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McCain more conservative than his image | ||
2008-04-14 | ||
The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats. But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative. The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues that matter to his party's social conservatives. The four-term Arizona senator, a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the earlier handling of the war but has been a crucial ally in President Bush's effort to increase and maintain U.S. forces in Iraq. Besides the war, McCain agrees broadly with Bush and other conservatives on: _Abortion. McCain promises to appoint judges who, in the mold of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. McCain's record is not spotless on abortion: He said once, in 1999, that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. But that amounted to a blip in an otherwise unbroken record of opposing abortion rights for women. "I am pro-life and an advocate for the rights of man everywhere in the world," McCain told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "Because to be denied liberty is an offense to nature and nature's Creator." His conservatism could be a problem for McCain — particularly if this November's contest is as close as recent presidential elections, which were decided by independent-minded voters in the center of the political spectrum.
In a national Pew survey earlier this year, voters placed McCain in the middle, where they placed themselves, when asked to judge the ideology of Bush and the presidential candidates. They placed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama far to the left. And voters who back Clinton and Obama are open to McCain. Nearly a third of Clinton supporters said they would back McCain if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, and more than a quarter of Obama supporters said they would back McCain over Clinton, according to Associated Press-Ipsos polling released Thursday. Democrats are trying to change the perception of McCain. The Democratic National Committee insists that McCain's election would amount to a third term for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "All he offers is four more years of the failed Bush economy, an endless war in Iraq and shameless hypocrisy on ethics reform," DNC Chairman Howard Dean said last month. Whatever the general image of McCain, the Christian right is deeply suspicious of him despite his many conservative positions. McCain has clashed with its leaders. He called televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" and has often worked against them. He pushed to limit the influence of money in politics through campaign finance reforms that, critics say, stomp on the constitutional right to free speech. He backs a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which many of his party's most conservative members oppose. And he splits from the right over research which extracts stem cells from human embryos in an effort to develop treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and a range of other diseases. Conservatives object because human embryos are destroyed; McCain supports the research. Polls indicate McCain has the same level of GOP support as Bush had at this point in 2000. But some insist he still isn't reaching out to rank-and-file conservatives who are needed to lick envelopes, make phone calls and knock on doors in states where the election is likely to be close.
But one broader issue could figure prominently in November — the tumbling economy and consequent job losses, home foreclosures and soaring energy prices. Those could prove troublesome for McCain, and not only because he acknowledges he's no economic expert. "We are surely in a time of deep economic insecurity for a majority of the American people," said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. "That has always led to two things: somewhat higher turnout, and votes against the party in power." "We are also in a deeply unpopular war," Gans said. "Where there are these differences, and strong differences, they could be in the Democrats' direction." | ||
Posted by:gorb |
#7 In a career that straddles both politics and journalism, Gans is also well known for leading the effort against the re-election of President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and serving as staff director of the Presidential campaign of Senator Eugene J. McCarthy the following year. He is former member of the Democratic National Policy Council and its Foreign Policy Subcommittee. He has served as a consultant to the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the National Committee for an Effective Congress, and has managed a number of political campaigns. Yep. Just a disinterested scholar. |
Posted by: Pappy 2008-04-14 20:50 |
#6 So we need to get the Senate or House back, OS. |
Posted by: Steve White 2008-04-14 16:28 |
#5 Problem is there will be no gridlock on Amnesty and Global Warming between McCain and a Dem congress |
Posted by: OldSpook 2008-04-14 14:56 |
#4 By far the most important reason to support McCain is GRIDLOCK. More important now than ever. Much better for Congress & President to expend their energies blaming each other for what is not getting done than on working together and doing things, since most of what they would be doing would be bad. |
Posted by: Menhadden Snogum6713 2008-04-14 09:13 |
#3 Well, DG its according the Yahoo News. You know yahoo - A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift. Swift describes the Yahoos as vile and savage creatures, filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver, who finds the calm and rational society of the Houyhnhnms far preferable. The Yahoos are primitive creatures obsessed with "pretty stones" they find by digging in mud, thus representing the distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism Swift encountered in Britain." |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-04-14 08:46 |
#2 “Besides the war, McCain agrees broadly with Bush and other conservatives on:” Huh...so GW Bush is a Conservative? Who knew? |
Posted by: DepotGuy 2008-04-14 08:32 |
#1 McCain, the best of three disfunctional elite liberals who is way over his head and groping for air, funding, and the right wing. More groping, studdering, and stumbling to come as we get closer to E-day. I call it E-day for want of a better word. It's the day when America by her own hand accelerates her abrogation. |
Posted by: wxjames 2008-04-14 07:58 |