Cheney "throes" in with McCain

Cheney is pretty famous for saying in 2005 that the Iraq insurgency was in it's "last throes". A year later, he stood by his analysis in 2006. Asked about it two years later, he finally admits he was wrong. Finally. Big step in the right direction. When does McCain get the due credit?

McCain is trusted most to protest the country

McCain in tier 1 among democrats and republicans for the war in Iraq and in fighting terror.

i'm ashamed that we're ashamed

Ashamed. That's what i am. Democrats outraise Republicans 2 to 1 in this election. The frontrunner -Giuliani- is pro-choice (even in late term) for the first time ever. The second guy hasn't even declared and wont in august because august is dull or some crap like that. The guy in third (McCain) gets a daily flogging by the right wing 24/7 encouraging mainstream journalistic voltures cirlce him. The guy in 4th place -Romney- never held to a principle (other than that he'd be god when he died) in his life. Ron Paul and John McCain are the only ones to support the gen-x gen-y sect of the republican party by actually WANTING to join the CNN/youtube debate. Why is it that keeping your mouth shut and not running for president is the best way to garner support in one's quest for running for president?

And we wonder why our party's numbers are in the toilet...

save the debate!

First Name* Last Name* Email* Address City State select AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY ZIP Yes, I'd like to receive updates about staying involved. I'm a blogger and I'd like to help. Blog URL: I support: select Sam Brownback Rudy Giuliani Mike Huckabee Duncan Hunter John McCain Ron Paul Mitt Romney Tom Tancredo Fred Thompson Tommy Thompson

To: Sam Brownback, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo, and Tommy Thompson

We've read the news reports that only two of your fellow candidates have agreed to attend the Republican Party of Florida/YouTube debate, and there are major candidates considering snubbing the event.

As Republicans, we believe this is a serious mistake. Every Democratic candidate eagerly accepted the opportunity to answer questions from the American people via YouTube, even Hillary Clinton, the most cautious and calculating of the bunch.

Attend the YouTube debate, and you may get a tough question or two. Don't attend, and millions of Americans will wonder if you were too afraid to answer questions from the Internet, just as Democrats were afraid to go on Fox News. None of you could have gotten to where you are now without showing real political courage. Is that really how you'd like to be known?

Republicans cannot write off the Internet. Thus far, the Democratic candidates have dramatically outperformed Republicans online, most alarmingly in online fundraising. We believe this is a direct result of failing to effectively engage the medium and seize the tremendous opportunity of bottom-up grassroots activism. If you approach the Internet from a position of paralyzing fear, you will be out-gunned, out-manned, and out-raised at every turn. It is fundamentally unacceptable to surrender to the Democrats on one of the most important battlefronts of this election.

And Republicans cannot write off the youth vote. A recent poll showed Democrats with a staggering 24-point advantage among 18 to 29 year old voters. Once a generation of voters is lost like this (just think of the New Deal or Reagan Generations) they are extremely difficult to get back. We are under no illusions that a YouTube debate alone can change that, but denigrating the way millions of young Americans live and communicate does not help.

We sincerely hope you will reconsider any decision to snub the critical January 29th primary state of Florida and 51 million unique YouTube users. The Republican Party is about freedom. A free and open debate that includes the American people could be just what the doctor ordered to break the stanglehold of the liberal media.

Embed this petition on your blog. Cut and paste below:
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Willard flip flops again!

April 2007:

"Why is it that the Democrats wouldn't even go on Fox, but we Republicans are happy to sit there and have Chris Matthews of the Carter administration, former chief of staff to (ex-House speaker) Tip O'Neill?" asked Romney

July 2007:

In an interview Wednesday with the Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader, Romney said he's not a fan of the CNN/YouTube format. Referring to the video of a snowman asking the Democratic candidates about global warming, Romney quipped, "I think the presidency ought to be held at a higher level than having to answer questions from a snowman."

Grow a spine pal.

P.S. I did not know telling a citizen to "lighten up" in a town hall meeting was a subset of a "higher level".

McCain is awesome

McCain pwns General Pace and some other general on Iraq.

In other news McCain is 3 points off Giuliani nationally:

Rudy Giuliani 20%
Fred Thompson 19%
John McCain 17%
Mitt Romney 8%

McCain Hatchet job by CNN

I nice piece of fair an balanced journalism with an extremely flattering picture to boot.

"McCain loses key South Carolina supporter" the title reads.

Who is she? Cyndi Mosteller. Cyndia who? She doesn't even have an article on wikipedia. I'm not sure how "key" such a person is.

However, McCain did receive an endorsement from Buddy Roemer who fetches 14,000 Google hits. 20 times more than Cyndia. Click here for The Smackdown.

Bush aligns with McCain.

Bush continues to align himself with McCain.

On (possibly) closing Guantanamo Bay
On CIA interrigation methods
On the troop surge

Has Bush tipped his had for a McCain endorsement?

Rudy's Leadership

I ready Rudy's book Leadership back in 2002/2003. The book was ok, but I never forgot when he touted his mad attorney skills:

Banishing the squeegee operators was something I suspected we could accomplish fairly easily - and that would have an immediate and measurable impact. I called Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and Denny Young, who played in important role in all equality-of-life-initiatives. Bratton, who shared my belief in treating small crimes as a way to establish lawful, civil behavior and a feeling of safety, came back in a couple of days and told me that the Police Department said that getting rid of the squeegee men couldn't be done. He wanted to do it, but had been told that so long as they were not physically threatening drivers or "demanding" money, we lacked a legal basis to move the operations along or arrest them if they refused.

This is an example of how being a lawyer and former prosecutor could be helpful. I said, "How about the fact that they're jaywalking?" I told him to forget about whether they were asking for money or not. When they stepped off the curb and walked out onto the street they had just violated the law. You could give every single one of them a ticket immediately. Then, in giving them a ticket, you could investigate who they were, whether there were outstanding warrants, and so on. If they became intimidating you could arrest them.

Get them on jaywalking? That's the secret to dismantling New York's world famous squeegee problem? I could have figured that one out on my own. However, I'm not disillusioned enough to think that's a platform from whence I can run for President.

McCain and the media

Why did McCain's relation with the media turn south?

McCain is at odds with the mainstream media for because of his stance on the war. Plain and simple. While he once enjoyed Jon Stewart/Daily show cred, it is now all but gone.

Compare "Sen. John McCain Pt. 2" from April 2007 to "Senator John McCain" from July 2006. Also Marty McFl... er. George Stephanopoulos' headline poaching provocation where he bounced the question, "are you a dead man walking?" Not exactly your finest moment George.

Then there's the immigration. There are a handful of pundits who are stuck in 2000 somewhere between New Hampshire and South Carolina and are still hellbent on a McCain defeat. These talking heads had enough influence to convince enough people to crash Washington's swithboard. Polls however show they only made up 15% of the population who thought the bill didn't go far enough. Then they patted these calling zombies on the back telling them anything Ted Kennedy was involved with was the spawn of Satan. They coveniently left out several parts:
1) Kennedy was involved with the no child left behind which most of the GOP supports
2) In voting against Kennedy, they were also voting WITH Barbara Boxer.
3) They wanted debate while the bill was on the floor, but became enraged when they voted to reopen debate. (Why didn't these guys just honestly call for a fillibuster of the bill. I'm talking to Sean Hannity.)
4) In killing the bill, any serious legislation on immigration will have been delayed thru the election year of 2008. Our immigration system has been broken for over 3 decades. Why would our current laws spontaneously heal itself now? That's directed to your Laura Ingraham.
EDIT: and 5) Every tier 1 GOP candidate has historically been just as soft on immigration as McCain, but McCain was the only one to stick to his guns. All the hawkish immigration candidates haven't got a prayer of being elected. (Hunter, Tancredo).

Anyway that's what happened to McCain. He got flogged by the mainstream media by supporting the war and the far right had a war flashback to the 2000 Republican primaries. It's pretty hard to listen to an entire segment on right wing radio and now hear McCain bashing. McCain seemed to be a pretty popular guy when he bashed Donald Rumsfeld for being the worst Secretary of Defense's of all time. But when he was replaced with Gates and David Petraeus replaced George Casey with new stratagies to boot, the mainstream wanted nothing to do. Here's a tip: McCain was calling for a new strategy. Bashing Rumsfeld for the sake of bashing Rumsfeld gets us nowhere pretty frekin fast. Now the mainstream media has accused McCain for aligning himself with Bush. Wise up dimwitts. McCain called for a new strategy within months of Bush's so called mission accomplished speech. There was an alligning BUSH ALIGNED HIMSELF WITH MCCAIN.

McCain the strongest round 2

According to the latest Foxnews poll, McCain is still the strongest GOPer vs the Dems. Also, he's tied for second with Fred Thompson.

McCain fares best against the Dems

After getting crushed by the main stream media and getting flogged by the Right Wing media. McCain fares BEST against all the Dems.

Rudy vs IAFF

Everyone+Dog knows the IAFF has a scathing video attacking Rudy Giuliani. What I want to know is why Rudy's rebuttal merely attacked the organization for being left-leaning. Who cares? The most partisan hacks can have valid points. Take, for example, Larry Flint's smack down on Senator David Vitter. How much sympathy would Vitter get from voters if he merely said Flint was liberal? If these allogations are unfounded prove it!

BTW, Vitter just so happens to be Giuliani's sole endorsement from the Senate for President. Ouch.

Also noteworthy is that McCain leads all Republicans and Democrats with 9. And as a Colorado resident I'm desparately trying to get Allard to reconsider on Romney. I wrote him an email and instantly got an automated email said I'd get information in the mail on Allard's position on the war in Iraq (WTF?). That was about two months ago, and not a single letter from my Senator. Figures.