p45fan

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2 questions to all you out there:

1.) Is Romney's move going to be good for the Republican Party in the long term, and truly promote greater unity and conviction among conservatives?

2.) Can John McCain beat Obama or Hillary?

Let's not talk about which other Republican candidates would be better. Let's not discuss who's better, Republicans or Democrats. Let's talk about other Republican candidates only as Vice Presidents. Let's keep the discussion on just these two questions!

BackdoorJesus

my answers, in my opinion...

1) yeah probably so, they need to focus on beating the Dems, not each other.

2) I think so.

Personally I'm pretty liberal socially and pretty conservative fiscally, and I think a lot of voters are as well. Only a moron votes a straight ticket these days.

I don't think either of the Dem choices are good ones.

McCain has always been a middle-of-the-road Republican that has proven capable of working across lines with the other party(ies).

I don't see that in either of the Dem's choices, furthermore I think the Dems are a little over-confident in that they think they have a "lock" on the election and are going to use that to push for a president that is more of a "statement" (first black or first woman president) than push for a president that is a good leader.

I think many Americans including myself will be turned off by this arrogance & vote the other side no matter how shitty GWB has been for 8 years.

Also I think McCain is enough of a "change" (without the BS Dem rhetoric & lip service to the word) for most middle-of-the-road American voters.

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fmb

I don't think I could've said anything better than BDJ did.

I do believe McCain can beat any of the Dem offers; he has length of government service, prior military service, former POW, and has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to work across most any line in an attempt to get an issue discussed.

Just my two cents...

FattyJJ

Any time I hear McCain talk he has to reference everything to his POW experience. How is this any different than what Giuliani was doing with 9-11? I don’t like McCain simply because he wants to continue the pointless war in Iraq, which has no foreseeable end. He even called it the 100yr war. I've yet to see him prove anything to me that would make me want to vote for him. Granted I would rather see him in the White House than Huckabee or Romney, who are religious fanatics. But I don’t see a republican winning this election.

I agree that the Dems do think they have it in the bag because of their particular demographics, but they also don’t support the war. They also seem to have a better grasp on the economy than McCain does and these are the 2 hottest buttons right now.

no one is going to be the perfect candidate. But in my opinion, the Dems have better candidates this time.

Krasch

I'd disagree the war is pointless. Granted they didn't find WMDs, but Saddam did state during interviews while in custody that he did intend to reconstitute his WMD research programs, including nuclear. So getting him out of power was a fairly useful move in and of himself. Plus it demonstrates to other rogue states that they need to play nice with the international community and behave or they could be next.

As to the questions at hand?

1) Yes, IF the Republicans can come together from the fractured and dysfunctional bunch they are right now.

2) Most definitely. I think Obama is a bit too extreme in his leftist policies for the mainstream voters. Clinton does better there, but she's got too many skeletons in her closet, is too joined at the hip to Bill (do we REALLY want Billary 2.0?), and is too much of a dirty career politician to make it.

Granted McCain ain't perfect, but I'd say the Dems are serving up some really lame-duck candidates here, so McCain would appear to be the lesser of three evils.

p45fan

Good points all around.

But here's my take: Does anybody remember the vast criticism heaped on John McCain by his fellow Republicans for his stance on illegal immigration not one year ago? In my mind, that alone had him out of the race before it even began...and now he's a sure lock for the nomination. Sure, most Republicans will rally around him before HC or BO, but will that be enough to win a presidential election? Actually, it very well might be...

But that's when I wonder about Ron Paul. With a platform vastly different from McCain's, will he run third-party? And given McCain's unpopularity with a significant percentage of Republicans, could this potentially sabotage the election in favor of the Dems?

I don't agree with everything Ron Paul says, especially his near-fanatical isolationism, but I do like him much better than McCain. But when November comes, will I vote for the candidate I prefer, or the one that is much more likely to beat the Democrat?

Krasch

Well being a Canucklehead up here north of the 49th parallel, I'd say if you're conservative, and I assume you are, vote for the one most likely to beat the Democrat.

Why?

We have 3 main national parties up here, and we had a horribly unpopular Prime Minister in power far longer than he should have been. Not because he was even close to getting the popular vote, but because the opposing side was split between the Progressive Conservatives and the Reform Party (which was actually a 4th party at the time). Until the PCs and Reform finally merged and unified the right, the Fiberals had an unopposed lock on the elections. (Our third party is an extreme leftist New Democrat Party)

If you don't want the Dems in power, you really have to end up voting Republican whether or not it's your favourite candidate.

shiiboi

1) Romney's move was motivated by simple reality-- in the 'winner take all delegates' method most states conduct their republican primaries, he realized he didn't have the delegate votes to get the nomination, especially since he was fighting with Huckabee for the same groups.

His elimination from the race can help the party unify in time for the general election, but only if Huckabee doesn't turn up the heat and spoil the plan. It's not really clear what Huckabee wants at this point, since I doubt McCain will pick him as a VP, and he hasn't a *prayer* (pun intended) of winning the nomination. Ron Paul already has the 'didactic' role all tied up, and his continuation in the primary race is most likely just an head start to his congressional re-election campaign.

2) McCain would beat Clinton by an electoral vote landslide. The republicans hate the Clintons so much they would unify behind anyone to prevent her from winning.

The race would be tougher against Obama. Obama doesn't have a long-standing political record to attack, so he can portray himself any way that he wants. The key source to his political convictions is in his book "the Audacity of Hope," in which he portrays himself as a very moderate democrat, with a pragmatic economic view and a disdain for ideological-driven economics. Essentially he's the democratic version of McCain, with the added advantage of appeal to the youth vote and appeal to the history-making aspect of electing a non-white president. The ultra-conservatives would just sit this election out, but the record-breaking turnouts in the democratic primaries will probably translate into record-breaking democratic voter turnout in the general election.

93crawler

My answers/my opinions.......

To the first question is I guess yes, although I always thought Romney was more of a say anything politician who really didn't know where he stood most of the time on issues, but then again most politicians are this way most of the time. Unifying the conservative party is harder than ever right now, and the party has never been in more disarray. Most of the religious conservatives are thinking of either staying home, or even voting for the democratic nominee. Wack-jobs such as Rush, Ann Coulter and others have said that they would vote for Clinton over McCain!

To the second question....

I think McCain will have a hard time beating either candidate especially Obama. The Democratic party is unified, and will vote for whoever the candidate ends up to be. The Republican party however, as I said earlier is more split than ever. McCain may have some hope in getting Independents on his side, who traditionally vote Democratic. However, anyone who follows the news knows that McCain isn't the "Maverick" that everyone liked a few years ago, even I liked him back then. McCain will simply be a continuation of the Bush years, and that is scary. I don't think, however, that the Dems will win as handedly as they think they will, but I still think we will have a Democratic President in '09! Congress on the other hand, could go back to the Republicans, which would lead to nothing getting done for the next four years.


This sort of shit is ridiculous and is one of the reasons nothing gets done in politics.