McCain panders to the religious right.

[Silver]

RNC: McCain Won’t Choose Abortion-Supporting Running Mate]

"Several sources at the RNC told FOX News that in the last 36 hours, senior McCain advisers and aides have told RNC officials that McCain “got the message” last week that choosing a running mate who supports abortion rights would not be helpful."

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/08/19/rnc-mccain-wont-choose-abortion-supporting-running-mate/

I am so frustrated with what has happened to the Republican party.

[Diraker]

Just back from vacation with the kids and I'm going out (so maybe I'll comment more tommorrow) but during that Rick Warren church debate things both seemed to be pandering...I only saw clips and being that I was in Lancaster Jesus Land (or so it seems to me...compared to NY) PA that is what was getting the most play. McCain mentioned the anti-choice thing there too. I'll just mention how lame I think it is that the first debate is a church thing. Essh. Aren't people sick of all the religion in politics yet?

[Konrad]

uber lame...althought I have to say that I love the format of that "debate". Actually asking tough and direct questions and then giving the candidates time to respond with something more than a 30 second sound byte ftw.

[Siridean]

I've lived in Arizona for 25 years. I believe the McCain you're seeing now is not the true McCain, but one "created" for the purpose of winning this election. He's a Goldwater Republican; a moderate. He ran as a moderate in 2000 and lost in the primaries to Bush, so this time around he's trying to appear more right-wing to win this election.

I believe if McCain wins, you'll see a moderate in the White House, the McCain you saw in the 2000 election, not the McCain you see in the political campaign being run right now.

[Konrad]

A Goldwater Republican is fiscally conservative, something that McCain definitely isn't.

[Siridean]

When I think Goldwater Republican I think this:

It's "basic" Goldwater conservatism — limited government, free enterprise, a strong military...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2007/oct/08/goldwaters-1960-advice32resonates-for-2008/


Man Barry Goldwater was a real character, LOL, he rarely was afraid to speak his mind, especially once he no longer worried about being elected:

By the 1980s, with Ronald Reagan as president and the growing involvement of the religious right in conservative politics, Goldwater's libertarian views on personal issues were revealed, which he believed were an integral part of true conservatism. Goldwater viewed abortion as a matter of personal choice, not intended for government intervention[citation needed].

As a passionate defender of personal liberty, he saw the religious right's views as an encroachment on personal privacy and individual liberties[citation needed]. In his 1980 Senate reelection campaign, Goldwater won support from religious conservatives but in his final term voted consistently to uphold legalized abortion and, in 1981, gave a speech on how he was angry about the bullying of American politicians by religious organizations, and would "fight them every step of the way".[29] Goldwater also disagreed with the Reagan administration on certain aspects of foreign policy (e.g. he opposed the decision to mine Nicaraguan harbors). Notwithstanding his prior differences with Dwight Eisenhower, Goldwater in a 1986 interview rated him the best of the seven Presidents with whom he had worked.

After his retirement in 1987, Goldwater described the conservative Arizona Governor Evan Mecham as "hardheaded" and called on him to resign, and two years later stated that the Republican party had been taken over by a "bunch of kooks". In a 1994 interview with the Washington Post the retired senator said,

“ When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye. ”

In response to Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell's opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O'Connor to the Supreme Court, of which Falwell had said, "Every good Christian should be concerned", Goldwater retorted: "Every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass."[30] Goldwater also had harsh words for his one-time political protege, President Reagan, particularly after the Iran-Contra Affair became public in 1986. Journalist Robert MacNeil, a friend of Goldwater's from the 1964 Presidential campaign, recalled interviewing him in his office shortly afterward. "He was sitting in his office with his hands on his cane...and he said to me, 'Well, aren't you going to ask me about the Iran arms sales?' It had just been announced that the Reagan administration had sold arms to Iran. And I said, 'Well, if I asked you, what would you say?' He said, 'I'd say it's the god-damned stupidest foreign policy blunder this country's ever made!'",[31] though aside from the Iran-Contra scandal, Goldwater thought nonetheless that Reagan was a good president.[32] Also, in 1988 during that year's presidential campaign, he pointedly told vice-presidential nominee Dan Quayle at a campaign event in Arizona "I want you to go back and tell George Bush to start talking about the issues." [33]

Some of Goldwater's statements in the 1990s aggravated many social conservatives. He endorsed Democrat Karan English in an Arizona congressional race, urged Republicans to lay off Clinton over the Whitewater scandal, and criticized the military's ban on homosexuals: "Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar."[34] He also said, "You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight." A few years before his death he went so far as to address the right wing, "Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists, and you've hurt the Republican party much more than the Democrats have."[35]

In 1996 he told Bob Dole, whose own presidential campaign received lukewarm support from conservative Republicans: "We're the new liberals of the Republican party. Can you imagine that?" In that same year, with Senator Dennis DeConcini, Goldwater endorsed an Arizona initiative to legalize medical marijuana against the will of social conservatives.[36]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

[Drekor]

Hrmm, interesting fellow.

[Kydorias]

A Goldwater Republican is fiscally conservative, something that McCain definitely isn't.Think so? McCain has led the fight against pork barrel politics amongst our Congressional delegation moreso than most any other politician, especially Republicans.

He's not fiscally conservative concerning things like the Iraq war, which I agree with 100%. We need to win this and handcuffing our diplomatic and military efforts by withholding funding is not the right answer.

[Konrad]

Until recently he has not been a liberal (in the classical sense of the word). While his attempts to end pork barrel spending are certainly to be praised, it was not until fairly recently (the primary) that he has started to embrace the principles of a free market. He opposed the Bush tax cuts as well as attempts to privatize or scale back the massive federal social programs. His McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform bill was a clear assault on freedom of speech and yet has been completely ineffective at keeping money out of politics (the only way to get the money out of politics is to get politics out of our money).

If he is elected, which by some inexplicable reason it looks as if he may have a shot, I don't expect a return to limited government either economically or socially. However, with Obama I am without doubt that we will slide even farther under the boot of socialism and government control.

[Mourne]

If he is elected, which by some inexplicable reason it looks as if he may have a shot, I don't expect a return to limited government either economically or socially. However, with Obama I am without doubt that we will slide even farther under the boot of socialism and government control.


Yuuuuuuuuuup. /sadface

[Oakbone]

spot on Konrad