Selling McCain And Global Warming, Too

I don't get it. There's a growing effort afoot to sell John McCain. See Abe Greenwald at Commentary and The Weekly Standard via Goldfarb, here too and Kristol, as well.

Take a look at this Hot Air video. He doesn't say too much about it, it's a talking point. US-based, man made Global Warming is clearly a big deal with McCain. He's right in line with Al Gore on this.

With China and India growing and all but ignoring the issue, does anyone not realize how significantly we would hinder our economy by taking the McCain/Gore line on this? This is huge and McCain largely has been getting a pass.

Conservative objections to McCain are being dismissed as hard feelings, almost as if they lack substance. McCain isn't just wrong for the GOP. He's wrong for America, too. Some of the so-called conservatives beginning to push McCain ought to start thinking about a job with the Kyoto Times. Because they certainly are not serving American conservatism very well at all.

Comments

[Roy Mustang]

McCain has his warts but he isn't the Anti-Christ.

It's because you guys go too far sometimes. Explain to me again why the Gang of 14 was bad? Two lower court judges were sacrificed for a Supreme Court Justice slot. And it was the swing vote Sandra Day slot no less. It was good deal. Save the constitutional nukes for more important things (perphaps the next SC nomination?).

[Verlin]

McCain will be almost as bad as Hillary or Obama in the WhiteHouse. Except with them at least they are supposed to be against our values.

[Yoda]

Sell us out quicker than Obama, McCain would.

[Cory]

McCain is really only conservative on a handful of issues. He's pro-life (just like most of the other Republican nominees) and hawkish in the GWOT (just like most other Republican nominees). What reason do I have to vote FOR him? Because Hillary or Obama would be worse? I'm not even sure that that's true. I actually think it will be a good lesson for his most ardent supporters to see the base drop out from under him if he becomes the nominee. I personally would never vote for any candidate who wants amnesty for illegal immigrants. And that includes McCain. McCain would forever ruin the Republican Party, and even more importantly, America.

[DiscerningTexan]

I could not agree more. John McCain is no different from Obama and Clinton, other than the War. He would not appoint Constitutionalist judges. He would open up the borders, and supported that ridiculous amnesty bill that 3/4 of the Public opposed. He would close Gitmo and give those monsters legal right to sue in the US. He voted against the Bush tax cuts, and stabbed the Republicans in power in the back by creating the "Gang of 14" which prevented the president from getting many qualified judges to the Circuit Courts.

Basically, if you don't believe that the Constitution of the United States is worth the paper it is written on, McCain's your guy. He would be the ruination of the Republican Party and the Reagan coalition.

[DiscerningTexan]

I could not agree more. John McCain is no different from Obama and Clinton, other than the War. He would not appoint Constitutionalist judges. He would open up the borders, and supported that ridiculous amnesty bill that 3/4 of the Public opposed. He would close Gitmo and give those monsters legal right to sue in the US. He voted against the Bush tax cuts, and stabbed the Republicans in power in the back by creating the "Gang of 14" which prevented the president from getting many qualified judges to the Circuit Courts.

Basically, if you don't believe that the Constitution of the United States is worth the paper it is written on, McCain's your guy. He would be the ruination of the Republican Party and the Reagan coalition.

[Roy Mustang]

McCain's record on pork is unassailable. He also came out against ethanol subsidies..in Iowa. He voted for Bork, Thomas, Alito and Roberts when the chips were down. That mid-80s lifetime conservative rating McCain holds just didn't appear out of thin air.

Illegals are my #2 issue (WOT is #1) and I still support McCain.

Did you vote for Reagan? He greated amnesty to illegals. Everyone has their warts.

[Roy Mustang]

Name those judges that the Gang of 14 shot down. I can think of two. "Many" qualified judges like Alito actually got an up or down vote BECAUSE of McCain's gang of 14.

[reliapundit]

u r 10000% correct dan.

[Charles Keating]

I for one am very proud of John McCain and look forward to working with him again in the future.

[Roy Mustang]

Ha, you guys must be really desperate if the 1980s Keating scandal is all you have left.

Hold McCain's feet to the fire on immigration and we might actually get our borders secured when he's President.

[tally]

CCAGW Lifetime Ratings:
Biden 23
Clinton 10
Dodd 15
Edwards 14
Hunter 69
Kucinich 11
McCain 88
Obama 22
Paul 82
Thompson 84

No, I'd say McCain is a Conservative.

[Simple Simon]

McCain -Feingold was the by product of Mccain being snookered by a Pew Foundation research study which is as distorted as the recent Soros funded treatises. The same thing is going on with the global warming meme. Why can not McCain just let it go instead of using it as a campaign issue when much of the data has not been proven.

[edward cropper]

Why would anyone be surprised at Bill Kristol's caving. This guy is a
wimp by any standard, weekly or otherwise. He also is an elitist.
He speaks with such condescending "authority" it is enough to make you gag.
Every time he opens his mouth to speak Ex-Cathedra on conservative issues, I can't help but think of his overconfident pronouncement that Bill Clinton would be gone in a week after the Lewinsky blow up.
That was just one of his many erroneous predictions.

[AST]

I think that people who want the party to win are willing to accept McCain.

Those who want a rational president tend not to see the difference between Hillary and McCain.

Considering how unpopular the war is, I'm not so sure McCain would be a winning candidate anyway. Why trade our principles on illegal immigration, the GW madness, and conservative judges for someone who probably thinks he's smarter than General Petraeus?

[Roy Mustang]

And those "who want a rationale president" are the same people who sees a difference between Thompson and McCain.

Thompon = McCain - 6 years of torture.

Torture tends to make you an angry asshole :)

[Gonzo]

What's really sad is that the bloggers on the right have fallen victim to the "I'm important" hubris that was previously the realm of the nut roots.

Hugh Hewitt, who usually can be relied upon to be a serious and critical voice, seems to sold out or otherwise bound his fate to Romney a LONG LONG time ago. He's the most transparently relentless cheerleader, and its damaging his brand badly in my view. All my friends who used to have a lot to say about Hugh -- who are used to reading him espousing the views only Fred Thompson and, to a lesser extent (e.g., limited to fiscal and war policy) McCain were saying, has nothing but carefully glossed sniping for these great men. Romney, Romney, Romney.

Now its the same with McCain. All these bloggers want to fashion themselves to be kingmakers. But no one's advancing the cause.

[Frank G]

wow, Roy. Too bad we get a vote as well as you. We're stoopid morons, who should listen to our betters

[Drakkir]

If McCain is the Republican nominee, I'll vote for him. I'll be holding my nose while I do it, but McCain (even with his many flaws) is better than any democrat. However, that does not change the fact that McCain is wrong on taxes, wrong on immigration, wrong on global warming, wrong on big business, and seriously wrong on campaign finance reform.

Also, I agree with Gonzo on Hugh Hewitt. I use to be a big fan of Hewitt for the reasons he cites (being a serious and critical voice and I would add his detailed and deep analysis of issue), however, Hewitt has become such a Romney cheerleader that I can no longer listen to him.

[patrick]

I would prefer Rudy, but I would be happy with McCain for two reasons. His foreign and war policy is right on the mark. And second, maybe more important is the deficit. I can not understand how conservatives are ok with deficit spending. I when along with the Bush tax cuts hoping that if we squeezed the government enough it would curb spending. Wow was I wrong. We had a Rep. President and Rep. congress and spending exploded. I just wish Republicans would go back to basics and state that we must cut government spending. We pay each year $400 billion dollars (and growing to $500) on the interest of our debt. This is killing the value of the dollar, and also responsible for our higher oil prices and inflation. By eliminating our debt we could use this to either give everyone a 20% tax cut, or pay for all of government out side of Defense and Health and Human services, and restore the dollars value (and purchasing power). Now if conservatives are going to keep attacking McCain for holding fast on demanding spending cuts in the past, I would like them to explain how deficit spending and the $400 interest payments, and resulting inflation are good for our economy.

[pat]

McCains military service is admirable and I honor him for it. His political service is another story. Nothing in his years in the Senate lead me to believe he'll be anything other than Teddy Kennedy's sock-puppet. If I supported suffocating liberal policies, I'd be voting Democrat. And if McCain's the nominee, that's the only choice we'll get.

[Math_Mage]

tally, two points. First, the number you cite is fairly generous to McCain - compare it with the ACU's rating of 82.3, for example - and far more organizations put McCain near the ACU's number than put him near CCAGW's. Furthermore, McCain's record is dragged up by his early record, which trended extremely conservative - his more recent record has gotten consistently lower ratings, and features most of the most troubling measures to conservatives. Let's compare McCain and Thompson over their most recent years in the senate (10 of McCain's 24, all of Thompson's 8):
McCain Thompson
2006: 65% 2002: 89%
2005: 80% 2001: 84%
2004: 72% 2000: 92%
2003: 80% 1999: 84%
2002: 78% 1998: 84%
2001: 68% 1997: 88%
2000: 81% 1996: 85%
1999: 77% 1995: 83%
1998: 68%
1997: 80%

McCain avg: 75%
Thompson avg: 86%
(These are slightly inaccurate because I didn't bother to count up all the votes from 10 years and so rounding error will be in effect, but w/e)

All these numbers taken from here. By the way, the ACU sets 80% as a lower limit on who they'll consider "conservative" by their ratings. Guess which Senator is the conservative.

All that said, I'd vote for McCain come November. He may try to take undeserved credit for victory, but it beats the Democratic candidates taking defeat, calling it victory, then taking credit for that. This is in contrast to, for example, Mike Huckabee, a social conservative with a liberal economic record and no credibility on foreign policy (thanks to several gaffes, which Dan has documented). Thompson's my first choice, but I'll vote for any of my top 4 (Rudy's 2nd, Romney's 3rd).

[Jeffrey Ring]

I'm not going to vote for McCain, he has betrayed the republican party too many times. I hear blah blah blah but my decision to not support McCain was made with McCain/Feingold and I'm sticking to it. In a Clinton/McCain race I will vote for Clinton. The last time I voted for a democrate was when I voted against Bush I for his "Read my lips, no new taxes" campaign promise, which he broke. I am not here to support the republican party. The republican party can count on my vote only when it is true to it's core principles. I don't think I'm alone in this and political strategists have to realize the republican base has real problems with McCain that are not going to go away with the fast talk express.

[syn]

If Moderates/Independents think their 'billion mercury bulbs in America' was a bad idea resulting in the Federal government to ban Edison's light bulb just wait until Moderate/Independent McCain starts banning crap.

My question is, what are Moderates/Independents going to offer GOP Conservatives in order to insure Hillary does not get the White House? Telling me I should shut up and nominate McCain isn't working for me any more than is putting mercury in my apartment is going to keep 144,000 automobiles off the roads for a year.

Moderate/Independents need to get their act together otherwise they will turn off a great many voters who see no difference between a 'moderate/independent' McCain and a progressive Leftist.