In Big Speech Today, McCain Will Try To Repair Breach With Conservatives
Today's a big day for John McCain — he's giving his speech to the CPAC conference, where he will do his best to assuage the doubts of the many conservative activists in attendance. During the speech, expect him to stress how he got involved in politics as a "foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution," and to attack the right-wing bona-fides of a certain former Massachusetts governor who used to not be so conservative.
In that spirit, here's McCain's new ad running in the Potomac Primary area, attacking Mitt Romney for his past political life as an anti-Reagan liberal:
"If we can't trust trust Mitt Romney on Ronald Reagan," the announcer asks, "how can we trust him to lead America?"
McCain is also running some of his other standard ads, such as the "True Conservative" spot, which name-drops Reagan profusely.
I hope he goes on a highly publicized whirl wind tour to kiss up to the base again. He can start at liberty u and then pat robertson and then a big gala at haliburton. I'm sure that would really help him win the primary and help the dems in november.
February 7, 2008 11:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
IS it just me or does anyone have a problem with McCain using the word foot soldier in the Reagan revolution? Beside the funny part that might imply some Larry Craig type footsy with the former president, I think calling Reagan's ascension to power as revolution is hype an plays the theme that we are a warrior nation. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world thinks we are a war-mongering nation when a presidential candidate calls himself a soldier for a revolution? I know that I a being a bit melodramatic but I think we as American's can identify with more distinction than just a military community. I am tired of the Republican's who beat their chest and say I am tough, is that all the substance that they have, don't they realize the economy is in shambles, that our foreign policy has lowered our standing in the world, that our trade policies have been bad for the American worker but good for the executives, also that our trade policies do not have "teeth" to enforce the same labor practices that are the standard of American business, don't they realize that their are starving Americans, Americans that need preventative health insurance so that they are not a burden on the system! No they say we need more missiles, more guns, more jails, more patriots like them, more corporate loopholes, less freedom, and everyone just hates us because we are Americans. What a load of shit!
February 7, 2008 12:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
CNN is now reporting Romney is suspending. Barring a sudden move of conservatives to Huckabee, McCain has it.
February 7, 2008 12:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
That background image of Reagan is so Bolschevik-looking.
February 7, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Whoah, quick strategy change called for. Need to attack right-wing bona-fides of a certain former Arkansas governor who has always been conservative.
February 7, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I can't help thinking that all this hatin' on McCain from right-wing talking heads is just a marketing strategy. Whichever Democrat runs against McCain will, of course, be trying to paint McCain (rightly) as being fruit from the same evil tree as Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, etc.
Limbaugh, Coulter, and the rest are "attacking" McCain now (when it doesn't really make a difference) so that those efforts will be less successful, if not impossible, in the mainstream press during the Fall. As always, the right-wing noise machine's message is uniform in content and relentlessly repeated: "McCain is NOT one of us!", "I'd rather vote for Hillary!", etc. Sorry, I don't buy it.
There is absolutely no question that McCain will be the conservatives' choice in the Fall. I'm sure sometime around September, Limbaugh and the rest will suddenly "come around" and say something like "You know, my friends, it PAINS me to say this, but I think you just have to vote for McCain, given that the alternative is a crazy, communist, liberal, Islamo-phile surrender-monkey."
All the bluster right now is simply intended to bolster this phony "maverick" meme, and make McCain seem like a less-Republican Republican. Come on, when was the last time any of these people took a stand based on principal, rather than on marching orders from the Republican Party? Why would they start now?
Liberals should be combating this by pointing out, just as relentlessly, how conservative McCain really is, and how frequently he was a willing enabler of nut-bag policies under Bush. If we just wallow around in schadenfreude over how the GOP just HATES their own guy, we'll be falling for yet another clever Republican strategy, and wondering how they manage to screw us every time.
February 7, 2008 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink