I supported them too.

>And I support the President’s immigration stance.

I agree with it generally in the abstract. I have trouble believing that a “Guest worker program” will enforce the “Guest” part… Europe had a “Guest Worker Program” and now they’re facing jihad from within their own broders.

The Immigration Bill that McCain drafted was a piece of crap. Why were there no hearings? Why was the public not allowed to participate in the drafting of the bill and the compromises?

Why was it treated like the 10 Commandments descending from the Mountain.

These asses in Congress have hearings for steroids by athletes but no hearings for something as critical as the future of our nation?

The Bill stunk to high heaven.

>I want english as our stated language.

Me too

>And I supported the Dubai ports deal.

I didn’t support it, but I didn’t oppose it either

>And I supported his hardline stance on terrorists.

Not hard enough. But he’s doing better than anyone else would.

>Abortion is not one of my pet issues but, I do support the ban on third term abortions.

Abortion should be “deConstitutionalized” and allow the States to settle their own policy. This is a Republic not a Judicial Tryanny.

>And I understand what the President is trying to do regarding the global warming farse.

Bush has Triangulated the Republicans into obscurity.

I want Leadership not Calculation.

>I support the ban on gay marriage but would allow civil unions.

I support the people and the State Legislatures deciding and not courts. In principle I oppose gay marriage.

>I supported Terry Schiavo being kept alive.

Me too. It baffles me that people complain about this.

> And by all means, cut taxes as much as possible and keep the government out of our business.

All tax cuts are going bye bye next year.. thanks for the tax hike, Bush and GOP Congress.

>It’s apparently the SOCIAL conservatives who have more stringent views than me.

The SoCons weren’t looking for much… but given their abuse by the GOP and the lack of follow up with any other of the pillars of Republican conservative base, the SoCons were the first to finally say BASTA.

>So who’s more conservative: fiscal conservatives, paleo conservatives, social conservatives, neoconservatives, Bush conservatives? Get mey drift?

Bush is not conservative. Cutting taxes and fighting our enemies shouldn’t really be something that we should thank our lucky stars a Republican has done… that’s the bare minimum!

>It’’s been quite a coalition made up of Evangelicals ( who, on the whole believe in global warming!), social conservatives, religious right, fiscal conservatives, moderates and libertarians we have in the republican party.

And all groups betrayed by that party.

>See, as the proverb states, there is a time to reap and a time to sow. It’s not all black and white ALL of the time.

The GOP has reaped the whirlwind or something.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls.. it tolls for the party of Lincoln.

>You’re not giving up anything of what you believe to govern this country as President when you realize that this is a country where 48% of the people voted AGAINST the conservative in ‘00 and ‘04. They actually voted for John Kerry, a true liberal. The President has to govern ALL the people and he can’t be a dictator (which is what a liberal will do!)

Uh huh.. just wait till Obama wins… you won’t hear any of this mamby pamby “lets rule as if we’re still in the minority” policy the Republicans have stuck to since the Govt shutdown.

>Jihadists believe that they are 100% correct all of the time and that all of us should believe as they do. They are not governed by the people, of the people or for the people. They are dictators, which is what I am saying many on the social right have become and don’t realize it. They are trying to hold all the factions in the republican party hostage and then crying that moderates are trying to do the same. Whether or not moderates are trying to do the same is up for debate, but I can say this: WE MUST WIN IN NOVEMBER. My children’s and grandchildren’s lives depend on it, not to mention our beloved America.

You make them sound like Leftists. Thanks to gutless republicans, there’s no one to fight the Left.

So who’s more conservative: fiscal conservatives, paleo conservatives, social conservatives, neoconservatives, Bush conservatives? Get mey drift?

It”s been quite a coalition made up of Evangelicals ( who, on the whole believe in global warming!), social conservatives, religious right, fiscal conservatives, moderates and libertarians we have in the republican party.

See, as the proverb states, there is a time to reap and a time to sow. It’s not all black and white ALL of the time.

You’re not giving up anything of what you believe to govern this country as President when you realize that this is a country where 48% of the people voted AGAINST the conservative in ’00 and ’04. They actually voted for John Kerry, a true liberal. The President has to govern ALL the people and he can’t be a dictator (which is what a liberal will do!)

Jihadists believe that they are 100% correct all of the time and that all of us should believe as they do. They are not governed by the people, of the people or for the people. They are dictators, which is what I am saying many on the social right have become and don’t realize it. They are trying to hold all the factions in the republican party hostage and then crying that moderates are trying to do the same. Whether or not moderates are trying to do the same is up for debate, but I can say this: WE MUST WIN IN NOVEMBER. My children’s and grandchildren’s lives depend on it, not to mention our beloved America.

Oh yeah that is right McCain is the nominee because Democrats locked all the Republicans in a closet and would not let them vote and then abandoned their own primary just so they could pretend to be Republicans and put the weakest candidate in for the Republicans because they were so SCARED of a real Republican like Tancredo.

At least I think that is how the theory works.

Talk about naive.

And if my ideas about what conservative and far right is are ridiculous, how do you explain the fact that I can support Roberts and Alito and yet not consider myself a fan of the far right fringes?

The fact that you refuse to understand that the purity war being waged by the far right is not something that is good for the GOP is just part of your own denial of reality.

Unlike Hoover, George W. Bush knew that he needed to turn on the cash spickets and the results have been magnificent in terms of their intended goals: keep us out of a worldwide depression and for security’s sake, keep our economy humming. How long has the economy been growing???? We haven’t even had back to back contractions, no?

I mean, really, there’s just so much one man can do in the never-ending beauracracy of government, especially when he’s trying to get our military in top shape for our very survival, after a clinton administration’s cuts and neglect.

If you hate Bush, no amount of truth or fact will change that, imho. So be it.

And for the record, at least three things George did for conservatives: conservative Supreme Court nominees, no government stem cell research, cut taxes, ….there is much more like a strong military and the FISA court changes allowing the FBI to pass on leads, and bringing down the GORELIK wall at the FBI… but space is limited. (And really, he NEVER campaigned on immigration because it was NEVER an issue back then on the national level. But he also has not changed his views on that subject either. He believes he is right…as others believe they are right.)

Ya see, it’s always, more, more, more! Who cares about a war, just give me my next and newest pet social issue, I demand it!!

For example, I was perfectly willing to support Bush because, where it counted the most, he was doing the right things. Even though I knew when it came to government policy and the budget he was no different than the Democrats (other than tax cuts)

I know no politician can do it all. I dont expect any of them to.

I’m with Ann Coulter who has said… expect no more than 3 bedrock principles or objectives to be pursued by a President.. to want more is unrealistic.

What I didn’t anticipate was that the govt was going to get so out of control LARGE. What I didn’t expect was G Bush CREATING entitlement programs, not ending them.

What I didn’t expect was Democrat Party Values in the GOP.

George Bush responded to 9/11 in just the right way. His decision to take care of Iraq was completely justified..

But what has the man done since 2003? He let the Dems and Media lie about him , the country and the military since 2003 with absolute abdandon.

The foreign policy of the 2nd term is a complete disaster.

Our money is worth crap due to the deficits.

Republicans allowed themselves to be branded as Democrats.

Well when the choice is between Democratized Republicans and Democrats. why not choose the real thing?

McCains pamby mamby approach towards terrorists, as evidened by his desire to close Gitmo… McCains buying into the anti-capitalist designs of Global Warming alarmism… McCain’s tendendacy to turn on his supporters to appease the Dems, Left and Media…is just more of the same gutless and rootless Republican “leadership” that has been going on since the government shutdown in the Clinton years.

Since Bush has done nothing to sustain the public’s support since 2003 for at least his war policy .. all the gangre of the false hope of Republican-led government is now visible for all to see.

Enough already.

No, that’s what happens when power goes to the heads of certain segments of the political debate.

And for the record, not a single solitary segment won the ’00 and ’04 election. There is NO MAJORITY of any segment: conservative, moderate, far right, etc. NONE. So stop with the intellectual dishonesty about having the power to put someone in office. It ain’t true. It takes all. Conservatives CANNOT win on their own. Tancredo can’t even get into double digits. Why? Why didn’t those with megabucks put their money on him? They could have! But didn’t.

I am so sick of this. I really don’t EVER want to play on a team with those who are trying to advance an ideolgy of pure conservatism. They are not team players – they are nattering nabobs of negativity and think they deserve to win all at all cost, America be damned. They cannot be trusted. They get what they want on 90% of the issues and then they say, “more, more, more!”Such spiritual arrogance.

So how is that different from the hard Left, I ask?

John McCain is not my first choice but I am supporting him because I can prioritize my desires and he ranks high on most of those. Not all, but most, #1 being the War on Terror.

I don’t call Malkin conservative. I call her strident. She has become the thing she hates, imho, and she is full of hate, imho. And, imho, like Ann Coulter, she has absolutely no desire to be in a goodfaith relationship with anyone other than her following. Enough already.

By: David Paul Kuhn
May 23, 2008 05:20 PM EST

It sounds crazy at first. Amid dire reports about the toxic political environment for Republican candidates and the challenges facing John McCain, many top GOP strategists believe he can defeat Barack Obama — and by a margin exceeding President Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004.

But the contours of the electoral map, combined with McCain’s unique strengths and the nature of Obama’s possible vulnerabilities, have led to a cautious and muted optimism that McCain could actually surpass Bush’s 35-electoral-vote victory in 2004. Though they expect he would finish far closer to Obama in the popular vote, the thinking is that he could win by as many 50 electoral votes.

Among the 10 strategists interviewed by Politico for this story, there was near-uniform belief that had any other Republican been nominated, the party’s prospects in November would be nil.

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=174C0DE5-3048-5C12-000617344734AAFE