Kondracke: McCain ‘Seeking Ways To Separate’ From Bush To Avoid Looking Like Third Bush Term
Kondracke: McCain ‘Seeking Ways To Separate’ From Bush To Avoid Looking Like Third Bush Term
During the “All-Star Panel” segment on Fox News’s Special Report last night, Roll Call Executive Editor Mort Kondracke said that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) campaign is worried about appearing too aligned with President Bush and they’re seeking “ways to separate themselves in some way from Bush.” They need “some issue that he can be distinctive from Bush,” said Kondracke
Noting that McCain is the same as Bush on the war and tax cuts, Kondracke said that he doesn’t want to be seen as “just the third term” of Bush:
I know, as a matter of fact, that they’re talking in the McCain camp about ways to separate themselves in some way from Bush, and they haven’t figured out how to do it–some issue that he can be distinctive from Bush about.
Clearly it’s not going to be the war. It’s not going to be tax cuts. It has got to be something reasonably major so that the Democrats can’t say this is just the third term.
Watch it:
McCain has a reputation as a “maverick” for picking fights with Republicans. But as the Weekly Standard’s Matthew Continetti recently wrote, “when you look over the list of his deviations…one cannot help thinking of … George W. Bush.”
Kondracke notes that Bush and McCain are the same on the war and taxes, but in reality McCain represents a third term of his buddy Bush on issue after issue:
TORTURE: Despite McCain’s reputation as an opponent of torture, he has consistently supported legislative language that protects the Bush administration’s prerogatives to use it. Most recently, McCain voted against a ban on waterboarding and urged President Bush to veto the bill.
SURVEILLANCE: Echoing Bush in his CPAC speech this year, McCain called it “shameful and dangerous” for Democrats to oppose a surveillance bill that contains retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. He then voted “to terminate lawsuits against” those companies.
IMMIGRATION: In 2005, McCain told the New Yorker that “the President and I share exactly the same views on the issue.”
SOCIAL SECURITY: In 2005, McCain was “a big booster” of Bush’s Social Security privatization plan and last week he told the Wall Street Journal that as president he wants to reform Social Security through private savings accounts “along the lines that President Bush proposed.”
HEALTH CARE: After examining his health care plan, the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn recently concluded that McCain will act “like George W. Bush” as he supports policy ideas that “President Bush has embraced.”
Not only is McCain the same as Bush on most policy issues, but he would hire the same types of ideologues to staff his administration. McCain is said to believe that John Bolton is “the type of ambassador that ought to represent the United States at the United Nations.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Kondracke: McCain ‘Seeking Ways To Separate’ From Bush To Avoid Looking Like Third Bush Term
My, that IS a bit of a pickle, isn’t it?
– Ralph Hussein Wonder Llama
March 6th, 2008 at 5:03 pmTORTURE: Despite McCain’s reputation as an opponent of torture, he has consistently supported legislative language that protects the Bush administration’s prerogatives to use it. Most recently, McCain voted against a ban on waterboarding and urged President Bush to veto the bill.
What more do you need to know about him?
Fred Hussein
March 6th, 2008 at 5:04 pmWays Mcbush is different from bushcain:
Bush is a better dancer.
Mccain can fit 15 hotdogs in his jowls at one time, bush can do 10
bush is a deserter, mccain fled to n vietnam to avoid serving
mccain’s wife got caught abusing prescription drugs
bush’s first wife killed the guy who dumped her
mccain cheated on his first wife with a robot
bush likes jello shooters
mccain likes jello with fruit cocktail
what have I missed?
Bobhusseinwurst
March 6th, 2008 at 5:08 pmGood luck with that one. McBush has spent the last week aligning himself with Bush and now he decides it wasn’t such a good idea after all? Is this the kind of person we want as President?
Every time I hear or read someone calling McBush a “Maverick” I want to puke. He gave up that mantle a long time ago.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pmmccain’s wife got caught abusing prescription drugs
Bobhusseinwurst
bush’s wife sold drugs in college(weed)
March 6th, 2008 at 5:11 pmbush’s wife sold drugs in college(weed)
Comment by Fred
fer real?
bobhusseinwurst
March 6th, 2008 at 5:13 pmLaura still prolly enjoys a puff or two of the chronic, down on the Ranch.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:16 pmMatthew Continetti?
This kid knows nothing and is certainly not worth repeating. More Orwellian spewage. Bush and McCain are not conservatives even though they elected him. Right. The brat child Continetti sees McCain as Bush and thats a good thing for the silver spooned war mongers.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pmShe does seem to have a vacant smile on most of the time
Bobhusseinwurst
March 6th, 2008 at 5:17 pmYeah, he probably should have thought of that before they took the picture of McCain hugging the chief.
D. Hussein Obaser
March 6th, 2008 at 5:19 pmI think McCain could distinguish himself from Bush by ordering an oil pipeline built through the Hawaiian marine wildlife preserve.
#3: Bob H.: Here’s another. I seem to recall that, according to Pres. Bush, McCain has an illegitimate black child. In contrast, Bush has *no* illegitimate children who are black.
– My Husseinly Stupid Opinion
March 6th, 2008 at 5:21 pmMcCain can emphasize how much he likes skinny blondes and that, unlike Bush, he can still score with them. Other than that, hmmmm, it’s a toughie, especially since he repeatedly brags about how much he agrees with Bush on everything. He does have a bigger jaw . . . maybe he can go with that.
–gumhusseinmitch
March 6th, 2008 at 5:22 pm> what have I missed?
uhm…lets see..
McCain got shot at, while Bush did shots.
McCain doesn’t support Fallujah Steamers, as the very mention of them brings backs painful memories of the surprisingly similar “Hanoi Hummers”
McCain prefers long walks on the beach, while Dumbya prefers trimming shrubs wearing nothing but a pink speedo, buttplug and a tank top with a picture of saddam’s hanging corpse on the front.
Also, McCain beleives that embryos destined for the garbage and pregnant iraqi women should be killed in equal numbers, while george bush supports the right of those nice white embryos to live out the remainder of thier brief lives intact at the bottom of a trash can.
However, both consider killing pregnant women with bombs to be far and away the best kind of abortion.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pmThat vacant stare on Laura’s face is definitely prescription drugs. Can you imagine the lively table discussion she and Cindy will have? Which one drools on the tablecloth more?
McCain would be a horrible President, and yet he is still head and shoulders above Boy George.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pmbush’s wife sold drugs in college(weed)
Comment by Fred
fer real?
bobhusseinwurst
Like bush’s service records…..this has been pretty well scrubbed but I remember when it was around with college friends of hers backing it up. Below is a blog entry with links….not sure how reliable it is but I do believe it happened.
http://suburra.com/blog/2007/12/getting-outed-kutcher-fingered-the-bush-twins/
March 6th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
They’re doin a heckuva job seperatin, must be hard wurk.
~RHUsseinSidneyCerious~
March 6th, 2008 at 5:26 pmMcJowls can’t have it both ways. Can’t adopt all of Bushitler’s policies without change and then say it won’t be like a 3rd Bush term.
If it looks like a duck, quack like a duck, walks like a duck……
Uncle Hussein Ho
March 6th, 2008 at 5:27 pmMcPander wants to extend all of the chympident’s policies, both domestic and foreign, but is distancing himself from Bush on the issue of, er, uh, well, now, hmm, lessee, ahem, well, yeah.
~RHUsseinCindeeCerious~
March 6th, 2008 at 5:30 pmHow McCain can separate himself from Bush:
Step 1 – Insert finger between your lips and his unit to break the seal.
Step 2 – Lean back and stand up.
Done.
~ L. Hussein Vet
March 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pmthis will be too easy
now if we can just keep democrats from snatching defeat from the jaws of victory….we’ll be fine.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pmIf McCain truly wants to separate himself from the Bush administration, then wouldn’t one think that putting up at least a token resistance to the idea of continuing Bush administration policy would be a good place to start?
March 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pmLet’s see, the stock market DOW lost 214 points today, how about McCain promising that under his administration, we’ll lose 2,140 points a day?
~RHUsseinSidneyCerious~
March 6th, 2008 at 5:36 pmJohn McCain, the first Stepford Neocon.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:41 pmMcCain flew combat missions over Viet Nam
Bush (briefly) helped keep the VC from overrunning Alabama
That’s all I’ve got. McCain grafted his lips to Bush’s ass after getting slandered out the race in ‘00 and hasn’t unpuckered since.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pmMcBush is dumb, Bush is dumber.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pmMcBush is old, Bush is juvenile.
McBush has temper, Bush hasn’t a clue.
I honestly, for the life of me, cannot think of any way that the two are different. McCain agrees with Bush 100% on everything. Even Pres. Bush said that McCain was the GOP candidate that would most likely continue his agenda.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pmHuh. “The Great Whore” is NOT the Catholic Church.
It’s John McCain.
~Hussein Annie
March 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pm.
And photo ops and endorsment help how…?
Max-Hussein-1
.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pmGuess he sucks at that too, I’m so surprised.
March 6th, 2008 at 5:50 pmDya spose with all those hugs and warm cuddlies, the chymp was just tryin to make the Saudi Princes jealous?
~RHUsseinBandarCerious~
March 6th, 2008 at 5:54 pmMcCain delegates Bush’s decision to attack Iraq, as “IN the PAST” …and therefore avoids judging whether it was a mistake or not.
The only criticism he has leveled is against Sec. Rumsfeld, and his disasterously poor War Planning.
Rumsfeld is Also in the past, and the verdict is IN among hawks, doves, and the military….Rumsfeld really blew it.
Other than that, McCain pretty much agrees with Bush.
Bad hussein Ger
March 6th, 2008 at 5:56 pmSomeone get Bill Hilly his medication — STAT!
March 6th, 2008 at 6:07 pmComment by Billy Hill — March 6, 2008 @ 6:00 pm
When did Al Gore change his name to a single word? Could understand it being a mistake if you had capitolized the G.
Who cares what you think when it comes to the Democratic primary?
Tstat Hussein guy
March 6th, 2008 at 6:13 pmI’ll will bet that McBush won’t have much of a problem with Bushco getting lots of cash for his from Repugs that don’t want to deal with McBush.
Is this separating himself?
obtusehussian
March 6th, 2008 at 6:19 pmSomeone get Bill Hilly his medication — STAT!
Comment by ralph the wonder llama — March 6, 2008 @ 6:07 pm
the orderlies put saltpeter in his cocoa puffs again. so he’s a little bored and confused.
~ joe hussein cantwell
March 6th, 2008 at 6:19 pm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhTyTQuwzbU
.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:20 pm.
LOL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6eDzVYJhx4
.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pmSorry, McCain. That horse left the stable LONG ago. You want to be different ‘n’ Bush? Well, you’e got three big ways you can be.
1) End the War.
2) Restore the Rule of Law
3) Raise taxes to pay for Bush’s war.
Can’t do that, or worse, want to squeeze the middle class more?
Fu(k you, then.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:28 pmWhen did Al Gore change his name to a single word?
Comment by Tstatguy — March 6, 2008 @ 6:13 pm
It’s a standard troll construction. I don’t know if they think it bugs us, if they just resent Gore’s successes, or if they’re just that illiterate. Either way, it doesn’t make them look clever, I think you’ll agree.
– Ralph Hussein Wonder Llama
March 6th, 2008 at 6:33 pmWhen did Al Gore change his name to a single word?
Tstat Hussein guy
Around the same time he became a Corporate Mogul and wall street tycoon. Get your IPO money out and buy, buy, buy! Oh crap, you are not invited to the initial public offering party, sorry about your luck its only for Big Al and his friends.
http://www.businessweek.com/ technology/ content/ mar2008/ tc2008035_855093.htm
Comment by Billy Hill — March 6, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Judging by Bill Hilly’s borderline-incoherent rant, it appears that the answer is b) they resent Gore’s accomplishments.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pmAnyone remember Ernest T. Bass from Andy Griffith???
This Billy Hill is his kid.
Change it to Benny Hill, dude, ’cause you’re a joke.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:43 pmJudging by Bill Hilly’s borderline-incoherent rant, it appears that the answer is b) they resent Gore’s accomplishments.
Comment by ralph the wonder llama — March 6, 2008 @ 6:35 pm
well billy was in a turkish prison for five years.
oh, billy!
March 6th, 2008 at 6:47 pmORDER OXYCONTIN
March 6th, 2008 at 6:50 pmBUY OXYCODONE ONLINE
CHEAP GENERIC XANAX
Look around at the state of our country today. Yeah, like we really need a third Bush term. We need it like we need a hole in the head!
If McCain has brain one in the silver-haired mellon of his, he’ll position himself away from the Bush mis-Administration as far as he can.
March 6th, 2008 at 6:51 pmWillaim Sidney Hill, catches another anvil in the head, then comes to tell us all about it.
~RHUsseinCerious~
March 6th, 2008 at 6:54 pmWillaim Sidney Hill, catches another anvil in the head, then comes to tell us all about it.
~RHUsseinCerious~
Comment by RUCerious — March 6, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
Hilarious!
Ralph Hussein Wonder Llama
March 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pmBoth ‘noses’ are ugly-different and each should be plastic-surgery altered, SHORTER!
March 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pmThis was on F(cks News…Kondracke needs to leave the swamp…help drain it….and then he might have some credibility!!!
March 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pmChimpy has his toadsticker so far up grandpa’s poop chute that he can’t even keep his feet on the ground. A war hero serving as beeeotch to a deserter. Love it.
March 6th, 2008 at 8:57 pmAt the White House yesterday, John McCain was only too eager to accept George W. Bush’s embrace, eight years ago John McCain told him to “take your hands off me.”
For the details of how John McCain suppressed his seething Bush hatred in his eternal quest for the presidency, see:
March 6th, 2008 at 10:01 pm“McCain to Bush in 2000: ‘Take Your Hands Off Me.’”
If the Democrats have any fight in them at all (I know, I know) they’ll never be without a backdrop of pictures, HUGE pictures of Shrub and McCantankerous together. At every opportunity, in every venue,at every TV interview they should link Shrub and Sidney. Hammer away at it every time they open their mouths. Shrub=Sidney.
That, my friends, is the way to win in 2008.
Wood Hussein Guy
March 6th, 2008 at 10:25 pmI think there’s an AGE difference….
March 7th, 2008 at 12:52 pmBUY XANAX ONLINE
March 7th, 2008 at 9:02 pmBUY PHENTERMINE ONLINE
It`s a little late for that, ain`t it!
March 8th, 2008 at 12:40 amThey have huge differences over global warming, gay marriage, energy policy (don’t forget that McCain opposed the Bush and Obama backed 2005 energy bill).
March 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pmCheap Xanax Online
March 11th, 2008 at 9:40 pmBuy Fioricet Online
Discount Soma
Buy VAlium Online
Buy Oxycontin
ORDER OXYCONTIN
March 18th, 2008 at 9:14 amBUY OXYCODONE
BUY XANAX CHEAP
BUY OXYCONTIN NO PRESCRIPTION
CHEAP CIALIS
CHEAP PHENTERMINE WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:25 pmORDER XANAX ONLINE
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pmbuy valium from india
buy xanax valium online florida
buy oxycontin online without a prescription
cheap generic xanax
Around the same time he became a Corporate Mogul and wall street tycoon. Get your IPO money out and buy, buy, buy! Oh crap, you are not invited to the initial public offering party, sorry about your luck its only for Big Al and his friends.
hp dv9700 battery,hp dv6000 battery Comment by Billy Hill — March 6, 2008 @ 6:22 pm
Judging by Bill Hilly’s borderline-incoherent rant, it appears that the answer is b) they resent Gore’s accomplishments.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:13 am