McCain will not wear well as a front-runner
Posted January 30th, 2008 at 11:28 PM by Jon HamThe John McCain the nation fell in love with pre-New Hampshire is the straight-talkin’, earnest guy who had no chance of winning. Now that he’s a front-runner he’s irritating as hell. Just watch some of the video of that debate tonight and you’ll see a very unlikable person sitting next to Mitt Romney. Unlikable and, yes, dishonest in his lying about Romney’s “timetables.”
Something happens to McCain when he’s in a position of strength. I don’t know what it is, psychologically, that makes him this way, but that’s not a good thing for a person who wants to be the most powerful person in the world. I’m tending to agree with Bryan at HotAir.com:
I’m now in the position of having come around to like Romney. He’s decent, smart and fair and I think he would make a fine president. And I dislike McCain all over again. He’s a smarmy beltway insider who just lied to everyone who was watching while he smeared a good man, flipped on his own awful legislation and belittled free enterprise. This man wants to lead the party of Reagan?
UPDATE: Paul Mirengoff at Power Line has some of the same feelings:
I hope (and not just in this respect) that the real McCain is the fellow I met on the Straight Talk Express in November, not the guy who has been on display lately.
I’m telling you, McCain can’t seem to handle success.
January 31st, 2008 at 1:46 am
I guess Robert Novak’s column confirming Sen. McCain’s distain for Justice Alito should have come out a couple of nights ago, but I’ll take it now (with a tip of the hat to Allahpundit).
I had been waffling in limbo since Fred Thompson dropped out. I guess the “anybody but” portion of my campaign is going to start a bit early this year, and the target is McCain.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:57 am
Now that Fred and Rudy are both out, Romney’s my #1 pick. If it comes down to McCain, he’s still preferable to Obama or Clinton, but not by a whole lot (even if he is more electable).
I guess we need for Huckabee to quit now, so that his supporters will move to Romney.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
My good friend and blogging buddy wrote this –
I still hope and believe McCain can be stopped. But, many are telling us “no, not by Mitt Romney”. They say the Governor is too kind or too clean. Well he is too kind and clean to be engaged McCain in a dirty game he is playing.
The PEOPLE of the United States of America can beat McCain!
They can stop him from being a President who will take America down the path of recession, war, division and degeneration. I am not making prophecy here, I am telling the truth. Mitt Romney is the instrument for American as their alternative choice, a not perfect but teachable man, a person who work hard to riches but humble enough to consider those who are unfortunate, a leader who leads by words and examples, a father who loves his sons just like most of the family loving American, a husband who loves his wife just like every husband in America, and an ordinary American who lives an extra ordinary life.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:52 am
I’m starting to take to the idea that while if the Dems win, then conservatives have lost the White House, but that if McCain wins, the conservatives have lost the White House and the Republican Party.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:54 am
Just wait til McDole secures the Nomination. It will be like the climax of Raiders of the Lost Ark with the MSM as the Angels flying around Beloq/McCain suddenly turning into Devils turning the heat on McCain with long forgotten stories about the Keating 5. Keep your eyes closed tight Marion.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:19 am
I am pretty darn active in the Republican Party, and I have YET to meet a devotee of McCain.
I know (now former) Guliani folks, I know lots of Romney folks, I know a bunch of Huckabee folks, and I sure have run in to many Ron Paul folks. I personally was one who was disappointed that Fred Thompson did not make a better show, and I know quite a few who feel that way. I also know folks who were excited about Duncan Hunter, Sam Brownback, and Tom Tancredo, but were realistic about their favord candidates’ chances.
But what I have NEVER run into is even ONE person who has referred to McCain with any sort of adulation, or who has said even one word that they support him.
So, what is up with all this? Just who the heck are the McCain supporters? (Besides the media, of course.)
January 31st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hey, I’m a lefty who used to live under Mitt Romney’s gummint back in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I certainly wouldn’t object to a Pres. Romney, based on his fairly even-handed administration of the state. (Or McCain, for that matter.)
The Amazing Shrinking Evangelist doesn’t have a prayer (da-dum) of winning the nomination. And the only way Ron Paul could win would be for God in heaven to ordain that it’s time for someone to bring us closer to the Apocalypse than W. has been able to.
Not going to be a good year for the conservative wing of the GOP. Because neither McCain nor Romney wear that badge in any way, shape or form.