It’s been awhile since we’ve had a NewsBusted Conservative Comedy video. In this one
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRQe4nn04E8[/youtube]
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) smiles during a campaign rally in St. Clairsville, Ohio February 27, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
When seeing this picture at first glance, did you think about John Ashcroft’s trouble with backgrounds? Just too funny.
Sure looks like it to me. And, let me catch my breath that this comes from the Washington Post. The WaPo lists 5 each from Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton.
For example . . .
Special interests In January, the Obama campaign described union contributions to the campaigns of Clinton and John Edwards as “special interest” money. Obama changed his tune as he began gathering his own union endorsements. He now refers respectfully to unions as the representatives of “working people” and says he is “thrilled” by their support.
and
NAFTA In a January 2004 news conference, Clinton said she thought that “on balance [NAFTA] has been good for New York and good for America.” She now says she has “long been a critic of the shortcomings of NAFTA” and advocates a “time out” from similar trade agreements.
Interesting that the title of the piece is ‘Top Obama Flip-Flops’ when there are five each on Obama and Clinton. So who ever accused the WaPo of being fair and balanced anyway?
related links: Top Obama Flip-Flops | Democrats Equally Adept at Shifting Positions
A level of media attention is being focused on commentators on the political Right like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (How’s that for a ticket?), assigning blame to them for, allegedly, hurting the candidacy of John McCain. That, and the notion that people like Rush are driven to criticize McCain because McCain doesn’t tow his line. Both just a bit preposterous.
The issue isn’t that McCain doesn’t run in lock-step with conservatives. The issue with Rush and Ann, including myself, is that McCain and others (including the President) continue to say McCain is a conservative when, on the whole, he is not. It is dishonest to label him a conservative while appealing for conservatives’ votes.
“Right-wing pundits hurting McCain”
I don’t see it as the pundits are hurting McCain. What is happening here is the pundits are exposing McCain’s record. In that vein, I see it as McCain hurting himself. Hurting himself in two ways. First by his stance on the following: Gitmo, rights for enemy combatants, gang of fourteen, McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, voted against tax cuts before he would (presumably) vote for their extension, for starters. And second, by telling us and anyone who would listen, that he is a conservative.
Making the pundits to be the reason, instead of McCain himself, for hurting McCain is to miss or ignore all of the above.
He’d still be better for this country than either of the democrat wannabes. But it is his ‘reaching out,’ to further liberal principles, that is causing McCain’s troubles. Continue reading McCain’s Troubles, Are McCain’s Troubles
It ended up not happening, but in 2001, a few weeks before Jumping Jim Jeffords killed the republican majority by changing his party affiliation to Independent, Sen. John McCain considered switching parties when John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist, made overtures to key democrats.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.
In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.
Sen. McCain was testing the waters in 2001, and, by his voting and legislative record, has been building that liberal ‘base’ ever since.
If you are looking for a conservative to lead the party, this is just another thing to consider, and ignored by the mainstream media, on how conservative Senator McCain really is. Switching political party does not sound like something a ‘conservative’ would even entertain.
related link: Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP
For weeks now, Sen. John McCain is taking every opportunity to tell anyone who will listen how he
is a political conservative. His campaign will say it. If you have to tell someone that you are conservative then you are not a conservative.
After getting the endorsement of Gov. Schwarzenegger, CNN fawns over the moderate direction of the Republican party, citing Giuliani and Schwarzenegger as evidence that McCain is attracting moderates like them.
“McCain’s gains have come primarily among liberal and moderate Republicans as well as GOP voters under the age of 50,” Holland said. “Among liberals and moderates, McCain’s support doubled from 25 percent to 50 percent in the last two weeks. McCain also gained 29 points among GOP voters under 50 years old.”
We are witness to the intentional re-branding of the republican party. Where liberal and moderate republicans are called conservative, and conservatives are the ‘far right’ and ‘out of the mainstream.’ Just a small group to be marginalized.
‘There are people out there that talk about reaching across the aisle, but he has shown the action, over and over again,’ Schwarzenegger said.
McCain does more than reach across the aisle Governor. John McCain sits in their seat on major issues most dear to conservatives. Is that what conservatives do? Do conservatives just adopt liberal ideals in order to get along or are they guided by principles much larger than any political party?
His fellow Arizonans don’t think he is conservative.
“We do not consider him a conservative at all,” says Rob Haney, a Republican Party chairman in McCain’s home district. The candidate’s bus, the Straight Talk Express, should be renamed, Haney says: “We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He’ll lie about anything.”
related link: Recent John McCain History
Florida is just chock full of surprises. After yesterday’s primary election, it looks like ‘the GOP primary electorate isn’t very conservative.’ Looks are deceiving. Dick Morris’s take on it is about right . . .
The GOP primary electorate isn’t very conservative.
Asked how they’d characterize their own ideology, only 27 percent of Florida GOP voters said they were “very conservative.” They backed Mitt Romney by 44 percent to 20 percent. Another 34 percent said they were “somewhat conservative,” and they broke even between Romney and McCain 33-32. A further 38 percent said they were “moderate” or “liberal” – and they backed McCain by 44-22. So it is not so much that McCain converted conservatives, but that Romney ran out of them – there weren’t enough of them to give him the Florida delegation.
Like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, in politics, the company you keep says something about you. Take Sen. John McCain on immigration, for example. He says he has seen the light now that his strong advocacy for amnesty (or whatever descriptor you wish to apply), in the form of the President’s amnesty bill, or as they call it, the comprehensive immigration reform bill, has failed. But has he really?
Sen. McCain has recently dropped all kinds of names as potential advisers, except where it comes to illegal immigration issues. On that subject, the man is . . .
Dr. Juan Hernandez, McCain Hispanic outreach director: “We must not only have a free flow of goods and services, but also start working for a free flow of people.”
A credentialed member of a Mexican Cabinet position, heading the presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad. But wait, there’s more!
A hybrid of two cultures, he is the first Mexican American to hold a Mexican Cabinet position, heading the presidential Office for Mexicans Abroad. The office, newly created by President Vicente Fox, seems tailor-made for Hernández, a trusted aide handpicked by the president to protect the rights of Mexican émigrés and their families, and, perhaps just as importantly, to reach out to the millions of Americans of Mexican ancestry.
As Florida’s primary voting approaches, is it any wonder why Sen. McCain is not mentioning illegal immigration (the war, no, the economy, the war, the economy) and who his trusted advisers are on that subject? Between now and Tuesday the 29th, if not at all, will someone ask the senator if he shares Hernandez’s views of “Mexico First/” “Just A Region”/”Free Flow of People” or not?
h/t Michelle Malkin | Juan Hernandez website
UPDATE: couple hours later. Turns out, McCain was asked a little while ago, but not from a member of the media. Hear the exchange and see the transcript on Hot Air. Feel any better about him now? I don’t.
Have you noticed how the media seems to have selected a Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain? It is also apparent that you should not know the John McCain of last year, and the year before that, and the year before that. If the media thought that it was important, they would have told you by now. This man is no conservative. And if he is the media’s choice, then that should be a clue that he is not where the republican party needs to be going.
Aside from the several McCain positions that Ann Coulter illuminates below, I can add two more things he did, and does, to her list of why I don’t want the Senator to be President. It has nothing to do with his position on the war on terror and defense, except for his position on waterboarding, Club Gitmo, and constitutional protections for the Club Gitmo enemy combatants.
One is his little coup in the Senate known as the gang of fourteen. Designed to intervene in judicial appointments, and prevent the ‘nuclear option’ concerning them. Effectively obstructing the Executive branch in judicial appointments and nominations. Politically speaking, McCain is left of Arlen Specter for crying out loud. And the other thing that turns me off about McCain is that he hardly knows the Reagan he speaks of if he is willing to subjugate conservative principles to the furtherance of liberal principles in order to ‘enlarge’ the party just to get votes. Otherwise known as the end of the republican party as we know it. And you know the media is down with that.
Ann Coulter writes . . .
John McCain is Bob Dole minus the charm, conservatism and youth. Like McCain, pollsters assured us that Dole was the most “electable” Republican. Unlike McCain, Dole didn’t lie all the time while claiming to engage in Straight Talk.
Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.
I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska.
I’m beginning to see why he is the media’s choice. It’s not by accident that Sen. John McCain is the democrat’s favorite republican.
link: Ann Coulter
Topics in this episode: Mike Bloomberg entering the presidential race, insane allegations about Halliburton assassinating Barack Obama, and Hannah Montana’s body double.[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzkzE7hJK6Q[/youtube]