Message to John McCain - read the election results as a vote of no-confidence in your approach to Iraq (send in more troops) and your attempts to pretend to oppose the hard right's ludicrous policies while all the time snuggling up to Jerry Falwell. Take Don Imus's advice to John Kerry and apply it to yourself - Go home and shut up.

Tom

read the election results as a vote of no-confidence in your approach to Iraq (send in more troops) and your attempts to pretend to oppose the hard right's ludicrous policies while all the time snuggling up to Jerry Falwell. Take Don Imus's advice to John Kerry and apply it to yourself - Go home and shut up.

Yes, I pretty much agree with you on this Tom.

Although, I do think we need to send in more troops, first, to get out of Iraq. We will need to have overwhelming forces to 'secure the peace' then we can lead and chaos will resume..but we will have 'temporarily fixed the broken piece'.

I do not want McCain, because I simply believe we do not need another President as old as McCain, or of the Baby Boomer male generation. I thibk his stance on issues is simply out-dated and we need to move into a new millenium in terms of America's place in the world. McCain is just not the man for the job.

Everytime I recall Stewart asking McCain was he 'going to the base' I think of coke cause that is just how out of touch McCain is..it's like he is on crack.

I almost shudder to think that some of  us will try a "swiftboat" on McCain.  Please, let us never even consider doing that.  The man is a genuine  hero, who should always be respected for how he conducted himself as a POW.

With that out of the way, McCain is not Presidential material.  No man who would prostitute himself to the neocons and to Bush as he has persistently done is qualified to be President.  Not only that, but his basic political  philosophy is far to the right of the majority of Americans.  We have just seen what a right wing ideologue can do to the country, so we don't need another lesson.

And, I don't like the idea of another senior, senior citizen as  President - Reagan has shown us the downside of that too.  I am a senior citizen myself, but at least I recognize my decreased abilities that go with aging.  Our second President of  century needs to be from a newer generation, whether a Democrat or Republican.  It would be extremely refreshing to have someone like Obama in charge.

Hoppy in Sacramento

McCain doesn't need to be "swift-boated," nor should he be. We only need to explain McCain for what he is -- a likeable guy, but still far more conservative than the mainstream. It's time to put his affability aside and to deal with his record.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

They DO swift boat their own, though. Remember McCain's 2000 run when the Republican establishment implied that McCain had been brainwashed during his PWO stint and was some sort of "Manchurian Candidate," and also suggested that he had an illegeitimate black daughter...

Heck... maybe we should hope that they DO swift boat him again. I frankly like McCain enough that I'd like to beat him on the policy merits, but if the Repubs want to tank him on baseless grounds again, I'm just mercenary enough to sit by and watch.

thosethingswesay.blogspot.com

McCain was born in 1936, 9 years before the Baby Boom started. Boomers will be voting for the next 40 years or more so it's a bit early to start writing them off.

Brownback '08! Or possibly Gingrich. Haven't decided which campaign I'd rather give money to. If only we are so lucky.

My first impression is that GOP voters in the 2008 caucases and primaries will view 2006 as the electorate having accepted conservative values by passage of anti-gay marriage proposals, low property tax, and anti-affirmative action votes in several states. The will feel it was a rejection of corruption and incompetence in the GOP Congress and GW.
These GOP primary voters will look for a more conservative candidate than McCain or Guiliani. The key element in this analysis is whether the behavior of the now more conservative GOP Congress is found acceptable and "anti-leftwing" (meaning anti-normal folks).

 McCain was born in 1936, 9 years before the Baby Boom started. Boomers will be voting for the next 40 years or more so it's a bit early to start writing them off.

 I don't think it is ever too early to write off folks who are out of touch with the mainstream. Since, McCain is even pre-BB this only emphasizes why I find him not able to lead in the 21st century. He is simply too old and I do think as Hillary said he is rather 'hanoicrazed'.  Who knows what the long-term impact of his captivity has been on his aging brain, but he certainly sounds out of touch, like he is on crack. I think BB are no more likely to vote for McCain either as they too are sick of Vietnam era mentality.

Here's what I said about McCain on my blog way back on July 25th:

Well, it’s early, but I’m willing to go out on a limb with this prediction. After all, it’s not like I’ve got any money riding on this: John McCain will be elected the next President of the United States. Here’s how it’s going to go down:

The Democrats (of which I am a card-carrying member, by the way) will make good gains in the House and Senate in 2006. Will they win a majority? Maybe a slim one in the House. But it won’t matter.

The war in Iraq and other trouble in the Middle East will make the country increasingly war-weary. Combine this with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, as well as more investigations and indictments of Republicans, and the country will be ripe for change.

Rudy Guiliani will campain well for the Republican nomination and will be the crowd favorite, but the religious right will never go for his liberal views on abortion and gay rights. Still, the Repubs will recognize that they won’t be able to elect another Bush. McCain will be the party compromise. The winning point will be his appeal to many mainstream Democrats. And with the years he spent in a ‘Nam prison camp, no one will dare criticize his war record or his ability to be a good ‘war president’. The McCain nomination will be made more palatable to the ruling Illuminati by adding a Bush-crowd insider as his running mate, much as they did with Bush, Jr., and Dick Cheney. (The implication will be that the VP will be McCain’s “handler”, though I think they might find this more challenging than it was with Cheney/Bush.) I am not willing to speculate on who this might be at this time, but it will be someone who has been on the inside for a long time, and is still relatively untainted by scandal.

But, of course, the Democrats will blow it. Hillary Clinton is the Dem’s hand-picked candidate for 2008. She has been at the forefront as the spokewoman for the party, and even this early on, it’s obvious she’s already “in”. Despite the fact that even lifelong liberal Democrats like me probably won’t vote for her. Nobody wants her in the White House but the Democratic leadership. She is unelectable, even if they were to add Barak Obama as VP. Which they won’t - not yet. The VP nominee might be Iowa’s own Governor Tom Vilsack, who is also President of the Democratic Leadership Council.

McCain will win by a handy margin in all but the bluest of blue states. And while I hate to see the Executive Branch run by the GOP for another four years, at least it should mean a more modate political climate, and that will be a welcome change.

Actually, all reports from those close to him suggest that he's NOT all that likeable. He actually has a volatile temper and a reputation as a screamer.

I am vry newbie

and cannot see your name , but you have posted

what I would be posting also.

McCain may have been a hero as a POW

We have only his account . but there have been many heros
in the Vietnam war.
I think people forget that he was one of the infamous
Keating five , with the Ssaving and Loan scandal.

I began to dislike him after his kiss-kiss with Bush
after Bush trashed him in South Carolina

and he has been one the big support of the Iraq fiasco.

I can't remember what he was saying during the
Bill Clinton impeacment , it would be interesting to
know.

And sticking the knife in Kerry's back over the joke
seemed typical of him.

You're right, and he's done it on camera. I saw him blow a fuse on C-span during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His Republican opponents won't hesitate to portray him as too unstable to lead. So, ironically, there may be no payoff for the help McCain gave Bush after Bush's campaign smeared him out of the 2000 race with rumor and innuendo.

"You're right, and he's done it on camera. I saw him blow a fuse on C-span during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. His Republican opponents won't hesitate to portray him as too unstable to lead."

Great. I knew that Hillary was on target when she called him 'hanoicrazed'.

Folks may not like her or claim her to be polarizing, but pretty much the way she characterizes issues or folks tends to be on target. Just like when she called it the vast right wing conspiracy. Long before most folks were aware of the corporate think tanks and foundations shaping policies and MSM opinions.

McCain is going to be 'Deanscreamed' out of his candidacy in 08. Can't wait. Murdoch owes the democrats that much.

Airship:

"Despite the fact that even lifelong liberal Democrats like me probably won’t vote for her. Nobody wants her in the White House but the Democratic leadership"

Could you address some issues, as a lifelong liberal Democrat, that juxtapose where you see McCain vs Hillary? I am wondering why you would vote, based on specific issues, for McCain or simply not vote for Hillary.

IMHO this election strengthened McCain quite a bit. It was anti-corruption and McCain is identified with that. It was anti-sanctimony and McCain's nickname is "straight talk." It was for "change the course" in Iraq and McCain is one of the very few Republicans who didn't simply sign on to Bush's plans.

More specifically though, this election will convince many Republicans that McCain is as right-wing as they can go and still win the election.

McCain will have little real opposition for the Republican nomination, barring some major problem like his health.

Perhaps that was paraphrasing? In reference to Hillary's remarks which were more along the lines of:

McCain ended up "looking similar to the way he did on those captive tapes from Hanoi, where he recited the names of his crewmates."

in reference to remarks McCain made that President Clinton's faileed policies were the reason North Korea had nukes.