Why do the conservative talking heads hate McCain so much?

Maklershed

Maklershed

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Can someone explain it to me? I thought the neo-naziscons like Limbaugh, Coulter, Ingraham, etc all blindly followed the party line. I never realized there was so much depth to them. Why is it they'd rather vote for Hillary Clinton then McCain? It was always my understanding that the Clintons were like the spawn of Satan to them. Can McCain's views be so much worse than Clintons? Or is this all some kind of bizarre co-ordinated political tactic that I just don't understand?
 
Now, I don't get it personally, but I just read a one-line quip that seems to have really explained it better than anyone yet.

Imagine if Joe Lieberman was the Democrat Presidential nominee.
 
We need a moderate president who would unite the nation. I am happy McCain has all but won as Republican Presidential candidate. He agrees with at least some of my views (such as stem cell research). As of now, if its McCain vs Clinton, I would likely vote for McCain. Not sure about Obama vs. McCain however.
 
The appeal of McCain is that he may lose the Limbaugh-wing of the Republican party, but let's remember how close the last two elections were. Appealing to that element of the right will give you 51% on your best day (and below that on your worst, as 2000 showed us ;)).

McCain, IMO only, could easily make up lost votes from abstaining conservatives by gaining moderate democrats. I talk politics with many friends and colleagues, and all but a few have told me "man, if it's Clinton and McCain, I'm going to have a real hard time picking whom to vote for." I think that's a huge boon for McCain, but the very tiny portion of the right, those people who have the loudest voices, are the ones being heard.

Let's not fool ourselves: the extreme right hates McCain. If he was universally hated, he'd be getting Ron Paul-like numbers in primaries, and not winning any. So the reality of the world we live in is that he is liked, he is popular, but if we listen to those on the fringe of either party, we'll think only his mother likes him.
 
Those all the way on the right hate McCain because of 2 reasons -- 1.) his proposal on immigration this past year; 2.) his views on campaign finance reform.

The former they view as terrible, especially because he was trying to compromise with Ted Kennedy *gasp* and the latter they view as an encroachment on free speech. More or less, because McCain is willing to compromise to actually get stuff done based on his conscience and the understanding that there are people out there who don't agree with him...radical conservatives hate him. Then again, those people would only be happy with Alan Keyes (who dishoned his lesbian daughter and carpetbagged into Illinois after railing Clinton for doing the same thing) or Ron Paul (who may or may not be a racist, anti-semite, and more or less ridiculously naieve on foreign policy...strict isolation doesn't work, ever) as the nominee...so, will probably vote Constitution/Libertarian this round. Sadly, they're voices are more obnoxious than most...and are being fed by talking heads like Rush and Coulter who are all sorts of upset that every single person they wanted to endorse failed in the primary...
 
[quote name='t0llenz']Those all the way on the right hate McCain because of 2 reasons -- 1.) his proposal on immigration this past year; 2.) his views on campaign finance reform.[/QUOTE]

Tsk, tsk -- you forgot his opposition to torture.
 
its cause he is a phony. He was always more moderate, and now he is acting all conservative for primary purposes. I mean all candidates do this to some extent. But apparently he crossed some invisible line to true blue neo cons, and can't come back
 
Perhaps, trq, but those two points t0llenz mentioned also took place in the context of the most unforgivable of sins: bipartisan-sponsored legislation.
 
I wonder if someone will call him a manchurian candidate again.

I'm not sure how these people still call themselves conservatives after carrying Bush's water for the last 8 years. Bush signed McCain-Feingold and Bush supported McCain's immigration bill. He also presided over the largest expansion of government in recent history, and again expanded government with Ted Kennedy with No Child Left Behind.

The talking heads don't like McCain because he's a reasonable man. He's not an us vs them, no compromises, scorched earth kind of guy like Romney tried to project himself as. He's not the kind of guy who will say absurd, inflammatory things, like voting Democrat is voting for terorism. He's also not a creationist nutjob, and a significant part of their party will vote for one of those, even if his politics are very liberal (Huckabee).
 
McCain was never really moderate. He supported the Defense of Marriage Act, he's pro-life, he's a budget hawk, and he supports the war in Iraq. Not really moderate stances, to say the least...

But yea, opposition to torture, that can't endear him to too many on the ridiculous side of the right.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Perhaps, trq, but those two points t0llenz mentioned also took place in the context of the most unforgivable of sins: bipartisan-sponsored legislation.[/QUOTE]

True, true, but let's not forget they swiftboated his ass long before they got Kerry in the grinder, and nobody on that side said boo. They let the idealogical nutjob drag the principled (relatively) moderate to the river and hold him under, and all this before McCain was sponsoring much that anybody cared about. For whatever reason, there's a big voting block over there that all these talking heads represent that detests McCain simply because he has the temerity to believe in evolution, not condone torture, and yet call himself a Republican. Like science to a fundamentalist, they hate him because he shows that there are alternatives to what they're doing. The only way the Coulters/Limbaughs/etc make any sort of sense, even to their base, is with dichotomous thinking, with the options they lay out. Just by not doing things EXACTLY their way, he's a threat. There's no spectrum of solutions over there. There's only "Bush as Godking," and "Traitor."
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']its cause he is a phony. He was always more moderate, and now he is acting all conservative for primary purposes. I mean all candidates do this to some extent. But apparently he crossed some invisible line to true blue neo cons, and can't come back[/QUOTE]

He's way, way, way, WAY better than Romney, Giuliani, even Huckabee on those points. If that's what they cared about they wouldn't have been shoving Giuliani down our throats.
 
Simply because he's not a true conservative and is essentially a moderate Democrat in disguise. But he's a better option than Hillary or Obama so I can live with him being the Republican nominee.
 
[quote name='dafoomie']I'm not sure how these people still call themselves conservatives after carrying Bush's water for the last 8 years. Bush signed McCain-Feingold and Bush supported McCain's immigration bill. He also presided over the largest expansion of government in recent history, and again expanded government with Ted Kennedy with No Child Left Behind.[/QUOTE]

I feel this way too.
 
[quote name='dopa345']Simply because he's not a true conservative and is essentially a moderate Democrat in disguise. But he's a better option than Hillary or Obama so I can live with him being the Republican nominee.[/QUOTE]

He's not a true ... what? He's anti-abortion, pro-death penalty, has a slew of pro-gun votes behind him, backs Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine, and "Voted with Republican Party 87.3% of 165 votes. (Sep 2007)" (http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm) How is THAT a "moderate democrat in disguise?"
 
[quote name='trq']He's not a true ... what? He's anti-abortion, pro-death penalty, has a slew of pro-gun votes behind him, backs Bush's pre-emptive war doctrine, and "Voted with Republican Party 87.3% of 165 votes. (Sep 2007)" (http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm) How is THAT a "moderate democrat in disguise?"[/QUOTE]

Yeah, dopa is just dittoing the conservative retards' talking point that has absolutely no real substance to it. Don't worry about it.
 
So what looks & sounds better?

a) President Hillary?

b) President Clinton: II ?

c) Clinton the 44th?

160px-Hillary_Rodham_Clinton.jpg


So when do we get our own Hillary worship thread on this forum???

It's been fun getting called a Leftwing Kook Nutjob these past 8 years; I'll be looking forward to being called a Rightwing Religious Extremist in the next 8 years....
 
[quote name='evanft']Yeah, dopa is just dittoing the conservative retards' talking point that has absolutely no real substance to it. Don't worry about it.[/QUOTE]

Sigh... The question was why McCain is disliked by hard-line conservatives and I gave my opinions on why. While he has voted conservative on some issues, on other positions, like for amnesty for illegal immigrants, campaign finance reform and federal funding for stem cell research he really irritates staunch conservatives. I actually support McCain now that Romney is out of the picture and hardly describe myself as a hard-line conservative. If you disagree then fine but there's no need to insult me which adds nothing to the discussion.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Now, I don't get it personally, but I just read a one-line quip that seems to have really explained it better than anyone yet.

Imagine if Joe Lieberman was the Democrat Presidential nominee.[/quote]

:lol::rofl::applause: That actually summed it up very nicely. I hadn't though about it that way, but the comparison/analogy does work. I hope you don't mind if I steal that....

[quote name='ananag112']We need a moderate president who would unite the nation. I am happy McCain has all but won as Republican Presidential candidate. He agrees with at least some of my views (such as stem cell research). As of now, if its McCain vs Clinton, I would likely vote for McCain. Not sure about Obama vs. McCain however.[/quote]

I'm in the same boat as you. Clinton v McCain - er..I'm sort of leaning McCain, and well, Obama V McCain is a no-brainer for me. Obama all the way.

Edit: I have no idea what I was thinking; I take it back. McCain is a joke.
 
[quote name='t0llenz']Those all the way on the right hate McCain because of 2 reasons -- 1.) his proposal on immigration this past year; 2.) his views on campaign finance reform.

The former they view as terrible, especially because he was trying to compromise with Ted Kennedy *gasp* and the latter they view as an encroachment on free speech. More or less, because McCain is willing to compromise to actually get stuff done based on his conscience and the understanding that there are people out there who don't agree with him...radical conservatives hate him. Then again, those people would only be happy with Alan Keyes (who dishoned his lesbian daughter and carpetbagged into Illinois after railing Clinton for doing the same thing) or Ron Paul (who may or may not be a racist, anti-semite, and more or less ridiculously naieve on foreign policy...strict isolation doesn't work, ever) as the nominee...so, will probably vote Constitution/Libertarian this round. Sadly, they're voices are more obnoxious than most...and are being fed by talking heads like Rush and Coulter who are all sorts of upset that every single person they wanted to endorse failed in the primary...[/quote]

Your points on Ron Paul are all true. It's interesting looking up some of the questionable endorsements he's received, plus that one journal he used to...errr...didn't write in.
 
[quote name='HuppSav']If mccain wins I am leaving the Country.[/QUOTE]
Maybe Vietnam would be happy to host you for the duration of his presidency.

I would be OK with McCain or Obama, but Deval Patrick's work as governor has made me skeptical of blindly optimistic politicians with little real world experience.

I'm also not at all concerned with McCain's views on abortion. If they were going to do anything at all about it, they would have when they had both houses of congress and the presidency. Its lipservice at this point.
 
my music teacher is very very conservative (only teacher i ever had that isn't liberal). He said the reason he do sent like McCain because he is just too liberal. He said hes a democrat with just a republican name tag.
 
If you want to know why conservatives hate McCain so much, you should probably ask some real conservatives. Which is hard to find on this board.

Well, I AM a conservative. And I hardly "hate" John McCain. I don't however support this guy as my candidate.

I think the quip above about "imagine if Dems had Joe Lieberman as their candidate" to understand how conservatives feel about McCain is spot on.

McCain has a rating of 65 out of 100 from the American Conservative Union, for the year 2006 votes in the Senate. I'm not talking about this guy's lifetime ratings because it's what he has done lately that is most important. That is dam near the bottom among Republicans. Only worse guy I can think of is Arlen Specter, who is wholly disliked by conservative Republicans here in PA.

When it comes to tax cuts, illegal immigration reform, drilling for our own oil and other similar issues, McCain doesn't support any of them.

While many of you liberals may disagree with us conservatives on issues, certainly you can understand that the reason you would be upset with a middle-of-the-road lukewarm candidate is because you BELIEVE in your issues.

You have certain key issues in which you believe, and when your partie's candidate doesn't meet your personal sniff-test--- you become irritated. This is true for both the liberal leftie communist, and the conservative rightie capitalist.
 
I'm glad to see Arlen Specter finally taking action against illegal spying. Too bad it's not upholding the constitution against a corrupt government, but instead against a sport that no one's cared about in 15 years. :roll:
 
[quote name='penmyst']Well, I AM a conservative. And I hardly "hate" John McCain. I don't however support this guy as my candidate. [/QUOTE]

So who is/was your candidate?
 
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