December 2, 2007
Wednesday's CNN/You Tube debate began with a ditty by Chris Nandor of Snohomish, Wash., on the eight GOP hopefuls.
Sen. John McCain, Nandor sang, "is loved by many, but hated by the rest." Why do so many Republicans loathe John McCain?
No Republican candidate has been better in pushing to make sure that the sacrifices made by U.S. troops in Iraq are not made in vain - and there is no issue more important than this war.
McCain spent Thanksgiving visiting the front, and he carried back the message he heard from those serving:
"Let us win."McCain has spared no one - including President Bush and his administration - in his righteous desire to do right by the troops.
"I am the only one on thisMcCain noted,
stage,"
"that said the Rumsfeld strategy was failing and was doomed toMaybe that's part of the problem.
failure. I'm the only one on this stage that said we've got to have a new
strategy, and that's the strategy we're employing now."
When I asked Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and former adviser to ex-Gov. Pete Wilson, why so many Republicans hate McCain, Whalen saw two main reasons: Much of McCain's reputation "has come at George Bush's expense." And: "He's too beloved by the media." Too bad the media are a fickle crew, who this go-round are smitten with the cuddly conservative, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
It's more than a bit bizarre. When McCain called The Rev. Jerry Falwell an agent of "intolerance" in 2000, the media loved him. When McCain appeared next to Falwell at Liberty University last year, pundits labeled the event - a savvy political move to reach out to Falwell's values voters - a sellout to the religious right. So who's their new crush? An ordained Southern Baptist minister.
Go figure. GOP voters resented profligate spending under the now-dethroned Republican leadership in Congress.
They should love McCain, who crusaded against earmarks and pork-barrel spending when it didn't win him many friends in power circles. Perhaps the problem is that McCain is not just talk. When Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist asked the candidates if they would sign the ATR pledge not to raise taxes, McCain said no, "My pledge and my record is up to the American people, not up to any organization."
The Norquist exchange may signal a sea change in Republican politics. Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Tom Tancredo of Colorado said they would sign the ATR pledge, and have. Rudy Giuliani said he would, but hasn't. (In October, an aide told me that Giuliani "doesn't sign pledges.")
Because it is now clear that no-new-taxes pledges don't tamp down government spending, McCain, and Republican rivals Fred Thompson, Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter said they oppose tax hikes, but refused to sign a pledge they are not 100 percent certain to keep.
Republican readers often tell me that they will never forgive McCain for his 2002 campaign finance reform bill that restricts political advertising. Come on. Thanks to well-heeled lawyers, the courts are gutting McCain-Feingold. To them I say, let go of it. There are more important issues - like a war. Americans say that they are looking for strong leaders.
In McCain, you see a man who doesn't shift his positions just to please people, yet is realistic enough to realize when it is right to bend.
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