G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
John McCain's 100-Year War in Iraq
By Brent Budowsky
Created Jan 7 2008 - 2:19pm
If Hillary Clinton's Beatles song is "Yesterday," Mitt Romney's song is "The
Nowhere Man," and John McCain's is "Happiness is a Warm Gun"!
For New Hampshire Republicans I repeat my pre-Iowa prediction that McCain
wins the primary and add that Mitt Romney will withdraw from the campaign
after New Hampshire but before Super Tuesday.
Mitt is awful. Mitt is one of the worst candidates in memory, the true
change candidate, who changes his positions like leaves change with the
seasons, a man with vast money and no convictions. And it shows.
Mitt is also the champion of investing in companies and firing or laying off
workers, which he has done much of in the private sector, an issue that
remains to be reported, and will be reported if he remains in the campaign.
Mitt will have the option of continuing through Michigan and Super Tuesday
but sometime before Super Tuesday Mitt will make the sound business decision
and pull the plug on a loser of a campaign. Mitt Romney is a defective
product with failed corporate advertising and a tanking stock; and cold
businessman that he is, he will cut his own funding and lay off his own
campaign before Super Tuesday.
Mitt is the Nowhere Man, sitting in his nowhere land, capable of inspiring
nobody, standing for nothing except what he thinks will help him at the
moment.
I will add another prediction you will read first on this site: Either Fred
Thompson or Rudy Giuliani will make a surprise comeback and become one of
the three finalists on Super Tuesday, along with Huckabee and McCain.
There is room on the GOP track for this third candidate, and if it is not
Mitt, it will be Rudy or Fred. The insider classes are making a big mistake
writing both of them off. I predict that one of them will look much smarter
than they do today, when South Carolina and Super Tuesday come around.
Which brings me to McCain. I have a conflict. As a Democrat, I would hope
the Republicans nominate Romney, a loser running far behind Democrats in
head-to-head polls. As an American I would clearly prefer the Republicans
nominate John McCain, who is the best man on the GOP side, but by far their
strongest general-election candidate.
Here is McCain's problem: His very extreme hawkish stand, especially his
public comments about remaining in Iraq for 100 years, not only demonstrate
a flawed analysis, but are far outside the opinions of political
independents and ultimately hurt McCain in New Hampshire and nationally.
Therefore, while McCain will win significant independent votes in New
Hampshire, his total vote will be held down compared to what it could have
been if Barack Obama was not taking independent votes and if McCain was not
so aggressive supporting his 100-year position in Iraq.
McCain's more hawkish views will come back to haunt him with political
independents and young people, in what I have been calling The Year of the
Political Independent and now The Year of the Young Voter as well
So the betting here remains that McCain wins New Hampshire, but not by as
much as McCain could have won, and because of his 100-year-war Iraq policy.
There will remain storm clouds on the McCain horizon more than the current
debate suggests because the voters who will decide the general election do
not want their great-great-great grandchildren serving in Iraq under the
McCain plan.
[Brent asks that you crosspost your comments to The Hill, where this blog
entry also appears [1]. --JT]
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Brent Budowsky
Created Jan 7 2008 - 2:19pm
If Hillary Clinton's Beatles song is "Yesterday," Mitt Romney's song is "The
Nowhere Man," and John McCain's is "Happiness is a Warm Gun"!
For New Hampshire Republicans I repeat my pre-Iowa prediction that McCain
wins the primary and add that Mitt Romney will withdraw from the campaign
after New Hampshire but before Super Tuesday.
Mitt is awful. Mitt is one of the worst candidates in memory, the true
change candidate, who changes his positions like leaves change with the
seasons, a man with vast money and no convictions. And it shows.
Mitt is also the champion of investing in companies and firing or laying off
workers, which he has done much of in the private sector, an issue that
remains to be reported, and will be reported if he remains in the campaign.
Mitt will have the option of continuing through Michigan and Super Tuesday
but sometime before Super Tuesday Mitt will make the sound business decision
and pull the plug on a loser of a campaign. Mitt Romney is a defective
product with failed corporate advertising and a tanking stock; and cold
businessman that he is, he will cut his own funding and lay off his own
campaign before Super Tuesday.
Mitt is the Nowhere Man, sitting in his nowhere land, capable of inspiring
nobody, standing for nothing except what he thinks will help him at the
moment.
I will add another prediction you will read first on this site: Either Fred
Thompson or Rudy Giuliani will make a surprise comeback and become one of
the three finalists on Super Tuesday, along with Huckabee and McCain.
There is room on the GOP track for this third candidate, and if it is not
Mitt, it will be Rudy or Fred. The insider classes are making a big mistake
writing both of them off. I predict that one of them will look much smarter
than they do today, when South Carolina and Super Tuesday come around.
Which brings me to McCain. I have a conflict. As a Democrat, I would hope
the Republicans nominate Romney, a loser running far behind Democrats in
head-to-head polls. As an American I would clearly prefer the Republicans
nominate John McCain, who is the best man on the GOP side, but by far their
strongest general-election candidate.
Here is McCain's problem: His very extreme hawkish stand, especially his
public comments about remaining in Iraq for 100 years, not only demonstrate
a flawed analysis, but are far outside the opinions of political
independents and ultimately hurt McCain in New Hampshire and nationally.
Therefore, while McCain will win significant independent votes in New
Hampshire, his total vote will be held down compared to what it could have
been if Barack Obama was not taking independent votes and if McCain was not
so aggressive supporting his 100-year position in Iraq.
McCain's more hawkish views will come back to haunt him with political
independents and young people, in what I have been calling The Year of the
Political Independent and now The Year of the Young Voter as well
So the betting here remains that McCain wins New Hampshire, but not by as
much as McCain could have won, and because of his 100-year-war Iraq policy.
There will remain storm clouds on the McCain horizon more than the current
debate suggests because the voters who will decide the general election do
not want their great-great-great grandchildren serving in Iraq under the
McCain plan.
[Brent asks that you crosspost your comments to The Hill, where this blog
entry also appears [1]. --JT]
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
