Son Of McCain
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When talk turned to probable presidential contenders, no one last night seemed to give Tim Pawlenty much of a chance. Nonetheless, it appears that Pawlenty is moving to re-assemble many members of the McCain campaign as part of his preliminary efforts in preparing a bid. This makes sense, as Pawlenty was one of the true McCain loyalists during the last election. While many elected officials had either abandoned McCain early on or refused to back him until he was already the de facto nominee, Pawlenty was unusual in his consistent and public support. The story from The Hill had this passage that should remove any doubt about the kind of foreign policy thinking Pawlenty will be entertaining:
Among those interested in getting to know Pawlenty are Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Randy Scheunemann [bold mine-DL], two top policy advisers from the McCain presidential campaign who have joined the Minnesota governor’s host committee.
If you are interested in angry Russophobia and needless provocation of other major powers, Pawlenty might well be the candidate for you.
What might be more interesting is whether or not Republican activists and primary voters will recoil from a campaign filled with top McCain staffers. As a losing nominee unpopular with conservative activists, McCain would have much to offer Pawlenty in terms of prestige, so I wonder how much of a liability close association with McCain and his advisors could be. Add to that the instinctve revulsion many economic conservative activists seem to have for any candidate who expresses interest in addressing the concerns of working-class voters, and Pawlenty could have some significant difficulties.
Filed under: foreign policy, politics
I think the anger amongst Republicans over McCain is over-represented by some loud voices. He might have been unpopular with about half the base, and the virulent unpopularity belonged to about half those folks. The candidate a lot of these angry voices endorsed was Thompson, and his campaign and results were this side of terrible.
This will be an interesting primary. You’ll have Palin talking about seeing Russian fighters over her house, and Pawlenty talking about saving us from a Russian ideology poised to take over the world.
Too bad, because Pawlenty seems intelligent, sober, and balanced as a person. Russophobia, though? Bad.
[...] Pawlenty has been sending a lot of signals that he will be a candidate in 2012. Too bad he just disqualified himself. What kind of cluelessness does it take to want to reassemble McCain’s team? He should be [...]
The base won’t forgive McCain for supporting amnesty. The base won’t let anyone support amnesty or even make a conciliatory gesture toward amnesty – see Huckabee. Which basically means that the base is writing off any support from Latinos, and thus writing off Florida. Florida Latinos went from voting about 57% for the Republican to voting about 57% for the Democrat (if my memory serves).
Hard to win presidential elections when you go in with California, New York, Illinois and Florida already in the other parties column.
The delusion that we must reach out to Hispanics to win elections is damaging to our national interest. The right can win the next few election cycles by just gaining a wider portion of the white vote. The GOP lost last time due to white apathy toward McCain. We can win indefinitely if we close the borders and deport the interlopers who swell the Democratic ranks. And finally we have to stop immigration and the idiotic practice of recognizing anchor babies.
If amnesty goes through, we will lose the country and all this will be moot.
Gordianus: “..the idiotic practice of recognizing anchor babies. ”
Not much on that Constitution, are ya?
“The GOP lost last time due to white apathy toward McCain.”
Amazing how 8 years of disaster gets sweeped under the rug. If you really think that way, you’d go with Jeb ‘Not George!’ Bush in 2012.
” The right can win the next few election cycles by just gaining a wider portion of the white vote. ”
IIRC, Nate Silver covered this idea, and figured that one could, but it’d be hard. And that would be in 2010/12; after that a ‘f*ck the spics’ strategy could easily lose Texas to the GOP, which would make a lock.
And, of course, this all assumes that one can shift the GOP even more to the a lily-white demographic, without (a) losing more Asian ancestry people, and (b) whites who don’t consider white sheets to be clothing.
I do hope that you’ll try.
As you predicted, Mr. Larison:
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/10/14/russia-thwarts-obama-on-iran
BarryD, As a great liberal once said, “The constitution is not a suicide pact.” I concur. I defy you to find textual evidence for the intent of the framers for primatives to sneak across our border in order to inflict their descendants, relatives and themselves upon us without our consent.
You entertain the delusion that I’m a Bush supporter. In fact it is the Bush family that consistently sells out the legacy population of this country. As a “Big Tent” immigration enthusiast, you have more in common with them than I do.
Sorry you don’t like things “Lilly White.” That’s your problem.
“. . . for primatives to sneak across our border in order to inflict their descendants, relatives and themselves upon us without our consent.”
Dear me, where *do* people get the idea that conservative thinking is permeated with ugliness?
Truly, that’s what McCain needed and the GOP needs to win back America’s esteem – more primitive stereotyping and more reflexive equation of Hispanics and illegal immigration.
Wow, Gordianus. Quite impressive.
“Dear me, where *do* people get the idea that conservative thinking is permeated with ugliness?”
Probably from liberals like yourself. Gordianus speaks the truth. If that is ugly to you then that is a problem. Do you find the truth ugly?
“Truly, that’s what McCain needed and the GOP needs to win back America’s esteem – more primitive stereotyping and more reflexive equation of Hispanics and illegal immigration.”
Yeah all those illegal Canadians and Swedes are really a problem. Again, you are uisng the wrong terminology. Reflective = Factual.
And I always love “The constitution is not a suicide pact.”
I trust that you will refrain from offering any constitutional arguments against anything done by Democrats.
BarryD. You wrote, “I trust that you will refrain from offering any constitutional arguments against anything done by Democrats.” The meaning of this is unclear. Nothing I wrote suggests that I make constitutional arguments based on party. Try less to sound clever.
Krogerfoot. The truth is frequently ugly, haven’t you noticed? BTW it’s not stereotyping to equating illegal immigration with Hispanics, it’s just a fact. If Hispanics aren’t the single largest group if illegal immigrants, who in you opinion is? Try not to stereotype in you reply.
“BTW it’s not stereotyping to equating illegal immigration with Hispanics, it’s just a fact. If Hispanics aren’t the single largest group if illegal immigrants, who in you opinion is? Try not to stereotype in you reply.”
Okay, fine, Gordianus. I would have thought the notion “anti-amnesty = anti-Hispanic bigotry” was a simpleminded stereotype, but maybe I was misguided. Let us use “Hispanic” and “illegal immigrant” interchangeably then, if you prefer.
One question, though: Is the antipathy for the possessive pronoun case and the infinitive some kind of “legacy population of this country” thing? Which tribe would that be?
This shouldn’t be so hard but apparently it is, so I’ll spell this out. The majority of illegals are Hispanic. That doesn’t mean that all illegals are Hispanic. In my view we need to call a halt to all immigration immediately. With unemployment as high as it is, how can we justify the willing importation of workers to compete for scarce jobs? The H1B and other work related visa programs should also be ended, as they are used to displace American workers with cheap foreign substitutes.
You use the word bigot so I’ll tell you a little story. I was once the State of New Jersey’s Inspector of Halfway Houses. All halfway house inmates were responsible to find jobs as part of the regimen of rehabilitation. This was seen as a necessary step in reintegrating felons into society. Inmates could readily find jobs in warehousing and landscaping at the time. By the time I left, it was almost impossible to find such work due to the prevalence of illegals in these lines of work. Illegal immigration is a scourge on the Black community. So before you throw words like bigot around, think of who your mind set is hurting the most.
The 1965 immigration law is replacing the population and the culture, of the country I was born in. To conserve the culture you inherit is the essence of conservatism. What’s your agenda?
Gordianus, on October 16th, 2009 at 1:07 pm Said:
“BarryD. You wrote, “I trust that you will refrain from offering any constitutional arguments against anything done by Democrats.” The meaning of this is unclear. Nothing I wrote suggests that I make constitutional arguments based on party. Try less to sound clever.”
Well, when arguing with you, I do end up getting mud on myself (as in the saying about wresting with swine), so I do sound less clever.
For your part, how about trying to lie a little less? You used the argument ‘the constitution is not a suicide pact’, when arguing against obeying the constitution (have somebody read it to you) where children born in the USA are citizens.
I pointed out that (in so many words) that anybody using that sort of argument is no longer morally entitled to complain about the opposition disobeying the constitution.
Perhaps you should get somebody who understands written English better to help you with this.
Gordianus, on October 17th, 2009 at 10:27 am Said:
“The 1965 immigration law is replacing the population and the culture, of the country I was born in. To conserve the culture you inherit is the essence of conservatism. What’s your agenda?”
Living up to the ideals of the USA?
The old ploy about following America’s “Ideals” while destroying America’s substance is revealing. I suspect that our ideals are so far apart that debate is impossible.
The founders made explicit their opposition to mass immigration by people from dissimilar societies. I read the Constitution as reflecting their preferences rather than yours. We “lilly-white” people who have multi-generational investment in this republic have both a right and a duty to defend our interest, whatever your “Ideals” may be.
You do not engage in factual debate. Your emotional animus towards patriotic immigration reform leads me to the suspicion that you are a troll from the Commentary blog. You are obviously no conservative.
…and thus it is proven that conservatives are often racist. Keep it up, it helps us liberals win elections. But God help your immoral racist soul.
Drumsju. First, the multi-cultural left creates a factionalized society based on race. Then it disallows one race from defending it’s interest. How very moral of you.
Gordianus, on October 19th, 2009 at 11:32 am Said:
“I suspect that our ideals are so far apart that debate is impossible. ”
D-mn f-cking straight.