I hadn’t thought about the problem McCain will have trying to create a GOP platform. Good luck with that one.
The current GOP platform is a 100-page document, and all but nine pages mention Bush’s name. Virtually the entire platform will have to be rewritten to lessen the imprint of the president, who has the highest disapproval rating of any White House occupant since Richard M. Nixon.
It is the prospect of a total rewrite that worries some.
McCain is “really out of step with the strong majority of his party,” said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposes McCain’s positions on climate change. “He might get what he wants. And he might get a change. But I don’t think it’s going to sit well with a lot of Republicans.”
Climate change is the least of McCain’s problems. How about immigration? How about campaign finance reform?
And then there’s the thought that at this time in the GOP history, McCain may be the strongest agent they have. The whole party is wandering in the desert. No new ideas, no strengths and Bush is so bad, so irrelevant they’ve got nothing to lose by printing the platform as is, nobody’s going to read it anyway.
The framing should be “old and tired ideas”, which is sort of a backhanded way of reminding people that McCain himself is old and tired..
Platforms are largely a waste of time however. I don’t know why either party persists in writing the things.
The drive by CheneyCo./Republicans over the last 7.5 years has been so complete, that there’s really nothing left of their agenda to get fired up about implementing. They were stopped trying to destroy Social Security, but basically, they got most everything they wanted. There is no need for a new agenda in their eyes. They got unregulated markets, they got military backing for foreign imperialism, they have a compliant Democratic Party, they installed free-marketeers in every executive branch secretariat, they destroyed oversight and regulation of business, industry and banking, what more could you want besides dismantling Social Security?
Maybe the pundits and hacks are just tired of inventing bullshit to put in front of their electorate. . . Who knows what goes through the minds of these selfish people?
Another conservative on the Supreme Court and overturing Roe v Wade are still out there.
And reading the conservative blogs, still really important.
But they got their 2nd Amendment thing finally.
Oddly, they are still pissing off the fiscal conservatives and isolationist
How does McCain deal with Bush at the convention? Certainly an egotist like Bush will refuse to stay away.
And how will the media report it? If it was a Democratic President that was asked to stay away it would be the only subject for weeks. The media would tie a 25% Democrat around the nominee’s neck. But a 25% republican? We’ll see.
nalbar
Yeah, we had a local columnist write about how marvelously heroic McCain was to be so unbending and unyielding on immigration. In my comment, I might have gone a bit too far the other way, portraying him as having caved completely. The truth seems pretty clearly to be that he hasn’t backed down as far as some Republican Party members would like, but he still has “evolved” quite a bit from his original stance.
Not that there’s anything wrong with a politician having second thoughts, but that’s inconsistent with the propaganda image of the brave “maverick” iconoclast.
It’s hard for me to see that the GOP platform is relevent.
For the GOP true-faithful, having extra crunch Bushy goodness on every page is a PLUS.
For the sane and moderately intelligent, it doesn’t matter if Bush’s mug is on every page (Adobe Acrobat watermarking would be appropriate), because the CONTENT is poisonous.
And the undecided (or late deciders) don’t pay attention to platforms.
McCain revising the platform wouldn’t get him many more votes, and would probably piss off the wingnuts; the worst is if the platform can be used as material for a campaign attack.
So McCain’s best bet is to just ignore the existing platform; not replace it, just drop hints that it’s not “his” platform.
Okay, perhaps McCain is dumb/crazy enough to try a revision. But that requires work, so not a priority.
Here comes another jolt for McCain’s platform:Iraq
The reality of sovereignty aside, the fact it’s even aired:
Iraq says may agree timetable for U.S. withdrawal
Ya know, if things are going that well, the troops should be withdrawn. Since we did not invade for oil, there’s no need to stay.
Sure. Didn’t Malaki just say they had defeated the terrorists in Iraq? Mission Accomplished!
Just pay no attention to those bombings in the last few days. 🙂
See the difference between the two –
McCain: As Afghanistan boils, McCain keeps focus on Iraq
Obama: Iraq not top of Obama’s foreign agenda
I’ll place bets. Iraq will be off the stove. AfPak is the more dangerous to world peace.