brainster. I haven’t knocked you for preferring a president who wears Depends. ; )
For the love of mercy, Dan – toss up a Mitt widget to make up for that awful McCain banner you have in rotation (probably nothing you can do about that from GoogleAds).
Here, here’s a link to the Mitt widgets:
http://www.mittromney.com/Downloads/Banners
Sorry, Dan, I need to get this chip off my shoulder. I took crap all last year for supporting McCain, and I guess I expect everybody to pivot on a dime and congratulate me for my great good sense. My bad.
“my great good sense”
No problem, Brainster. Iunderstand. And if I could congratulate you, trust me, I would. We’ll just have to disagree for now.
Honestly, I’d rather have Hillary trash the country for 4 years so everyone will see the Left for what it is, than have McCain do it in our (conservatives’) name. McCain wins, I sit out so Hillary can do it. We can undo her damage; the perception will be, if he causes the damage, that the Republicans are inept. It’s true, conservatives are inept at playing liberals. They’re much better at trashing the country effectively.
“Will it advocate mirandizing non-uniformed, enemy combatants suspected of assaulting, maiming or killing US troops in Iraq, or Afghanistan? Keeping a bevy of ACLU lawyers on hand overseas, preventing questioning, unless agreed? Because if it doesn’t, there is no way an effective prosecution could ever take place within the US Courts, as McCain insists.”
Are you joking? This is the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. You sound like a Democrat trying to scare old people about Social Security.
McCain has taken a stand against any interrogation harsher than your average American citizen gets in the system designed to protect them. Riehl is dead right Matt, and people will be dead in unpleasant ways if McCain shifts us to a kindler, gentler stance on terrorists. I half expect him to turn terrorism into a Clintonian crime problem rather than the war concern it is under the Bush doctrine.
A bit overwrought, methinks.
And do you believe that Romney actually believes what Marketing has told him to say this week? If so, have I got a deal for you on some swampland!
The other side of it is – how conceivably far to the left could Hills or Obama move us if we give them (let’s be generous and give either of them two terms) eight years?
Clinton ’42 did far reaching damage in his tenure, though limited by a GOP congress later on.
Now we face (quite possibly a multi-generation minority status in both houses of Congress) that may dwindle even further in this coming election year as old GOP stalwarts and conservatives retire in droves.
By 2016, could we have a majority of far left SCOTUS justices, or worse, a court packed with as a superabundance of ultra-liberal justices (the Constitution, IIRC doesn’t fix that number, Congress does) per FDR’s 1937 court-packing plan?
Would the people be so utterly dependent upon gifts from Hillary Claus or Imam Obama that the upcoming generation wouldn’t dream of leaving the socialist plantation (because by then, there just might not be any other country that isn’t socialist to compare it to) ?
Or more sensibly, would a mid-term congressional election find the GOP resurgent, and hopefully, packed with younger folks who remember that the Frederalism of Fred Dalton Thompson… or the persistence of that Ron Paul* guy and his continued brayings about a little scrap of paper called the “United States Constitution”, to bring the pendulum back toward center yet once more?
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*DISCLAIMER: I do not agree completely with RonPaulism (TM) as I do the stalwart defense of the Constitution as the law of our land, and the source of our rights coming from the Creator.
On the other hand, I am a raging FredHead.
Quite the anti-business statement. I’ve not seen a real business leader on puppet strings for a long time. If you think a businessman’s strings are any tighter than a Senator’s handler strings, you’ve got another thing coming to you. McCain’s “Maverick” moniker is definitely highlighted by his handlers.
If we’re going to talk about McCain’s “character”, why can’t we mentioned when he cheated on his disabled wife (repeatedly) and when lead the infamous Keating 5 ethical scandal?
Google them, if you don’t believe me.
Thank you for saying what I’ve been screaming in my head for weeks. Count me as independent who will sit out or write in but not support McCain.
What a marvelous article! If exposure to the true McCain does not occur, he will succeed in destroying the Republican party as we know it. He says he was a “foot soldier” in the Reagan revolution. Well, so was I as a Republican precinct captain in Oak Park, Illinois. I know Reagan’s values well and they are NOT what McCain is spewing forth. What a turncoat liar McCain is as a self-professed conservative. Never has the left been so gleeful as with the thought that McCain will be their prey to pick apart in the General Election. May God preserve us from this travesty. The only one with a prayer to solve the herculean problems this nation faces is Romney—a true Reagan conservative.
I will not vote for McCain. He is a liar. He is mentally unstable. I have never voted for a Democrat in my life, but I refuse to vote for this old demented fossil. He cannot tell the truth.
Why is Romney called a flip-flopper when McCain has conveniently changed his mind on many many things in his career?
I will not vote for McCain either. I will vote on all but POTUS if he is the nominee.
Dan, should McCain get the nomination he’ll let conservatives have plenty of say in the GOP platform. Then he’ll proceed to ignore the parts he disagrees with. He’ll be like plenty of previous nominees.
Oh Hugh,
You’re pathetic and delusional. Go sailing with your docksiders doosh. Go wear a bowtie with your suit, and, please, stay off the weed you’ve been smoking. McCain will wipe the floor with Romney. Come to think of it, being named Mitt and Hugh says a lot. You must have been picked on in school as a kid eh?
See ya Hugh
You McCain haters make me sick. The only insane thing going on right now is your unceasing attacks on every aspect of him and his campaign. The man served his country during Vietnam and spent 5 1/2 years as a POW. He has refused to back down on matters of principle, whereas Mitt Romney as flip-flopped on every major issue. When he ran in MA, he was more liberal than Ted Kennedy. Now that he wants to be President, he’s suddenly a dyed in the wool conservative? Please, spare me.
John McCain has an 82 lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. Sure, it could be higher, but compare that to Hillary and Obama (somewhere around 7 and 4, respectively.) That’s a HUGE difference, and anyone who thinks his platform would be the same, or even worse than, theirs is an idiot. There’s no other explanation.
John McCain has been consistently pro-life for his entire 25-year congressional career. He supports maintaining a strong military. Yes, he voted against the Bush tax cuts, because he wanted corresponding SPENDING CUTS so as to prevent the deficit from growing even bigger. He has fought against earmarks and pork barrel spending his entire career.
The “amnesty bill” was not amnesty at all. Ronald Reagan’s bill was amnesty for 3 million illegals. Pure, unadulterated amnesty. McCain-Kennedy, on the other hand, contained $4 billion for securing the border, which had to happen BEFORE the rest of it took effect. The illegals who would receive visas and enter a path to citizenship would have to pay several thousand dollars in various fines and fees, and it would take an average of 13 years for them to receive their citizenship, as they’d have to wait in line behind those who applied legally.
What is the alternative? Shoot every illegal we find? Deploy the military to track down all 12 million of them? None of the other solutions being offered are reasonable. Romney doesn’t even HAVE a solution, he just criticized McCain! (Oh, but don’t forget, he was for it before he was against it. In 2006 he was quoted in the Boston Globe as saying it was “reasonable and…quite different from amnesty.”
I can’t wait for Senator McCain to win the nomination and the presidency, so all of you idiots can see just how wrong you are about him. Not that you’ll admit it, because people like you never do. But it will be sweet nonetheless.
Hey Dan, are you going yo be feeling so special when a fat woman from the dark side kicks McBlame to the curb this November. If the best you can come up with is McKerry’s war record, then it will be good to see him get his ass handed to him. In response to the question on how he would handle the economy he gave his best Kerry speech, I was a leader in Nam, and I was in Vietnam you know, I know how to find managers to run the economic policy like Jack Kemp……ect. Hey did I say I was a war hero????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Mc Blame cannot win the general!!!!! Period. Eight months ago he was getting his ass kicked for supporting Illegals, and the only campaign money he got was in Pesos…now he has seen the light????
The only thing McBlame has been consistently doing in Washington is pissing on Republicans while doing photo shoots with Kennedy, Reid, Pelosi, and other idiots while placing himself right in the middle of most issues, and taking credit for any bill that might have a chance of passing. Kennedy/McCain, Lieberman/McCain ect. And just who was that guy Kerry wanted for his first choice for running mate……oh thats right McCain. Sorry but his defeat in November will only have one positive effect…it will cause him to quit the senate and fade into history.
“Honestly, I’d rather have Hillary trash the country for 4 years so everyone will see the Left for what it is…”
…kind of like what happened with GWB & the Right. That’s why the republicans are only running moderates this time around. The loony Right has finally been exposed.
This election season because of the enmity many evangelical pastors seem to have for the Mormons, and the bigoted fervency some of their followers publicly display, religion has become such an issue that it seems possible that the conservative god-fearing grassroots people of America will not be represented in the Whitehouse because the conservative vote is being split.
Disagreements about points of religious doctrine will probably always exist as long as there are humans on this planet. Those discussions should not be part of the process of electing the most qualified person to the highest TEMPORAL office in our nation.
I think it’s best to leave to the hate-filled terrorists the attempt to force others to believe one’s own way.
In my opinion the possibly well-meaning but bigoted individuals with a hatred for the Latter-day Saints have written so much supposedly in favor of Huckabee that they’ve greatly reduced that man’s national electability. Americans don’t want to be ruled by an extreme religious leader – that’s what our international enemies are trying to impose on the world!
Dr. Romney graduated among the top 5% of his class at the prestigious Harvard Business and Law Schools.
Compare Governor Romney’s brilliant intellect, his record of service to others, and his incredible achievements in finance, business, and government with John McCain’s graduation at the very bottom 5% of his military class, his dismal “maverick” performance as a senator, his one time service as commander of one military base, and his lifelong reliance on the public purse for his livelihood.
Then decide who’s best prepared to be leader of the free world and to defend the cause of god-fearing freedom-loving Americans!
http://mittromney.com
http://mittromney.townhall.com