Matt Towery's Inside
The Numbers:
They Hate McCain ... Do You?
By Matthew Towery
(2/7/08) During the 2000 presidential election, I had a heated
television interview with John McCain. It was about his contention
that the C130 aircraft, used as our nation's primary means of moving
military equipment and supplies, should be phased out. He advocated
dispensing with the planes, which to this day are of vital importance
in operations such as the Iraq War. I thought his position reflected
a grudge that he held against certain military aircraft manufacturers,
and was shortsighted.
Within a matter of minutes, what was supposed to be a relatively
uneventful 30-minute broadcast turned into a clash between the two
of us. Sen. McCain suddenly displayed that "other side"
of his personality for which he is so famous -- or notorious --
among his congressional peers in Washington. He got indignant.
So as well as anyone, I know McCain can be myopic on certain issues.
I also suspect that many of his Senate votes have been about his
personal dislike for political opponents. His vote against the Bush
tax cuts might qualify as an example. (He now rationalizes that
vote by saying he refused to check off on any tax cut that wasn't
accompanied by big cuts in federal spending.)
On tort reform, McCain fought his fellow GOP Senate mates. Whether
he'll acknowledge it or not, he's had a surprisingly cozy connection
with the Trial Bar -- a key Democratic donor constituency -- and
thus at times has grazed up against the trial lawyers' philosophical
proclivities in appointing judges.
And so, they hate him: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter
and the old-guard Republican establishment.
Coulter has already trumpeted that GOP presidential candidate Mike
Huckabee is not only liberal, but also not very bright. She says
she'll campaign for Hillary Clinton if Clinton is the Democratic
nominee and Huckabee the Republican nominee.
Coulter presumably might find herself disappointed to be in Hillary's
camp when she finds out that Hillary is unlikely to be an unabashed
supporter of the Second Amendment, or of the "Flat Tax,"
as Huckabee is.
Rush is a pundit king I've always personally liked and viewed as
usually being on target, or close to it. On Feb. 6, he was railing
against all those misguided Republicans that, for some inexplicable
reason, aren't voting as he believes Republicans ought to.
So I put this question to Republicans everywhere: Do you hate John
McCain, too? Are you willing to sit at home on Election Day in November,
or hand out leaflets for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? For conservatives,
what's the cost/benefit breakdown of having the unworthy McCain
as your candidate or your president, or having someone from the
Democratic side instead?
Obviously, I can't speak for individual voters. But I can shed
a ray of light on what some of these talk-show hosts and megastar
writers would lose with a President McCain -- access and money.
If McCain's relationship with the Republican "superstars"
of the post-Reagan era has been frayed up until recently, now it's
been shredded for good.
What might that mean to those who make their money bashing "liberals,"
and often with inside information from their buddies in high places?
If McCain were to become president, it would mean the gravy train
is starting to congeal into something less palatable to the refined
tastes of the pundocracy.
Let's take it another step forward. What if a presidential nominee
McCain chooses as his vice-presidential running mate the hero of
the Bible Belt, Mike Huckabee? The guy who Coulter considers a dim-witted
liberal? Boy, that would sure win her a lot of new fans in those
red meat-eating Southern states where her books sell so well.
Maybe a good number of Republicans will vote for Clinton or Obama
if McCain is their opponent, but I doubt it. Once Republicans started
comparing the Democratic policy agenda with that of that devilish
rebel McCain, they'd pause in their thinking. McCain would start
to look to conservatives as the last roadblock on the way to massive
tax increases, universal health care, immediate withdrawal from
Iraq, and heaven knows what other "progressive" fantasies.
And as for the superstars of the GOP world of talk radio and mega-selling
books, they would be back, too.
Why? Because they can't afford to let their own party pass them
by. It would deflate their airborne egos and drain their wallets.
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Matt Towery served as the chairman of former Speaker Newt Gingrich's
political organization from 1992 until Gingrich left Congress. He
is a former Georgia state representative, the author of several
books and currently heads the polling and political information
firm InsiderAdvantage. To find out more about Matthew Towery and
read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists,
visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
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