Originally posted here and here.
Digg this.
Even with many of the pundits auditioning for the role of the “Fat Lady” and Hillary Clinton riling up her supporters by promising to continue the fight after her crushing defeat in North Carolina and narrow victory in Indiana, the loudest clangor in John McCain’s ears is probably the echo reverberating from Pennsylvania throughout Indiana and North Carolina.
Despite being the presumptive nominee for over two months now, the Arizona Senator failed to rack up even three quarters of the vote in North Carolina after having experienced the same letdown in Pennsylvania on April 22. McCain barely scraped up three quarters of the vote in Indiana.
In Indiana, John McCain collected 77% of the vote in form of over 319,000 votes tallied. Mike Huckabee, who suspended his bid for the nomination on March 4, came in second with over 41,000 (10%), while Ron Paul garnered upwards of 31,000 (8%) and Mitt Romney, who’s been out of the race for a month longer than Huckabee, managed 19,000 plus (5%).
In North Carolina, 381,000 and a handful more (74%) pulled the lever for McCain, while over 62,000 (12%) did so for Huckabee and another some 37,000 (7%) for Paul. More than 20,000 (4%) recorded that they had no preference. Romney wasn’t on the ballot, so many of those “no preference” votes are probably his, like those on the Democratic side were for Barack Obama and John Edwards in Michigan, where Hillary Clinton and the ever-competitive Dennis Kucinich were the only names on the ballot.
The point here is this: McCain has spent two months with almost no competition on the Republican side. He’s got less than six months left before the general election, and there are hundreds of thousands of voters who, for one reason or the other, consider it appropriate and necessary to cast their vote for a Republican not named McCain.
Of course, this doesn’t even account for those voters who may be “biting the bullet” and voting for McCain in the primaries for the sake of party unity, yet aren’t too excited about it and don’t plan to fight for him.
McCain has a little time and one monumental decision which will determine whether he can bring all these wandering sheep back into the fold. That momentous choice, of course, is that of his running mate. The question is this: Will any conservative do? Or does it need to be Mike Huckabee? Or does it need to be anyone but the former presidential candidates? Or are these voters gone no matter what?
I don't have the answer to those questions. But it should be noted that few politicians have as strong and as well-known of reputations on issues such as life, marriage, the Second Amendment, and the Fair Tax as Huckabee has, not to mention his appeal to middle-class voters and Christian conservatives.
Tell me what you think.
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7 years ago
6 comments:
Sometimes I feel like I’m just banging my head against the wall as far as trying to convince people of the worthiness of the presidential candidate that I support. Oh well.
The only Republican that I supported, Ron Paul, would never run with McCain as far as I can tell.
Mike Huckabee I believe has said that he would not run with McCain either. Has he even thrown his support behind him? Most professing Christians that I know probably would feel a lot more comfortable voting for McCain with Huckabee on board though.
Gulani and Romney would probably both turn a lot of Conservatives off to a degree that they would (at least I hope) vote third party.
I do not think that any of the former presidential candidates will run as his VP, outside of that, I have no idea who will be his running mate, other than the fact that Joe Liberman meshes well with McCain. And I do hope that the voters are gone no matter what, regardless of whom he chooses.
Kingdom Advancer
Just out of curiosity, what is your take on the Constitution Party? Is there anything that you particularly like or dislike about them? Or are you of the opinion that we must keep the Democrats out of the White House at all costs.
I think you're right about Ron Paul, if for no other reason than that Paul and McCain are polar opposites on the Iraq War.
I don't think Huckabee has said that he wouldn't run with McCain. When he was still in the race, Huckabee used to say that the VP job is one that "nobody wants but nobody turns down." He's also said that he's not holding his breath, but I don't think he's said he'd turn it down.
I do think we need to draw a line in the sand with the Republican Party. Unfortunately, you'll have to forgive me, 'cause I'm still searching for that line. Generally, I've stated 2 things:
1.) If McCain picks a true conservative to be VP (and that means NOT Romney, Giulani, or Liebermann), I think I'll vote for him, simply because that means a true conservative would be one heartbeat away from the presidency and near the ear of a President McCain, who seems like he's open to advice and things such as the FairTax.
How conservative does a VP pick have to be? Well, I'll have to look at that on a case-by-case basis, but, as I stated, Romney, Giulani, and Liebermann would not qualify.
2.) How will the party treat Huckabee when it comes to the convention? Whatever you think about him, he did represent a lot of social conservatives, Christian conservatives, and Fair Tax supporters. A slap in his face would hit the cheeks of all those people indirectly as well, including me, and I would be less eager to vote for the Republican nominee in that situation.
For the most part, I like the Constitution Party.
I don't know about their nominee, Chuck Baldwin. It seemed that he did some "Christian fearmongering" about Mike Huckabee a while back.
Also, I, as you may know, support a federal marriage amendment--not for the sake of "defining what marriage is" (no government has that authority) but for the sake of defining what the government will recognize as marriage.
In addition, I believe in a different tax solution (the Fair Tax) than they do.
I haven't read their whole platform, but you get the idea. I think their hearts are in the right place, but I have differences with them on solutions.
I was strongly considering the USCP until I saw what they trotted out as a candidate. When they pick a guy that uses talking points of extreme left wing groups, accuses the president of actively working against our military and compares him to Hitler, it instead lumps the CP with the moveon types.
I see nothing illegal or immoral with defending our country and the world against rogue nations that want to destroy Israel and every 'infidel' with WMDs or any other method. I see no comparison to Hitler in a president that went to congress and got their approval before invading Iraq, and gave Hussein ample time to resign before doing so.
I'm really disappointed because I was hoping they would get a real conservative that disenfranchised conservatives abandoned by the party can get behind.
Aside from this particular candidate, however, I'll agree with kingdom advancer's statement that their hearts seem to be in the right place.
One more thing, the buzz (for today at least) is that McCain could be picking Huckabee for a running mate. That would be great news.
It is kind of discouraging to see other conservative blogs (especially the big ones) going back to attacking Huckabee. However, this is a move that would actually make me vote for McCain (though still not donate to or campaign for him).
Obama wins. And so the Obama-McCain mess begins.
Hey, I love your blog!!!
Check out mine.
www.backtotheconstitution.blogspot.com
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