Democrats Love McCain

January 26, 2008 by Joecephus

The Liberal love fest with John McCain is by no means a recent phenomena. The left has long been enamored with the Arizona Senator, whom they themselves view as being in the wrong political party.

Here is an excerpt from an April 17, 2002 article by Timothy Noah at Slate. I bolded certain parts for emphasis:

There are three basic reasons why McCain should run for president as a Democrat. The first is that the current Democratic field is looking pretty dismal. Chatterbox actually fell asleep last week watching C-SPAN while the front-runner, Al Gore, rousted Florida Democrats with his speech denouncing the “right-wing side-wind.” Gore would probably make a fine president, but in 2000 he proved himself to be a terrible candidate under circumstances that could not have been, and never again will be, more favorable. It would be foolish to give him a second chance. Unfortunately, as Green points out, the two main alternatives, Sens. John Edwards and John Kerry, don’t seem particularly plausible, either.

The second reason why McCain should run as a Democrat is that McCain is no longer in any meaningful sense a Republican, even a maverick Republican. He was barely one in 2000 when he ran for president, and since then, he’s moved steadily leftward. Chait notes that since Bush came into office, McCain has worked with Democrats to pass campaign-finance reform and to make airport security a function of the federal government. He’s also worked with Democrats on a patients’ bill of rights, on greater access to generic drugs, and on expanding AmeriCorps. (This last position is unpopular with congressional Republicans, though Bush has signed on to the general idea.) Green notes that McCain’s support for raising automobile fuel-efficiency standards actually puts McCain to the left of Gore, who helped Bill Clinton renege on his campaign promise to boost fuel efficiency. On the most significant vote of the Bush administration—the tax cut—McCain positioned himself to the left of Republican-turned-Independent Jim Jeffords. Jeffords voted for the tax cut; McCain voted against it. Thankfully, McCain has also dropped his opposition to taxing e-commerce, a lurch toward fiscal irresponsibility for which he received altogether too little grief during the 2000 campaign.

At this point, it’s a struggle to think of any issues where McCain still lines up with Republicans. There’s abortion, which McCain opposes. At this point, though, McCain’s opposition is pretty nominal. Chait points out that during the campaign, McCain said, “certainly in the short term or even the long term I would not support the repeal of Roe v. Wade.” He backed down after this caused a furor, but you didn’t see him discussing the subject much after that. On stem-cell research, which has become for many pro-life activists a proxy for the abortion issue, McCain reversed himself this past year, Chait reports; he’s now in favor of it. McCain favors the death penalty, but that’s not as much of a dividing line between Democrats and Republicans as it used to be. McCain is not especially keen on affirmative action, but neither was Bill Clinton. That didn’t stop Clinton from becoming wildly popular among African-Americans. McCain has what Green calls a “mixed-but-improving record with labor,” but, Green points out, McCain is fairly popular with the union rank and file, and he could woo union leaders with his support for liberalizing immigration (these days labor is less apt to see immigrants as a threat and more likely to see them as potential union members) and whistle-blower protection.

Also in April of 2002, in the Washington Monthly, a liberal leaning monthly magazine whose editor is Bill Clinton’s former speechwriter, Joshua Green wrote another piece arguing why Democrats should try to draft McCain to run as a Democrat and why he should let them.

The liberal love of John McCain is not confined to just liberal leaning writers, as this video shows:

Conservatives need to ask themselves, “do we really want a general election pitting two Democrats against each other?” One who admittedly is one and another who pretends he isn’t.

I sure don’t.

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Filed under: Politics
Tagged: democrats, John McCain, RINO

Comments

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2882 ResponsesDemocrats+Love+McCain2008-01-26+17%3A02%3A19Joecephus to “Democrats Love McCain”

Dee on January 28th, 2008 12:42 am

The thought of a general election between McCain and either Obama or Hillary is truly sickening.

One of McCain’s advisers said this morning that McCain is the most consistent conservative in this race, I almost lost it. The only thing John McCain is consistent at is betraying and stabbing conservatives in the back. The last time I checked that isn’t particularly a good way to win the Republican party nomination.

I am hoping that if my guy Rudy doesn’t pull it off that we will at least be smart enough to settle for Romney over McCain. There is no way we are dumb enough to pick McCain, at least I hope and pray not.

I am adding this and your other anti-McCain posts to my stack of stuff for the radio show tomorrow. Thanks!!

Dee’s last blog post..The Blessing
Joe on January 28th, 2008 2:44 am

SWEET, thanks Dee.

I’ve got business to attend to in the morning so won’t be able to listen, I’ll try to make sure to go on togi and check it out later though.

Yeah whenever I hear someone call McCain a Conservative, it makes me throw up a little in my mouth.