Why McCain Has a Chance in Spite of McCain-Feingold

Deal Hudson

I think Marc is right that McCain may have a chance to win the nomination in spite of McCain-Feingold.

Marjorie put two bottles of single-malt scotch on the line against McCain's chances.

Why does McCain have a chance? It's simple: Religious conservatives who don't want to see Giuliani get the nomination are looking for a pro-life candidate who can match Rudy's "I-can-beat-Hillary" reputation.  McCain looks to be that guy.

National polls show McCain to be the only candidate, other than Giuliani, who can beat Hillary, if the vote were held today.

However I do agree with Marjorie that McCain's biggest hurdle, if he emerges as the front-runner, will be his immigration policy.  Like McCain, I'm off the grassroots reservation on this issue as well, so I am sympathetic with him.

In spite of running the best campaign, Romney's support is proving thin, especially in the face of the Evangelical challenger, Huckabee.  But Huckabee's appeal will prove short-lived not only because of his liberal economic policy but also because his "I want to be the nation's pastor" attitude will start to remind people of Jimmy Carter.

Thompson looked better on the debate last night but already shows signs of throwing his support to McCain.  Add Thompson to Brownback, who has already endorsed McCain, and you get some critical mass among social conservatives.

Giuliani's record in New York City is starting to get serious scrutiny, and more is on the way, so I am told.  He is by far the best on the debate circuit -- he's so articulate and confident it makes you wish he was a social conservative. 

But my jaw dropped last night when he included in his list of accomplishments that he had "lowered the number of abortions and raised the number of adoptions."  That was indeed a Romneyesque moment.

Remember that some social conservatives have endorsed Giuliani in spite of serious moral concerns because they believe he can "beat Hillary."

Why wouldn't those same people be willing to overlook some of McCain's "weaknesses" for the same reason?

Comments

[Carol McKinley]

Most of us realize that we will have to compromise and I think you are right about overlooking McCain's policies on immigration and McCain-Feingold. I can't believe I'm saying this...but I walked away with McCain on the top of my list with Huckabee running a close second.

If I could put my finger on the pulse of the one thing that grassroots has zero tolerance for --it would zeal for overthrowing the Republican good old boy network - i.e., money and power changing hands feeding appealing sound bytes to candidates who turn out:

a)insincere - not the champions of our causes as we were led to believe.

b)clueless about the economic, academic and moral compass in which we no longer wish to be imprisoned

Huckabee's liberal social policies are closer to the democratic agenda many of us were attracted to before the party rebelled against the sanctity of life and God. After watching him in this last debate, I wondered if he could pull in many of the democrats who are sick and tired of the cufflink and pearls crowd, exchanging favors while the rest of us suffer-- economically stretching our dollar to 25 cents, giving us a crappy public education system while they send their own children to private schools to avoid it and doing absolutely nothing in the face of the moral decay we are drowning in at the local and national levels.

Would there be such a rebellion about defending our sovereignty against jihadists on their turf if the children in our own country had a solid system of education? I doubt it.

Huckabee comes across as genuine,passionate for the poor, as rejecting the old systemic political cancer of money and power that has put our country on the brink of disaster. I know many fine people in the Club for Growth, but most, if not all of us in the grassroots were attune to his Club for Greed reference.

The true Romney was evident in his responses to the issues of waterboarding, gays in the military,the Bible (his willingness as a Mormon Bishop to usurp the authority of his religion's book of revelation)and he is the monument of the good old boy network. Iowa is a perfect example of what happens when mainstreamers start looking beyond the commercials?