In honor of my son who says it is "sunshiney" when the sun is out . . . more about Florida's primary.
Personally I wasn't that surprised that McCain took it, although I know some have thought that Romney had a chance to take it as well. From what I have read about McCain's victory speech, his language hinted at the fact that he thinks he has the nomination locked up now. Of course that technically remains to be seen, but I know that idea has a lot of conservatives freaking out this morning. Callers into CSPAN this morning were saying that if he was the Republican candidate they just wouldn't vote—ditto on Fox radio (info courtesy of my husband) in addition to one Fox radio caller who described McCain as abandoning the Republican party.
Please feel free to correct me on this one (anon–are you out there??) but it seems to me if might just be the other way around. My basic understanding of what the Republican party stands for is: State's rights (the individual states making as many of the calls as possible in terms of the laws that will govern their residents—i.e. no federally mandated rules like Roe vs. Wade); fiscal responsibility (balanced budgets, limited or no deficits); and smaller government (less programs like Social Security and Welfare). Nothing too dark or nefarious there, just not my personal bag. The problem, again as I see it, is that the GOP has strayed from that—mostly in regard to the latter two. Our deficit is bigger than ever (and this tax rebatey thing ain't going to help that a bit) and government has only grown under Dubya's reign.
Now I know the religious right has issues with McCain, but once you get past them I have to admit that I don't get why the majority of the conservatives don't like the guy. Yes he has crossed party lines and co-sponsored several bills with Dems (most notably McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform). Isn't that what Dubya and all the others are always yacking about—bipartisanness? Don't we want the two parties to work together to get things done? And heck, can't we all agree that things like the way people donate money and influence our politicians via money need to be reevaluated?
This brings me to something that has been noticed quite a bit in my household of late and I am curious if others have seen this as well. The rightwing pundits, as well as politicians, seem to not just be slowly backing away from Dubya, but are full-tilt running for the exits. None of the GOP presidential candidates ever mention him, tons of sitting House and Senate members have already said they aren't running for re-election, and even the pundits have started bad-mouthing the president. What happened to the days when you were labeled "unpatriotic" for daring to even question any decision by Bush?
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The biggest problem that most conservatives have with McCain is the McCain/Kennedy bill that they tried to back door that would have given amnesty to illegal aliens. The conservative view is that someone that broke the law to get here should not be afforded the rights of a citizen when you have hundreds of thousands of people standing in line trying to get in by the rule of law. It also does not help his case that he feels instead of gaining control of spending in Washington he should dig deeper in the tax payers pocket. In my house we quit spending when we run out of money. Where else except the Govt. can you max your debt and then decide to increase it. If I max out my Visa card, I cant call Visa and say that I have decided to increase my credit line. I agree with what Romney said last night. We can not change Washington by having the insiders switch chairs. My hope is that in the general it is Romney against Obama. May the best man win.
see i think with romney we will just get more of the same that we have had with bush, in regards to his love of and coddling of big business. they have had enough breaks over the last 7 years. it is time to focus on the middle class and poor again and give us a break.
i agree that there are some big immigration issues that need to be fixed but in terms of my priorities, that ain't at the top. i am more worried about the economy and our environment.
if we would just enforce the immigration rules we have now, i believe a lot of our problems would be resolved.
i am actually a fan of mccain, as republicans go. at the base of it all i believe him to be a genuinely good and heroic human being (yes, i've read his POW memoir). i like the bipartisan efforts, as well. i just think as far as a candidate for the republicans put up that's the best dems can get. i'm actually going to go to a mccain rally saturday. i'm curious to see what he's like live. (no i will not wear anything red. nor will i wear my barack n' roll t-shirt. i don't wanna get beat up. damn, i really wish i'd gotten that t-shirt that says "republicans have more money." i would have worn that.)
p.s. great point, ginny, about republicanship's supposed 3 big goals and their failure to accomplish them these past 8 years. our deficit is humiliating. how does the fed gov't expect states to balance budgets when this is the example they supply??
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