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Which party is divided?
Amid all the EXCELLENT NEWS!!!FOR MCCAIN! -- the Dems coming together in Denver, his unpaid advisers telling everyone without health insurance to go to the ER, Gustav bearing down on New Orleans -- I haven't seen much mention of the GOP platform being assembled ahead of next week's Minnesota convention. NPR had a piece on it this morning. The highlight, for me, was this bit:
It seems McCain has more to worry about from members of his own party than Obama does from Hillary and Bill. Will the MSM ask him how he's going to reach out to the right wing of the GOP? We're waiting to hear ...Unlike the last GOP platform, which mentioned George W. Bush on
nearly every page, this platform mentions McCain only in its preamble —
and some of the positions it takes fly in the face of McCain's own
record as something of a Republican maverick.Pennsylvania
state Sen. Jane Orie read the party's stance opposing same-sex
marriage: "We call for a constitutional amendment to protect marriage
as the union of a man and a woman."McCain has consistently opposed such a constitutional amendment because he thinks it's an issue for states to resolve.
He
has also urged action to curb global warming and favors a cap-and-trade
system that many in his party oppose. The GOP platform makes no mention
of cap and trade, while it rails against what it calls "doomsday
climate change scenarios."David Keene, chairman of the
American Conservative Union, considers the platform "very conservative"
and says it clearly falls short of what the McCain campaign would have
wanted."Obviously, they're very interested in not being slapped
in the face, and the party's not interested in slapping the candidate
in the face," Keene said. "But the party has not taken the position
that you would've wanted them to take if you were a campaign operative
for John McCain."
Comments (2)
The supposed problem is that McCain and the GOP are at odds when it comes to policy.
That doesn't really matter, because no one in the GOP cares about policy anyway. They could put "We demand that the military find magical flying ponies and chocolate oasises in Iraq by the year's end" in their platform, and every GOPer in the country would endorse it, as long as it gave them an excuse to hang out in restrooms and wear diapers at their convention.
August 28, 2008 6:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
A recent CNN poll showed something like 34% of Dem wanting a different candidate than Obama and 42% of Republicans wanting a different candidate than McCain.
Just looking at the Akron Ohion poll the other day, although it was tied 40 to 40%, the majority of McCain supporters were weakly supporting him, and the opposite was true for Obama.
And not all mere opportunists like Cheney. They are die hard members of the Grand Old Party. And they will not back down and minimize their party nor their platform for the sake of McCain.
The die hard Republican delegates will cheer wildly for Bush. They will cheer wildly for Cheney. And lord have mercy if he pick Joementum.
August 28, 2008 6:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
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