My first sign of trouble on the McCain horizon came the day Sarah Palin was announced as the GOP VP choice. The one-two punch of Obama’s speech and McCain’s choice of an unqualified running mate was too much for my Republican parents. Granted, they are the kind of northeastern moderates who were comfortable in a party of Nelson Rockefeller, Lowell Weicker, or Thomas Kean. They are for fiscal responsibility, but against the social conservatives who want to infuse religious beliefs into governance. They were the kind of Republicans who loved the 2000 McCain, and probably voted for him in the 2008 primary. After that conversation, I sent them two Republicans for Obama bumper stickers.
With less than four weeks to the election, the McCain exodus is booming. Christopher Buckley, the son of William F. Buckley Jr., wrote a column this week with the message: Sorry, Dad, but I’m voting for Obama.
But that was-sigh-then. John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?
Then there’s former governor William Milliken (R_Michigan), who is clearly displaying backup lights in the Grand Rapids Press.
GRAND RAPIDS — He endorsed John McCain in the presidential primary, but now former Republican Gov. William Milliken is expressing doubts about his party’s nominee.
“He is not the McCain I endorsed,” said Milliken, reached at his Traverse City home Thursday. “He keeps saying, ‘Who is Barack Obama?’ I would ask the question, ‘Who is John McCain?’ because his campaign has become rather disappointing to me.
“I’m disappointed in the tenor and the personal attacks on the part of the McCain campaign, when he ought to be talking about the issues.”
The article continues:
Milliken stopped short of saying he will vote for Obama, but said he differs with McCain on the Iraq war and his choice of Palin.
“I know John McCain is 72. In my book, that’s quite young,” said Milliken, 86, Michigan’s longest-serving governor. But he added, “What if she were to become president of the United States? The idea, to me, is quite disturbing, if not appalling.
“Increasingly, the party is moving toward rigidity, and I don’t like that. I think Gerald Ford would hold generally the same view I’m holding on the direction of the Republican Party.”
And then again, there’s Jay Severin. No, he’s not on the Obama bandwagon. Far from it. Jay is just saying McCain is a loser, and it’s more fun to vote for Bob Barr. The theme seems to be that Obama is going to win anyway, so the right might as well vote for a real libertarian-conservative as opposed to whatever McCain has become.
Clearly, McCain’s actions of late have eroded his core support. For everyone who admired the old McCain, this version is too-Bushy, too inauthentic, too nasty, and not presidential enough to earn a vote. Those are verdicts that are hard to escape, and negatives that are hard to overcome.
is recounted in this CNN article.
is an interesting commentary that i’ve heard over the last couple of days.
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p>the thinking being that if mccain tacks to the center to try to pick up the last remaining undecided independents that he so desperately desperately needs, that he will so inflame the wingnut right, that they will just stay home. (and probably cuss a lot and string together a lot of sentences containing the words terrorist, communist, radical, black, arab, and hell.)
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p>so that if mccain goes whack job and motivates his base, sane independents will cause him to lose by 4-6 points. but if he appeals to the sane independents, his base will cause him to be swamped by 7-10 points.
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p>checkmate, baby!
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First, an aside: Seen recently in Arlington: a vehicle with both a Romney and Obama bumper sticker…
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p>I’m glad to see that Gov. Milliken has gone public with his retreat from McCain. He was governor for most of the time I lived in Michigan. Just wondering: Anyone else out there who lived under both Dad and Son Romney? I assume AmberPaw did.
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p>You may also recall that Milliken backed Kerry in 2004.
On 128 today, I saw a Jeep with a Martha Coakley and a McCain/Palin sticker. Huh?
it happens. luckily not to me.
A total idiot, an amiable guy who never showed an ounce of courage, GWB, beats me by pulling dishonorable dirty tricks in 2000.
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p>I stew for years.
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p>Okay, I have to debase myself, and kiss GWB ass to have a shot at the nomination. Fine.
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p>Okay, I have to debase myself, and leave Straight Talk behind as I distance myself from bipartisan effort on immigration deal.”
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p>Obama talks clean elections, but when he realized he could fundraise, he friggin’ abandoned it! Now he’s fighting me with twice the dough! Totally dishonorable.
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p>Sarah Palin. Not Joe Lieberman. Okay. At first. But then it turns out conservatives like her more than me, say the ticket should be flipped.
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p>Now I’m not totally sure Palin is loyal to me (just like Edwards turned on Kerry to start positioning himself for 2008). I gave her the chance of a lifetime and she’s now got “her own people”!
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p>I’m losing! I’m losing! 2000 is happening again! An undeserving, amiable guy in Obama is conning the American people, like GWB did!
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p>* * *
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p>I don’t think McCain’s rage is directed solely at Obama.
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p>It’s the culmination of 8 years — frustration at Obama, Palin, Bush, easily conned voters, his advisors, and (perhaps most of all) himself….giving away his self-conception of honor with no power to show for it.
Venue change announced for Gov. Palin Rally in Richmond on Monday
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p>Demand for tickets overwhelming
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p>Richmond, Virginia (October 11, 2008) ? The McCain/Palin campaign has announced a venue change for Governor Sarah Palin’s campaign stop in Richmond on Monday. Due to overwhelming demand for rally tickets, the Richmond rally has been moved from the Arthur Ashe Center to the Richmond International Raceway. In addition, the program time has been moved to 2:00 p.m. Doors will open at 11:00 a.m.
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p>”Enthusiasm continues to run high for the McCain/Palin ticket, and Virginians are excited to welcome back Senator McCain and Gov. Palin in Virginia Beach and in Richmond. If the constant flood of people visiting our headquarters and Victory offices isn’t an indication of support for this ticket, then the fact that for the second time in as many visits, we’ve had to switch rally locations to accommodate the tens of thousands that want to attend should be,” said Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia.
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p>I realize it is wishful thinking: Clinton attorneys in the Federal District Court clerk’s office on Friday in Chicago?
Hmmmmmmmmmm.
every poll taken in VA in October shows Obama ahead, by margins of 2, 8, 10, and 12 points.
Would have been hard for you bigots to really get fired up and angry in a building named for an African American. Or, maybe not.
…is a monitor, not a mirror. Easy mistake.