McCain takes a calculated risk with Conservative Political Action Conference
Addresses group tomorrow
Jed Babbin writing for Human Events says: According to my source, McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly. This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
Very few of the 2008 CPAC crowd, expected to number 6,000 activists, will see McCain as the successor to Reagan and Reagan’s principles. McCain has sacrificed conservatives’ fundamental beliefs throughout his Senate career. If McCain uses this introduction, the boos will be very loud. McCain faces a real quandary. If he fails at CPAC—and doesn’t win the CPAC straw poll (he finished dead last in 2007) — the word will be out that the conservatives are off his team this year. The results of the poll will be announced at about 2 pm Saturday. McCain can do a few things at CPAC that could help.
First, he could throw away the Reagan video introduction. If he uses it at CPAC—a house that Reagan built — he could alienate a large portion of the conservatives he needs.
Second, he could say a lot more than he has so far on three key issues: Supreme Court appointments, the war and illegal immigration.
Read Babbin’s excellent assessment here.
February 6, 2008 at 6:16 pm
McCain can’t fool this group he has dissed in the past. They are on to him and so are the rest of us.
February 6, 2008 at 8:51 pm
On the U.S. Supreme Court, McCain has already made his views about Justice Alito known.
On illegal immigration, one would have to be living under a rock not to know that McCain wants to give away the country
His words are more carefully couched now, but they end up the same. He has said, “THEY (that’s you and me–the citizens of this great nation) have said THEY want the borde secured FIRST.” First? Before he opens the floodgates with his amnesty scheme?
Then he can say, “Well, THEY knew what THEY were getting when THEY voted for me.”
I won’t be in that mix, since I would never vote for him.
February 6, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Those CPAC attendees are savvy and not easily fooled. They remember McCain all too well. I can’t imagine that they’ll be conned by his “I’m a conservative” flim-flam.
February 6, 2008 at 9:38 pm
from dKos
“McCain has garnered more than 37% of the vote in only 8 of the 29 states. If you take out Arizona—where he only managed to get 47%, compared to the home-state totals of 64% for Obama, 60% for Huckabee, 57% for Clinton (plus 69% in AR) and 51% for Romney—the only place where McCain has gotten more than 37% of the vote are states that have voted Democratic in presidential elections going back at least to 1992—CA, CT, DE, IL, MA, NJ and NY.”…
“John McCain had a big day, winning (according to RCC’s calculations) 511 of those delegates. But look where he won them. If we count AR, CO, MO and WV as swing states, there were 380 delegates available in the Democratic states, 345 in the Republican states, and 136 in the swing states. Because of his narrow win in MO, McCain ended up with 43% of the delegates from swing states. Huckabee got 40%, and Romney the remaining 17%. In the Republican states, they split very evenly. McCain and Huckabee each took 37% of the delegates from Republican states, with Romney not far behind with 26%.
Where McCain racked up his huge delegate lead was in the Democratic states. 326 of the 380 delegates from solid Democratic states–86%–went to McCain. Romney snagged the remaining 14%.”
February 7, 2008 at 10:01 am
He will not do well with this crowd. He holds them in little regard and is merely cozying up to them now, because he realizes how much he needs conservatives to win. These are the same conservatives he has treated despicably for too many years. Now he comes, hat in hand, begging for the support he so desperately needs. Many Republicans would rather undergo a proctological exam than cast a ballot for McCain. Count me among them.
February 7, 2008 at 10:32 am
Although I am a committed Republican, I am NOT committed to McCain. I will suffer through four years of a Democrat at the helm, rather than help elect a supposed Republican who acts exactly like a Dem.
After four years of that treachery, I have faith the U.S. citizens will see the error of their ways and elect a real Republican. How can we be expected to support someone like McCain when he is no different than Hillary or Obama? He is committed to open borders and is not with us on the significant issues of our time. I won’t vote for someone I don’t trust and I certainly don’t trust him. I don’t think the CPAC members trust him either.