Feb 13 2008
Are We Seeing ‘Reagan Democrats’ Becoming ‘McCain Democrats’?
Are we seeing Reagan Democrats becoming McCain Democrats?:
Gallup: McCain wins more Democrats than Obama wins Republicans?
And if this is happening, and McCain gets conservative Dems and Independents is this a bad thing? Maybe to the ‘conservatives in exile’, but for the country I would think it would be enormously good news.
That would certainly be a good thing for the country. However, I am not surprised that a conservative Dem might come the the Republicans with a McCain running. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for Republicans) Their 2 candidates are so far left there’s little for the conservative Dem to grasp on to.
Again, if you support the war effort and the troops whether you are a Dem or Republican it leaves you with only McCain. I wonder what the Paulbots will do?
McCain is going to turn his back to conservatives. I think he is going to surround himself with liberals and moderates and try to win more of the dems and independents under the assumption conservatives will vote for him over Hillary and Obama anyway.
Klimt,
If he does he will be in deep trouble. If the turn-out models have been accurate and the turnout on Election day is still as high for Dems as it is now then he will be going after the wrong groups of voters with the Dems. The shear numbers will work in the Dems favor. He still holds the only bright spot for Dems who support the war effort and our troops. He’ll have those votes regardless as the Dems offer no alternative but defeat. He needs the Moderates, Independents and Conservatives to win and he needs to make sure they don’t stay home.
If as the primary plays out Hill and Bill burn a lot of bridges with either Blacks or Hispanics or both, they become potential cross overs to Mc.
Also no matter which goes to the general their is a potential for backlash cross over from whoever was backing the losers on the left.
I think I understand what hard core conservatives, as exemplified by the radio talkers are going through.
1) Denial
2) Anger
3) Bargaining
4) Grief
5) Acceptance
These are the famous stages of coping with death, and nothing dies harder than people’s dreams of the future. In this case, it’s the dream that some new right wing standard bearer would emerge to carry us all into a glorious new conservative future.
Denial – “don’t worry, McCain will never be the nominee.” Ended for good when Romney dropped out.
Anger – See Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, etc – a lot of conservatives are still stuck here. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO ME??? Don’t worry, it doesn’t last.
Bargaining – well, if McCain picks a conservative enough running mate I might vote for him. But bargains are just a psychological stage that people have to get through in order to cope, kind of like hoping for a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down.
Grief – Oh god! he’s not conservative enough! The country is doomed, doomed I tell you! DOOMED!!!
Acceptance – Alright, he’s not perfect. Nothing in this country is. He’s still better than Obama the Third World Wonder.
We’ve got 8 months to get to stage 5, I’m sure just about everyone will make it out of sackcloth and ashes by then.
“conservative Democrat” ?
Is there such a thing?
McCain is pro-life, a hawk on the War and has pledged to eliminate the AMT and cut spending. All this, and still getting Dem support!
Suppose he “reaches out” to Dems? We need to distinguish between matters of substance and matters of appearance. We shouldn’t get exercised about the latter. And “appearance” is what the media and the Left are all about.
The conservative commenter “guild” is just trying to “inoculate” him, before supporting him. And Coulter uses satire. IMHO
I think the Democratic candidates have been “breathing their own exhaust” for a while. I don’t believe that the majority of America shares their “lose at all costs” position on Iraq. That one single issue is what is going to cause the greatest separation. There are a lot of Democrats with sons and daughters and nieces and nephews coming back from Iraq and telling the real story.
The news on the TV might not be covering it, but the news around the family Easter dinner table sure will be.
The Democrat’s desire to create another Viet Nam is not shared by a great number of American families and those whose family members have been over there and made a difference and who say that things are getting better are not going to want to see the work of their sons and daughters flushed down the drain.
The Democrat candidates are seriously out of touch with American on that one issue and it is a major one.
CP,
Agree!
If congressional Dems are behind Barak and believe in what he is offering the American people, compromising with McCain would doom every domestic program that they hold dear.
I am not surprised at this. The Congressman for this region is a Democrat, Brad Ellsworth. He is not as liberal as either one of these candidates. A lot of the Democrats who voted for him would feel more comfortable voting for McCain than Obama.
Merlin of course you remember ‘Vapor Ware’, and then there is Obama. Even less substance…
Well, so much for enforcement of the law in Texas. It looks like amnesty on this one:
I personally wanted to see all those women hauled off to prison because, well, you know … what is the point of having a law ….
SHAMNESTY!!!!
Let’s change the subject for a minute. I have a question. Is it possible that bald headed Russian Spy who was poisoned in England was right about Putin being responsible for Terrorists attacks in Russia? It seems highly unlikely that Putin would be selling so much war equipment to and assisting Iran, Syria, etc. in their efforst to build nuclear weapons if he thought they would be used against his country? He obviouisly does not think the Islamic extremists are a threat or he would not be supplying those who supply and finance the individual terrorists with the means to ply their trade. Putin blamed those terrorist attacks on Chechyans (sic) but we know Islamic Terrorists from all over the world go where the action is.
Momdear1:
The logic of Putin supplying Iran is to keep the United States bogged down in the Middle East so he can re-expand. Iran and Russia, however, have a nasty history… so Russia will always keep things delayed and never give Iran everything she needs to be successful. If the United States were to allow Russia to re-exand, and in fact abandon our allies, Russia would stay out of the Middle East and remove much of the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Think of it this way, Momdear1 … Putin sells military hardware and nuclear reactors and all sorts of stuff to Iran and Syria. The US and Israel now must SPEND money to counter it. So the transaction has enriched Russia while at the same time costing us. A win/win proposition from their standpoint.
Klimt, how do you suggest that the US allow Russia to “re-expand”? March on Ukraine and destroy their democracy? Re-invade Poland? What exactly are we doing to stop their expansion in any way?
Russia is riding high on oil prices and wants to re-exert it’s influence, but the old czarist dream of an asian empire, fulfilled by Stalin, is dead and is never coming back. The pieces of that particular puzzle will never fit together again. And as far as asian influence goes, Russia’s most serious long term rival isn’t the US – it’s China. We’re an easier target to antagonize, since even Putin doesn’t dare mess with someone who could hand him his head on a platter if they wanted to.
Just wait till China decides their overcrowded population needs the abundant resources of nearly vacant Siberia. That day’s coming, and probably not that many years off.
WWS:
You’re right. Re-expansion is too big of a word. Re-exerting it’s influence is much better. That influence is enough to destabilize governments and even control them. But I wouldn’t underestimate Russia military, they could swallow up Georgia and Azerbaijan if we let them.
Here are a few recent news articles that I’ve read that show just how aggressive Russia is for those that don’t know:
Putin threatens Ukraine
Russian Bomber
Putin warns of new worldwide arms race
Russia launches new generation nuclear submarine
Russia Flaunts Nuclear Card
here is a fix on that first broken link and another:
Putin Threatens Ukraine
Russian flyover
I’m glad that McCain draws a good amount of support from Independents and Democrats; but; no, I don’t think it has anything to do with Reagan Dems becoming McCain Dems.
It probably has more to do with Dems who have been supportive of Iraq, military, etc. They may very well also be the Dems who would prefer to vote for a “Blue Dog Dem” over a Republican if they had a choice. Hillary/Obama may seem a bit extreme to them.
What does trouble me, from that same article, is that both Republicans and Americans in general, are not enthusiastic about McCain. He is pretty broadly considered a “so-so candidate”.
68% Americans think McCain is not much different or worse than past candidates
64% Republicans think McCain is not much different or worse than past candidates
65% Independents think McCain is not much different or worse than past candidates
Perhaps the conservative base was ‘on to something’ about McCain, afterall. Hillary nor Obama come anywhere close to those numbers.
I don’t think McCain is a strong candidate, either. And, I certainly don’t think he is the type of candidate that represents the future of the Republican party. But, he is 100 times better than Hillary or Obama. I think it clear from this poll that the lack of enthusiasm for McCain goes far beyond the ‘conservative base’. Conservatives may be the lesser of his problem.
McCain has an uphill battle to expose Obama—and shine a ‘beam of truth’ to replace the ‘beam of light’ that fools so many.
I hope he can.