McCain takes ‘hands-off approach’ in drafting of GOP platform.
McCain takes ‘hands-off approach’ in drafting of GOP platform.
John McCain will accept the Republican Party’s nomination on Sept. 4, but he desperately wants to disown the policies that the party stands for. The WSJ reports that McCain taken himself out of the process of drafting the GOP platform:
Republicans are inviting suggestions for their party platform this year, and thousands have responded online. But when a committee meets to draft the document in Minneapolis next week, one voice will be largely absent: John McCain’s. […]
Instead of fighting with party activists to form the platform around his own ideas, Sen. McCain has taken a hands-off approach.
Conservative pundit Joe Scarborough said in January, “John McCain’s platform — and it certainly looks inviting for the fall — he has promised less jobs and more wars.”
UPDATE: The American Conservative Union sent out an email this morning to its members warning that, “There are some who would push the Republican National Committee toward a weak platform that appeases the liberals. We believe that is flat out wrong.” Read the letter here.
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This is good strategy since it allows McCain to twist in the wind. He can alternately claim to be above the party platform and a “maverick” and then take umbrage when anyone suggest he doesn’t support something in the platform. It fits his “maverick” who’s been in power in Washington for decades meme perfectly.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:57 amWhy should the nominal head of the Party have anything to do with what the Party says?
The similarities to Bush become more and more scary.
This is like the Stepford Candidates, except old and ugly.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:59 amInstead of fighting with party activists to form the platform around his own ideas, Sen. McCain has taken a hands-off approach.
His own ideas?!! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
August 20th, 2008 at 9:59 amIt turns out the man behind the curtain feeding McCain his lines is a whole committee. Now that’s a Charlie McCarthy maverick doll!
August 20th, 2008 at 10:01 amMcNumbNuts is not and never has been constrained by a party platform. Remember? He’s a maverick — and also remember, that’s a stray horse that got lost and is just too damned stupid to find its way back to the herd.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:03 amThe day after CNN”s Jack Cafferty rips McCain for being as doltish as Bush. the WSJ gives us this confirming nugget? I’m waiting for the McCain camp to rip the WSJ a new one now.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:04 amMcCain takes ‘hands-off aproach’ in drafting og GOP platform.
Nothing like letting corporate lobbyists and ‘agents of intolerance’ in setting the stage, is there?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:08 amWhat kind of a leader doesn’t take responsibility for “leading” the party? Not a very good one in my opinion.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:08 amYeah, just what we need. Another figurehead presidency. Will McCain dust off Reagan’s schedule and nap at the same hours he did?
August 20th, 2008 at 10:10 amMcCain is nothing more than the continuation of the damn farce we have in the Whitehouse at present.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:10 am“McCain takes ‘hands-off approach’ in drafting of GOP platform.”
Well hell’s bells. That’s what we look for in a leader of a free country.
Mucking foron!
August 20th, 2008 at 10:14 amHe stands for nothing – just another moron to stand in front of the cameras and microphones.
Someday, we are going to have to admit and address the fact that the real “movers and shakers” stay out of sight. Bush is just a distraction – likewise mccain.
The platform means little or nothing either, but it will be dictated by the repug elite.
Once in the White House (by hook or crook), the criminal cabal will continue to call the shots.
The platform just serves as the justification for the lies that follow – that somehow a “highly energized base” of “value voters” and “security moms” turned out in impossible numbers and the repugs “won” another election (NOT!).
August 20th, 2008 at 10:17 amHe has to take a “hands off” approach: he has no ideas except the influence of his lobbyist base – and if he did include one of his lobbyists’ desires in the platform, he can’t be trusted to remember it.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:20 amHe would be a party puppet not unlike George Bush. Bush was the ne’er do well son of a prominent politician, McCain is the ne’er do well son of a naval family — each trigger-happy and neither of them with the intellect or the demeanor to be president.
“Hands off” approach?
Sounds just like his voting record in the Senate.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:23 amThey held all those debates, with people using those positions as a basis for their primary vote, for what?
So, a bunch of committee members can write what the candidate stands for?
Sounds more like the Politburo, that the most advanced democracy in the world.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:26 amI’m sorry, good_golly4, it appears you missed my question on the open thread.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:27 amWhy do you consistently change your posting name?
good_golly4 Says: “The Republican standard-bearer is at odds with his party on such hot-button issues as global warming, immigration, campaign-finance overhaul, stem-cell research, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.”
No he isn’t. He might have once been a maverick, but the one running for President is now a line-towing Republican.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:27 am“…There are some who would push the Republican National Committee toward a weak platform that appeases the liberals. We believe that is flat out wrong.”
If it’s any consolation, ‘Pubs, so do we. And we won’t be appeased by you.
But keep workin’ on those great ideas!
PEACE
August 20th, 2008 at 10:33 amunbelievable Says:
No he isn’t. He might have once been a maverick, but the one running for President is now a line-towing Republican.
Unbelievable,
August 20th, 2008 at 10:34 amI disagree slightly with your statement; Johnny Boy is now a slimy, sell-out, say-anything-to-get-elected scumbag.
unbelievable Says:
good_golly4 Says: “The Republican standard-bearer is at odds with his party on such hot-button issues as global warming, immigration, campaign-finance overhaul, stem-cell research, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.”
No he isn’t. He might have once been a maverick, but the one running for President is now a line-towing Republican.
The “Maverick” label was a false label given by the media, when his voting record is checked ( when he actually showed up to vote ) he is consistently a party line voter and usually votes against veteran interests, no matter how much he claims to be for veterans and the Troops.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:36 amIf you think a guy like John McCain with his pent up frustration will make any effort at compromising with all those executive powers in his hand, you are goonier than I thought, goon.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:36 amDoes this leave the door open for Rove a VP? McCain needs his own Cheney to make decisions for him.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:50 amJohn McCain will accept the Republican Party’s nomination on Sept. 4, but he desperately wants to disown the policies that the party stands for. The WSJ reports that McCain taken himself out of the process of drafting the GOP platform.
He may not play a part in drafting the platform but you can bet as president he’ll implement it. Just like he pretends to stand independently from Bush while actually supporting all of his disasterous policies.
http://progressiveworldreview.com
August 20th, 2008 at 10:52 amAn obvious attempt by an ambitious politician to have it both ways. He wants to raise the red rabble while standing apart as the maverick candidate. It needs to be attacked as what it really means, McCain does not have the guts to fight for his own vision or beliefs. That is not leadership we can believe in.
August 20th, 2008 at 10:59 amSo John “I know how to lead” McCain is going to take a hands-off approach to writing the document that defines the Republican Party. A true maverick would insist on passages that are true to his stated goals. What I am seeing his is a McCain that is neither a leader nor a maverick. He is McSame.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:04 amNo that’s maverick of him. The man with no ideas.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:04 amInstead of fighting with party activists to form the platform around his own ideas, Sen. McCain has taken a hands-off approach.
It just keeps getting easier to compare McNumbnuts to Chimpy… No wonder he can’t get his poll numbers past 45.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:06 amInstead of fighting with party activists to form the platform around his own ideas, Sen. McCain has taken a hands-off approach.
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I suspect that’s because McCain no longer has any of his own ideas. The “maverick” that once existed is completely gone. He’s now content to let the REAL power of the party (the oil industry, the war contractors, the neocon movers and shakers, etc.) make all the decisions and he will be an obedient mouthpiece for them on the campaign trail — that is, if he can keep his notes straight.
And there are still people in this country who confuse this with “leadership”…
August 20th, 2008 at 11:09 amI’m sure John will be sorely missed in the discussion. After all, he’s got at LEAST two opinions on every issue…
August 20th, 2008 at 11:14 amThat’s cute that Gigi thinks McSame is the same guy who ran for President in 2000 and got slimed by Bush-Rove.
I guess she kinda has to convince herself of that. I mean, can you imagine the cognitive dissonance that Gigi would be faced with if she acknowledged the hollowed-out husk of a politician that is John McSame ‘08?
August 20th, 2008 at 11:24 amunbelievable Says:
No he isn’t. He might have once been a maverick, but the one running for President is now a line-towing Republican.
Excuse me while I don my pedantry hat. Ahem.
One “toes” the line. You only “tow” a line if you’re pulling a dinghy.
This is a common error, but that doesn’t make it right!
Cough.
/pedant
August 20th, 2008 at 11:26 amWhat if you are pulling a dory?
August 20th, 2008 at 11:29 amGrrrr. Or a Zodiac.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:32 amwhat about a punt?
August 20th, 2008 at 11:38 amThinkProgress.org
A fine example of how NOT to run a clean, troll free website.
HECKUVA JOB.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:39 amGenerally, punts are pushed, not towed. And I don’t think they are ever toed.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:57 amRepublicans are inviting suggestions for their party platform this year
Disband
And leave the country if you want the US to regain its once-looked-upon-with askance and former glory…………..
August 20th, 2008 at 11:57 amralph the wonder llama Says:
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dbadass Says:
what about a punt?
Generally, punts are pushed, not towed. And I don’t think they are ever toed.
August 20th, 2008 at 11:57 am
And hopefully never toad…………..
August 20th, 2008 at 11:58 amIt cannot be stressed enough that too many voters are swayed by slogans and three-word, knee-jerk responses to questions and problems.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:20 pmWe have a candidate who can see the complexity, that there are many perspectives on the same issue, and none should be dismissed with a empirically simple yes/no, for/against, solution.
Republicans see everything in black and white — Democrats see a rainbow.
Sorry to have caused this divergence from the topic.
August 20th, 2008 at 12:24 pmI can assure you I have been towed in a punt before. We built one to use as our dive platform and for access into shallow water when I was a sea urchin diver. Ours of course was equipped with outboards but we did tow it behind us from the vessels I lived on to get to the fishing areas.
So his first act of leadership is to remove himself from a position of leadership ????????????????
August 20th, 2008 at 2:02 pmNow it makes sense. “Maverick” means “mindless shill”. I’m glad they cleared that up.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pmHe doesn’t speak for himself. He doesn’t speak for his campaign. He doesn’t speak for his party. Isn’t it time for him to just STFU?
August 20th, 2008 at 2:31 pmI thought a maverick was an unbranded cow…
August 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pmNot in this case db. And to a GOPer an unbranded cow is just a plus on their profit margin, or a swell reason for a Barbecue. It’s part of their “seize anything that’s unwatched” morality.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:48 pmOT:
August 20th, 2008 at 3:00 pmpete I had a pretty good birding down in MA the other day and there are plently of bluefish about. Forget eating that nasty stuff unless first smoked but still fun to catch. Hope you have been having good field days as well
I’m envious db.
Actually, I’ve been having some health issues that have kept me pretty close to home so, I’ve been staring at my aquarium a good deal. I had a mated pair of “Scooter Blennies” until a couple weeks ago when I dropped a rock on the male! Thank the fates they are common and inexpensive. But, it sucks, because they are my only wild-caught fish. Hopefully I’ll make up for it and figure out how to breed the little devils.
(BTW. Assuming I end up with fertile eggs again, I might ask for some references. I’ve been corresponding with a gentleman who’s had limited success with their cousins, Mandarin Dragonettes, but more info is always helpful.)
And I’ll just have to put off trout fishing until next season. I don’t like even catch and release when the browns fill with roe and the nearest brook trout stream closes a month early.
So, my next crack at a real feast is probably going to be panfish and northern pike through the early ice. That’s cool because it’s a great time to watch migratory waterfowl, the eagles get concentrated right in my favorite fishing area, and there’s always a chance at a 30lb northern. I also once landed a 6lb largemouth bass, on 2lb test, through a 6inch hole. That was a thrill!
But, until then, the local geese wake me most mornings and a young family of purple finches has laid claim to my deck, much to the annoyance of my stupid cat! They do a pretty good job of keeping me from going nuts.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:48 pmHe don’t need no stinkin’ Platform. He’ll just talk about whatever HE wants anyway!
August 20th, 2008 at 6:27 pm