Right Hates McCain

[madeline_con]

I have a long time friend who's a staunch Republican, second generation army brat. She was talking up McCain for a while, but now says she and her father intend to vote for Obama, because McCain is not well liked within the Republican party. I never see much enthusiasm from McCain supporters, they remind me of a group of kids whose new scout master is the creepy guy from down the street. I have to admit I don't know the whole history of why, but doing a little research, I came up with several observations written since February '08. They might help explain the desperate aspect of McCain's campaign ads and Obama bashing used in place of presenting ideas of his own.

Why Republicans hate McCainUS elections 2008: Opposition to John McCain is so deep that even the threat of a Hillary Clinton presidency won't budge conservatives
Friday February 1 2008

...McCain has a conservative problem that he's trying to solve. A huge number of American right-wingers despise him - Ann Coulter even said she'd campaign for Hillary Clinton if McCain wins the Republican nomination - and he's not quite sure what to do about it. If it was a simple disagreement over issues, McCain might be able to flip-flop his way out of it, and indeed, he's tried.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/01/whyrepublicanshatemccain
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February 4, 2008, 6:46 pm
Why Conservatives Don’t Like McCain
By Matthew Continetti

In my job as associate editor at The Weekly Standard, I must get half a dozen e-mails a day from conservative readers who say they will never vote for John McCain for president. Conservative talk radio hosts and bloggers raise the idea that they will not support Senator McCain if he is the Republican nominee in the fall — even if that means a Clinton Restoration. When Senator McCain speaks at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in a couple of weeks, it’s likely he’ll be booed in person, just as he was booed in absentia last year. Loudly.

Senator McCain’s opponents raise questions about his “temperament.” They question his competence. They shrink from what they see as his sanctimony and personalization of political debate. They call him old, a has-been, a Washington insider who kowtows to the media. These are not political objections. These are claims about who Senator McCain is as a person.

http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/why-conservatives-dont-like-mccain/
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Republicans' McCain problem
By Mark Mellman
Posted: 02/05/08


Simply stated, John McCain is winning the Republican nomination without the party’s base and in the face of the publicly expressed antipathy for important leaders within that base.


McCain is winning the nomination without carrying conservatives, without carrying Evangelicals and without even carrying Republican identifiers. While that will almost certainly have changed on Super Tuesday, McCain became the putative nominee of the party without convincing its base that he should carry its banner.


http://thehill.com/mark-mellman/republicans-mccain-problem-2008-02-05.html

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February 07, 2008
"Join Republicans Against McCain"
WASHINGTON -- It had to hurt.

John McCain, who appears to be the GOP's presumptive presidential nominee, was resoundingly booed before and after addressing the Conservative Political Action Convention this afternoon, despite his plea to the Republican right that they have more in common than not.

McCain was introduced first, though erroneously, by former VA guv George Allen. Allen, who endorsed McCain today after having supported Fred Thompson's bid, was supposed to introduce Sen. Tom Colburn who had the official honor of presenting McCain. So, with the double introduction, McCain was booed not once, but twice.

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Obama almost as big with GOP as McCain
Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Republicans like Sen. Barack Obama nearly as much as they like their own likely presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, according to a new Fox 5/The Washington Times/Rasmussen Reports poll.


The survey determined that a quarter of self-identified Republicans rated Mr. McCain most likable, but nearly as many — 23 percent — chose Mr. Obama as most likable. And among all adults surveyed, Mr. Obama was rated likable by more people than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mr. McCain combined, underscoring the Illinois senator's appeal to voters across the political spectrum.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/mar/04/obama-almost-as-big-with-gop-as-mccain/

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New Gang of 14 won’t back McCain
By Kristen Coulter and Bob Cusack
Posted: 06/11/08 07:48 PM

At least 14 Republican members of Congress have refused to endorse or publicly support Sen. John McCain for president, and more than a dozen others declined to answer whether they back the Arizona senator.

Many of the recalcitrant GOP members declined to detail their reasons for withholding support, but Rep. John Peterson (R-Pa.) expressed major concerns about McCain’s energy policies and Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) cited the Iraq war.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/new-gang-of-14-wont-back-mccain-2008-06-11.html
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Republican Hagel Blasts McCain Attacks on Obama
July 27, 2008 12:20 PM

Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb, this morning criticized two attacks his friend, fellow Republican, fellow Vietnam veteran and Senate Russell Building next-door neighbor Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., launched against Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, this week.

Hagel, who accompanied Obama on their official trip to Afghanistan and Iraq but broke off in Jordan, said, "the congressional delegation that you referred to ended when we parted in Jordan. At that point, it was a political trip for Senator Obama. I think it would have been inappropriate for him and certainly he would have been criticized by the McCain people and the press and probably should have been if on a political trip in Europe paid for by political funds - not the taxpayers -to go, essentially, then and be accused of using our wounded men and women as props for his campaign...

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/07/republican-hage.html

[grantcart]

1. Excellent thread

Best thread in a week


If you have friends or relatives who are Republicans you know that their is no enthusiasm for Senator McCain.

[katandmoon]

2. But they'll still hold their noses and vote for him because he's all they got

[madeline_con]

3. Like Bobby Hill said about Hank's opinion of him...

"He ain't much, but he's all I got." :rofl:

[flakey_foont]

5. I think so too

they will vote McBain to keep Obama out not out of any great love for the old coot

[bookman]

4. But...

... they don't hold on to that come election day.

In 2004 I had a relative who said he couldn't vote for Bush. He worked with homeland security and said they were just irresponible.

After the election he told me he just couldn't do it. And voted for Bush.

[phantom power]

10. Liberals fall in love. Conservatives fall in line,

[highplainsdem]

6. No. Not true. Most of your articles are from back in February. Polling has shown McCain gaining

more and more support among conservatives, uniting his base, as well as picking up support among independents.

They aren't thrilled with him, but if you think that means they'll stay home and hand the election to Obama, you're kidding yourself.

How many Democratic nominees have YOU voted for when you weren't thrilled about the candidate?

We're kidding ourselves if we ignore the polls.

Sure, some conservatives dislike or even hate McCain. There are a lot of progressives who aren't thrilled with Obama. But those progressives will vote for Obama anyway, just as those conservatives will vote for McCain.

What will be most crucial in this election:

1) Who can win the most independents -- and the latest polling shows McCain doing better than Obama there.

2) Who can unite their party better -- and the polling suggests Republicans are more united than Democrats. To change that, Obama needs HRC on the ticket. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans, that should more than offset McCain's advantage with independents. But we're in trouble if the party isn't united in November, and I don't believe it will be if we don't have a unity ticket.

[madeline_con]

7. and the polling suggests Republicans are more united than Democrats

You've got to be kidding. Can you provide link(s)?

[highplainsdem]

8. Here's a link to a topic about one recent example. See the internal numbers

for the Rasmussen poll on 7/22, the quote there:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x6527592


When leaners are included, Obama leads by six points among women while McCain has a seven point edge among men. McCain is currently supported by 85% of Republicans and holds a modest six percentage point lead among unaffiliated voters. Obama earns the vote from 77% of Democrats (see other recent demographic highlights).


My recollection is that the internal numbers consistently show Obama getting a lower percentage of Democrats than McCain gets of Republicans, though the percentage varies. Obama's retained a slight lead simply because there are so many more Democrats than Republicans. But even with polls weighted to take that into account, the lack of unity among Democrats, and McCain's appeal to independents, makes this a close race.

Too close for us to get caught up in dreams of our opponents not being united, or being so dazzled by Obama (especially compared to McCain) that they'll cross party lines in large numbers even when his stand on the issues is so different from theirs. It isn't going to happen. This was always going to be a close race, considering how few liberals there are in this country compared to the number of moderates and conservatives. We need every edge we can get. Which is why I keep reminding people the polls show that having HRC as his running mate will help Obama. I do not want to see what will happen if we go into the GE without a united party.

Obama and his supporters need to accept the fact that the primary race lasted as long as it did, and Hillary Clinton did as well as she did, because that many Democrats do NOT think he would be the better nominee or the better president. The party was divided at the end of the primaries, and it isn't united yet. We need an alliance of our two strongest politicians. And then we'll see a truly signifcant lead in the polls, one that I hope will be theft-proof.

[madeline_con]

9. Thanx!

[Kablooie]

11. The wrong hate McCain too.