THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 225, October 13, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
MCCAIN & RICE: GUARANTEED LOSERS FOR 2008
By Christopher G. Adamo
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY & THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 2008: THE PARTY'S NOMINATION OF JOHN MCCAIN,
CONDOLEEZZA RICE, OR SOME OTHER CANDIDATE PROMOTED BY THE SOCALLED "REPUBLICAN MODERATES" -- SURE WAY
FOR THE REPUBLICANS TO LOSE THE 2008 ELECTION
FULL STORY:
If Republican “moderates” should have learned anything from the furor over
President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra O’Connor, it is that Conservatives do not pursue personalities. They
follow principle.
Unfortunately, the Republican National Committee has been too busy “carrying
the water” for the President to reflect on the discontent being expressed by
even the most stalwart members of the Republican base. Apparently, party
politics trumps regard for the “grassroots.”
Yet, if Miers is indeed confirmed, and if once on the Supreme Court, she proves not
to be a pro-Constitution originalist, Conservative backlash will vastly
exceed all of the uproar voiced since her nomination. Unfortunately, key
players in Republican circles have not seemed to hear this message. But they
remain indifferent at their own peril.
During this past week, a couple of events have foreshadowed a possible
“crack-up” within Republican ranks that could potentially undo every
Conservative gain of the past twenty years, and may ultimately re-establish
the Liberal/Democrat stranglehold on Washington that was decisively broken
in 1994.
In his new book, political strategist Dick Morris asserts that Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice is the rightful Republican candidate to run against
Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Presidential election. Morris claims that only a woman
can credibly run against Hillary. Furthermore, he contends that Rice’s
ethnicity gives her a significant advantage in the affirmative action/quota
department.
One has to wonder if Morris, once a high-ranking operative for the Clintons
before mysteriously becoming estranged from them, is not deliberately
stumping for Hillary’s most vulnerable opponent.
Condoleezza Rice may well be a capable Secretary of State, but that does not
qualify her to properly assess and conduct matters on the domestic front.
Her positions on key social and moral issues are decidedly Liberal, and her
campaign would be hard pressed to convince the public otherwise.
Nor would the major media allow such matters to go unnoticed. And if the
Republican National Committee were to jump headlong into the inevitable fray
that would ensue, it would only succeed at completely destroying its own
credibility among the “grassroots.”
This would be quite the tragedy, especially since a recent Gallup poll
plainly showed that Hillary is vulnerable on several fronts. When matched
against several Republican opponents, Hillary loses. Of particular
significance is that those opponents are not presently known on the basis of
policy. Rather, they represent the fact that the public would indeed choose
an alternative to the former First Lady, if a decisive contrast exists.
Meanwhile, “Republican” Senator John McCain of Arizona is once again
alluding to the possibility that, at some appointed time in the near future,
he will announce his own intentions to run for the nation’s high office. But,
while McCain, like Rice, receives enthusiastic support from certain limited
sectors of American society, his chances of winning are just as remote as
are hers.
In short, only a candidate who appears as a strong Conservative can inspire
and motivate the Conservative base. Yet Republican insiders are reluctant to
concede this fact.
John McCain will never be able to convey sufficient allegiance to the
Conservative movement to offset his frequent venomous tirades against it,
and his occasional open betrayal of it, the filibuster debacle being only
the latest example. Nevertheless, he still lives under the delusion that his
mix of belligerence and populism can garner him sufficient “crossover” votes
to balance out those Conservatives whom he has alienated.
He believes he possesses evidence, in the form of state Republican primary victories
during the 2000 Presidential campaign, to support such a contention. Yet he
does not understand that the “crossover” votes he received were
overwhelmingly the work of Democrats who hoped to help him through the
Republican primaries as the weaker candidate.
Had he garnered the Republican nomination, his media support would have instantly
evaporated. The Liberal/Democrat media machine is simply unwilling to risk a
possible Republican administration, if it could guarantee a Democrat in his
place (Although to be fair, they would not find a McCain administration all
that objectionable).
George W. Bush’s low approval ratings hardly suggest a growing disfavor with
Conservatism. Rather, they reflect a major frustration among Conservatives
who are fed up with the inconsistencies of the Bush administration,
particularly in the areas of government spending and immigration control.
As with every presidential race since the 1960s, a truly Conservative
candidate is the only winning possibility for the Republicans in 2008. But
such a candidate has yet to appear.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
The American Political System:
Politics & Government in the U.S.A.
Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer who lives in southeastern Wyoming and works in the field of industrial instrumentation.
He is actively involved in Wyoming's political process, serving as a delegate to successive Wyoming State Republican Conventions
and as a member of the Wyoming State Republican Central Committee. He has assisted Republican candidates for local and state
legislatures and for the United States Congress. His articles, which appear regularly in The Progressive Conservative, U.S.A.,
and on a number of other websites, reflect a major concern with the damage being done to Conservatism and Conservative causes by
the Liberal Leftist faction in the Republican Party as well as by the much larger and more powerful Liberal Leftist faction in the
Democratic Party. During the early and middle 1990s, Adamo was Editor of the Wyoming Christian Coalition's official news organ,
The Wyoming Christian.
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