Strict Construction » McCain

Not Surprised

Ken Cluck — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:01:57 +0000

If there is any image of the problem with the Republican Party over the last few years it’s John McCain. I know, many thought I meant Bush, but even he was never the darling of the “We want to be popular” sycophants among the party leadership. John McCain has a made a career of bucking his own party’s principles to stand for whatever crackpot liberal idea came down the pike. Support for bailouts, amnesty, carbon credits, global warming, and the unconstitutional McCain Feingold shows part of the picture. The rest comes from his opposition to taxes—remember his opposition to the Bush tax cuts? Had I listed these positions before telling you of whom I was speaking, you would assume I meant a leftist Democrat—and you’d be right. Remember when it became obvious that McCain was going to lose the presidential primary to Bush. There was a big push to recruit him to run on the Democratic ticket. What made this so serious was how well he would have fit on that side of the aisle—he’ been little more than a Democratic mole for years.

Now, after fighting hard to get a conservative in the senate seat so long held by Ted Kennedy, those most responsible for the victory are being sold out by none other than their primary darlings. Senator-elect Brown has recorded phone ads for John McCain and Sarah Palin has announced her support for, and intention to campaign for McCain.

The Fallacy of Political Polls

Ken Cluck — Mon, 11 May 2009 21:24:08 +0000

Anyone involved in politics ends up on hundreds of mailing lists, both email and snail-mail. Recently I received an email from John McCain asking me to take part in a poll. This proves that he did not read my response to his last email for support. Had he read it, he would have deleted my name for sure. As for the poll, I usually just delete these because they are worded in such a way to swing the results toward a previously intended direction. The questions will have multiple choice questions that do not even come close to my position, so they are always useless. This one was a perfect example. Here is one of the questions:

Do you believe in limited measures to control climate change or sweeping legislation with the process supporting other priorities of the Administration?

The only choices were between limited measures, sweeping legislation and undecided. I do not believe in sweeping or limited measures to control climate change because I believe that man-made global warming and climate change are propaganda efforts by the hard left to fool us into surrendering our freedoms for our own good. When the Soviet Union and other worker’s Utopias were collapsing socialists and other collectivists needed another vehicle and found it in the radical pseudoscience of global warming.

I guess Mr. McCain, like other eco-nuts, believes that global warming is a fact that no thinking person could question, so one must either be for sweeping or limited action or else undecided about what action to take. It seems action is a done deal in their minds. And they think our minds are closed.

The next time you read that polls show that this or that liberal issue is popular ask yourself who they questioned, what the questions were, and what answers were possible. Every poll out there makes certain assumptions, and you know what happens when you assume—we look like a nation of asses.

If Only

Ken Cluck — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:47:03 +0000

A few days ago I saw a sight that made me pause. A conservative friend had his McCain/Palin sticker on the back of his car and I noticed it had been edited to remove McCain’s name. It made me think because it was indicative of why Barack Obama sits in the White House. The Republican candidate this last go around was one that the GOP base would not support. McCain was not our man, he was the establishment’s man because he was the media darling. Of course, the media loved him—he was silly enough to believe their whispers of love in his ear, and not wise enough to know they would turn on him the moment the Democrat candidate was chosen. Let me give you a clue—if the media like him then he’s either not a Republican or one they know can not win.

This bumper sticker also indicates what would have saved us from this pickle we find ourselves in. No, I am not saying that Palin would have been elected. She’s too new to national politics to be ready for that—yet. The salvation for the Republican ticket would have been the removal of John McCain.

The other day I received an email from the McCain campaign requesting financial support for McCain’s run for re-election to the Senate. The signature line claimed to be directly from John, so, even though I know he did not send it out and will never receive a response I responded anyways. My advise for Mr. McCain boils down to thank you for your heroic service to your country in Vietnam, but as for your Congressional record, no thanks. You have spent the last few decades being the maverick of the party, going your own way and standing opposed to things important to us and then on election day you expect us to be loyal little automatons and vote for you. Please, for the good of the nation and the good of the party, retire.

Clarion Call for the Party of Reagan

Ken Cluck — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:41:37 +0000

Since November the Republican Party seems to be falling further into the political abyss. Rather than coming to terms with its departure from party principles under the neocons the party elite has muddied the water with name calling and finger pointing. There are those who want to point the finger at Sarah Palin as the reason for McCain’s loss.

I was a bit shocked when Governor Palin was chosen as the running mate. I hoped this could turn things around, but felt it was the death knell of the McCain campaign. Governor Palin is a great governor, a smart conservative and a wise politician who was eviscerated by the media and the self proclaimed defenders of women. I was alarmed at her pick, because a candidate picks a running mate to make up for personal shortcomings or to open up other regions of the country. For example, Kennedy picked LBJ to run with him in 1960 to make him more attractive in the south. Obama chose Biden because of his own lack of experience. John McCain, instead of bringing in someone to help win new areas, had to bring in someone to help win his own base. Over the course of his career, he has so alienated himself from the Republican party that there had been serious speculation after 2000 that he might defect to the Democratic party.

The Republicans loss had two side. On one you had Obama, the historical candidate—masses couldn’t wait to say they’d voted for the first black president. On the other side the actions of George Bush, a misguided GOP congress and the maverick John McCain left conservatives adrift without a party.

Today, the GOP Chairman announced the creation of the Center for Republican Renewal. The Center is supposed to promote the parties core principles, which sounds good until Chairman Duncan says the Center will be dedicated to “identifying the most inventive and effective ideas and policies across America.”

It is my hope that the Center for Republican Renewal will be an honest effort to return the party to the days of limited government and fiscal responsibility. If the chairman means to take the party further along its route into the darkness then it should learn to enjoy its position on the political periphery. The GOP had eight years of trying to win the populist vote. The populists didn’t trust them and the conservative base had no reason to support them. More of the same will lead to more of the same.