What About The Angry Middle?

Jason Zengerle reflects on Mickey Kaus' reflection on Joe Klein's thoughts on technology and politics, and concludes that Sen. McCain has no natural home in the blogosphere.

He may be right - the McCain-Feingold campaign finance debacle may have lost McCain the right forever - but I am not so sure.  I Boldly Predict, with no anecdotal evidence at all to support me, the emergence of an "enough is enough" bloc of conservatives who just can't get behind someone like George Allen.

Comments

[richard mcenroe]

Nobody besides the press and his AZ incumbents'
constituency has come out behind John McCain yet. Why assume they'll start now?

[Appalled Moderate]

Speaking as a member of the appalled middle,I can't stand McCain, who's quirky authenticty is really an appeal to "trust me rather than any guiding principles." He really is like his hero Teddy Roosevelt in his suspicion of any firm guiding ideological anything, but his message really boils down to "there are good people and bad rich people and bad rich people don't need stuff like the 1st amemndment because they just corrupt it with money."

There is nothing wrong with pragmatism. Reagan had it. Lincoln had it. FDR had it.
But they never lost sight of their principles and their underlying goals. McCain. What's his goal? No money in politics? I guess he figures folks don't have right to petition for redress of grievances if he figures they have too much money or power. That pesky 1st amendment...

[ed]

Hmmm.

My personal nickname for McCain is ATM:

"At The Moment"

Because pretty much anything he does, says or says he'll do is based on whatever is the topic du jour.

Frankly I'd rather have my eyeballs stabbed out with a pen than vote for McCain.

[Pofarmer]

There will be SOMEONE to get behind. McCain can't win a primary, no way. I'm not convinced Hillary can, either.

[lyle]

This is the real developing struggle in the GOP right now. Republican conservatives are the dominant bloc in primary voting. If they don't choose a favorite for '08, they'll get a nominee they don't want or can't stand.

It goes essentially unreported in the media, which has already gotten behind McCain, all the better to cram him down our throats.

So far, I'd give the award for best political positioning to Mitt Romney.

[Semanticleo]

McCains descent from the 'maverick' I.D. to
tender steer status began with his shameless
knee-cap sucking in June 2004. I can only
speculate that his ass-smooching was a trade
for Bush's promised endorsement. It might
have worked too, if not for the precipitous
Presidential slide into poll oblivion as well
as ignominous historical exile.

[noah]

Shouldn't the ACLU (and the NYT and WaPo) be attacking McCain for his flippant dismissal of Ist amendment rights in favor of "good government"?

I know I will never vote for him until I hear a complete and abject apology for his shameful remarks.

[AB]

He's being criticized for those comments in the lefty blogosphere as well, noah. Shameful.

I'm just glad you guys hate him so much. The pictures of him humping Bush's leg will pretty much kill his support in the 65% or so of the country that now despises Bush. I was actually nervous at one time that he had a shot at the nomination, but am delighted to watch him self destruct.

Face it, coming off the debacle that 2006 will likely be for y'all, it makes it all that much sweeter to know you got NOBODY clean or competent to put up in '08.

[Dwilkers]

McCain humping Bush's leg. Wow that's brilliant.

I have no idea who there is out there that I could be enthusiastic about supporting in 2008. I have little confidence in the Republican party anymore. I sincerely doubt there is a serious national security voice that could be nominated by the Dems.

I'd really have to hold my nose to vote for McCain.

[Tomf]

TM

"Middle of the roaders" here in Michigan have been partial to McCain in recent presidential races. So you might be on to something. However, the drama that will be played out this November will very likely produce a new Repub direction and new candidates. :)

[Syl]

Look on the bright side. McCain may take away your 1st amendment rights, but he won't use torture to do it.

Why is Guiliani so quiet?

[clarice]

Syl, I read yesterday that Guiliani is thinking about a run. I sure hope so.

[kim]

ed, what a wonderful observation, your At the Moment thought about McCain.

Well, live for the moment is wise counsel, but, and a big but, is this apparent lack of principle and the willingness to adjust to the flow a relic of his incarceration and abuse in North Vietnam. It fits the pattern of some abused people. And he's not above playing the victim card. I had almost decided to forgive him for Keating(well, I'd forgotten about it) when he betrayed the Swifties, WITHOUT BOTHERING TO INVESTIGATE. Exactly what his captors would want him to do. But what I can not forgive is that given the chance to investigate the Swifties and become knowledgable, he didn't. That is corrupt, or intransigent, or whatever, but it ain't presidential. In fact, I wouldn't want him in the next foxhole. Just an odd thought here.
==========================================

[Cecil Turner]

McCain. What's his goal? No money in politics?

His campaign finance reform emphasis provides convenient political inoculation for past dubious activity. Similarly, his outrage over criticism of Kerry's VN record (and anti-torture stance) seem designed to fend off criticism of his own POW days (which at the least entailed code-of-conduct violations, which some claim amounted to collaboration). If he has a principled position on anything, I've yet to see it. (And it's probably obvious I won't be voting for him.)

[AB]

You want Giuliani to run? Rudy Giuliani?

Do you people just forget that you can't win elections without your God Squad on board? Rudy moved his mistress into Gracie Mansion while his wife and kids were still living there and flaunted it. He also supports gay marriage. He also supports gun control. He also has NO foreign policy credentials. The fact that just happened to be Mayor on 9/11 and didn't stay seated in a classroom reading to kids doesn't exactly make him an expert. We're all grateful to him, but seriously, without the most professional police force on earth - and the bravest fire department - he'd have looked a lot less "heroic".

Plus I think the whole country has had it with 9/11 being pimped by Republicans for political profit. We need evidence of competence this time. We're in the deep stuff now.

[Rick Ballard]

Cecil,

I wonder if his Swiftboat vet reaction was not anticipatory in nature. There are people who shared his situation, remember him and are quite willing to ask why someone who did not perform according to the code deserved the CMH. Quite a number of them, apparently.

His time spent in Keatings vest pocket is not forgotten either. The press loves him because there is no one around who would be easier to destroy. McCain has an ego which seems to prevent him from understanding the obvious.

That, and he's dumb as a box of rocks.

[Dwilkers]

You know what gets me about McCain? His projection of his own failings onto others.

He gets caught with his hand in someone's pocket. His solution? Campaign finance reform.

McCain does something unethical and he can't even own that it was his own behavior that got him in trouble. Instead it has to be some flaw in 'the system'. As if we could ever figure out every single possible little crack allowing people to slither in and profit.

But no, McCain's problems were all about the way the laws were set up, not about his own actions.

Oh and now? Thanks to CFR where we used to have full reporting of contributions directly to the parties we now have a hundred murky 527's with the likes of Soros giving 20 million a pop.

Great. The only realistic brake - full reporting - on the very behavior CFR was allegedly supposed to address is undermined by CFR itself.

[topsecretk9]

Not sure supporting gun control is a negative, but

--We need evidence of competence this time.--

This time? No offense AB but insert Clinton in your little diatribe and it all works.

Seriously, AB just credited the entire organized response on 9-11 to the professional police force and fire department (for which they deserve credit) but suggests NO leadership was required, that Giuliani played no role in the organization or decision making, that ANY figure head was unnecessary and would triumph by proxy.

Oh, OK AB...

[AB]

Yes, topsekret, that's exactly what I'm saying.

Giuliani WAS a competent leader through the years. I give him credit for the drop in crime and the improvement in quality of life. But his 9/11 heroism is much overrated. And although he's a famewhore who loves praise, I think even Rudy would agree with me that all credit goes to the civil servants and the great people of this great city.

I'm never sure where the God Squad stands on gun control, but I know the rednecks won't let Rudy through with his positions there. Rudy's a nostarter for you guys. Sorry.

[lyle]

Republican primaries are dominated by conservatives and GOP loyalists. McCain is unpopular with both groups. He is liked by Democrats, the media, and people who don't know much about politics.

Conservatives and Republicans didn't vote for him in '00. He managed to stay alive in the primaries only by virtue of crossover Democrats.

Giuliani is acceptable to most conservatives but a Republican governor will emerge as an alternative to Giuliani and McCain. The GOP nominee will start with a substantial electoral advantage in the general election. He doesn't have to be perfect. He just has to beat whatever stiff the Democrats nominate.

[Rick Ballard]

"He doesn't have to be perfect. He just has to beat whatever stiff the Democrats nominate."

That's a decent summation. I don't believe that the actual nominee is sticking his head up at the moment. It doesn't make any sense to do so given that there is the small matter of the mid-term to get through first.

The Dem winner may not be a stiff this time either. The Dems are busy jiggering the first primary dates in order to give center leftists an even chance to compete with hard leftists. I sure hope they're successful, after all, the Captaincy of the Titanic is at stake.

[owl]

But what I can not forgive is that given the chance to investigate the Swifties and become knowledgable, he didn't.

Kim, it was unforgivable. I could be forced to vote for him but he better hope I don't.
Have commented that I had rather pull my fingernails out than vote McCain.....but it's a FACT....I will not vote Democrat. They must find the real world first and prove citizenship.

[Gary Maxwell]

The Dem winner may not be a stiff this time either.

Key word here is "may". As in may not ( anything is possible ) but given the last stack of candidates, probably will be.

[lyle]

Of the currently rumored Dem candidates for '08, which one wouldn't be a stiff? Kerry, Gore, Rodham, Richardson, Biden, Feingold?

[cathyf]

You know what gets me about McCain? His projection of his own failings onto others.

I was just about to post pretty much that exact brilliant rant when I read that Dwilkers beat me to it. So go read what he wrote again!

I think that "Angry Middle" is not quite exactly right. AM is closer with "Appalled Middle." But even that misses an important aspect I'll call the "Cringing Middle." That's when you feel empathatic embarrassment for someone who is humiliating himself in public, and more than anything, you just want him to stop! Or at least move it to somewhere that you don't have to see it and empathize with it. It's especially acute in McCain's case because his failing-on-display is so commonly human -- haven't we all tried to blame our sins on someone else at some point in our lives? Every time this guy opens his mouth with his the-system-made-me-do-it schtick, I have embarrassing flashbacks to when I was four and tried to frame my big brother for knocking over the Christmas tree...

cathy :-)

[Keith]

As a conservative, I'm not a huge fan of McCain. But, as someone who wants to win in 2008, I'd sure as hell back him if I thought he could win.

[clarice]

AB Pat Robertson supports Guiliani. As for gun control, I do so think this issue would be amenable to more lucid discussion if all sides could recognize that in cities with 911 responses minutes away, people have different attitudes than they do in suburban or rural areas . Yes, I know there's a constitutional issue, but there is also reality. Big city folks tend to approve of strict gun control laws and samll towns and rural areas do not. It's a big country.

[Rick Ballard]

Lyle,

You have to dig deeper in the dumpster. (S)he won't be on the retread and hack list. Aside from Blanco, I'm not sure there are any southern governers left - maybe a whitebread corn senator?

[AB]

Oh, that's so strange, clarice. When it's a conservative in question, we can afford to have NUANCE in the gun control debate. How convenient.

And uh, Pat Robertson? I don't pretend to understand the Born Again/Evangelical/Left Behind-ers that the Republicans have so effectively exploited the last few elections, but it really seems to me that, for some unfathomable reason, they think homosexuality is just about the greatest scourge to mankind. So I'm thinking the endorsement of the demonstrably insane Pat Robertson is going to carry a little less weight than all those pictures of Rudy in a dress and lipstick...not to mention the ones of his wife & kids covering their faces from the photographers during that very noble interlude where he publically shat on them by strutting his mistress around.

Whaddaya think?

[Mark Coffey]

Tom, I'm not quite ready to volunteer Decision '08 as a hangout for the angry middle (we're just not that angry)...but, though we'd prefer Rudy G., I think most of my readership (most, I say) could get behind McCain...

[Pofarmer]

Disgusted middle would be a better term.

[owl]

Give me Rudy in a dress with lipstick. Choices. Hate his gun control but have yet to find perfection. Choices and sure hope no one forces me to vote McCain, as my keyboard might put Cheney's language to shame.

[lyle]

Why do people insist that McCain and Giuliani are the only possible GOP choices? They are just the highest profile names - Giuliani thanks to 9/11, and McCain as the media's annointed GOP candidate.

George Allen would be the conservatives' likeliest nominee, but so far he hasn't assumed the mantle. Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty and others have plenty of time to step up.

[AB]

If those are your choices, I'm a happy camper. I agree Allen has the best chance of the nomination, since they like those fake Southerners for some reason. The fact that he has shit for brains can only help him in the primaries. They seem to really like that.

[lyle]

I don't think Allen has the best chance. I said he looks likeliest but hasn't grabbed the mantle. His support doesn't appear to be building. On the other hand, Romney is gaining credibility with conservatives.

But we're not even in preseason. There's plenty of time. I'm glad to hear that Democrats are happy campers, with Gore and Kerry and Warner and Hillary, et al. It sets the bar pretty low.

[AB]

Romney's only a cut above Pataki.

You're right that it's too early to tell. Once the Dems take the House in '06 and subpoena power gets out of the lockdown, anything can happen.

Many people think having Congress & Executive in different parties is the best system, so that is also a factor. Certainly we've learned in the past 5 years that a one party system, such as we now have, leads to nothing but pork, corruption, waste and institutionalized incompetence.

[Terrye]

I consider myself part of that middle and while I think some people on the right have gone insane over certain issues like immigration all I have to do is remind myself there are people like AB and to remember that people like AB drove me from the Democart Party and I know I will vote for McCain if the alternative is someone like Hillary.

I do prefer pragmatic problems solving to ideology in most respects but since the left thinks that Bush is the enemy and not those nice misunderstood suicide bombers I will crawl over broken glass to defeat them.

[maryrose]

Owl and Terrye;
I Agree with you both and I think many of the repubs mentioned could fill in a possible VP position if they don't receive the nomination. There is a lot that can happen in the next 2 years. Most of the people you are considering could figure prominently in a new repub administration. Matthews is having technical problems today interestingly enough it's all repubs that he can't speak with. Is that karma or what?
Guiliana, Kerik and Pataki can't be heard from due to communication difficulty. Finally Guiliani is coming through.

[michael]

It would be nice if somebody could sit McCain down and say, 'Look Wm. Proxmire won after specnding $1013 on his campaign;' and he would say, to himself, 'Father, forgive me' and come out and say 'never mind' about campaign finance reform.

Look, the only reason he was in a VN prison camp, was that he didn't accept what his rank gave him, a right to fly only in the southern part of north VN. If he is humping somebody's leg, he's humping mine on fighting in Iraq; and I appreciate it. He also seems good on spending. The 1st amendment issue bothers me. It also bothers me that it is in response to a trangresion of his that he is overreacting to. Is this a pattern for him; what would that mean for the future?

[richard mcenroe]

AB -- "Rudy moved his mistress into Gracie Mansion while his wife and kids were still living there and flaunted it. He also supports gay marriage. He also supports gun control. He also has NO foreign policy credentials."

In other words, he will appeal to mainstream Democrats...

[Doug Book]

..."who can't get behind someone like George Allen". WANNA BET?

[MayBee]

I'm pretty used to not getting exactly what I want in any candidate, so I don't get too worked up when someone gets it wrong on one thing or another.

I'm upset about the direction of the country not becaue of the actual direction, but because of the vitriol.
Call me weak-willed, but I could get behind McCain simply because a wide range of people do like him and respect him. I'd rather have a few things not turn out the way I want than to continue to watch the anger permeate everything.

Guiliani would make me a most eager voter.

[Rick Ballard]

Giuliani would do better than McCain but there is plenty of time for a new name to pop up. This time next year we may be talking about someone whose name is unthinkable at the moment. Or at least unthought of.

[Squiggler]

McCain is toast. My vote is with Mitt Romney. And if Guilliani gets in, all bets are off. He might not get the far right, but he'll get enough dems to make up for them.

[AB]

In other words, he will appeal to mainstream Democrats..

Well, on the gun control and gay marriage, he'd appeal to mainstream Americans, especially since clarice reminds us that Republicans, and only Republicans, are entitled to nuanced policy positions.

Last I looked though, those kind of people don't vote in Pubby primaries.

As for his gross personal immorality, I agree, Republicans have always been massive hypocrites on that issue."Moral values" were never anything more than a bag of slop they tossed to their God Squad...Problem you got is a good HALF of your support comes from those Left Behind-ers, and, strange as it seems, they actually beleive in that stuff. They'd as soon see Giuliani burn in hell as vote for him in a primary.

[lyle]

AB, thanks for the bigoted stereotypes. Is there anything about which you're actually informed?

[AB]

I know it's convenient for you here to ignore the fact that your electoral wins were basically courtesy of religious cultism here in the USA, but you ignore it at your own peril. Karl Rove didn't get himself crowned a genius by doing that, trustme.

You're honestly willing to trade in rabid religious fanaticism on Election Day for whatever tepid support Giuliani might inspire in some mostly disaffected Independents?

Hey, go for it. Sounds good to me.

[Cecil Turner]

Republicans have always been massive hypocrites on that issue."Moral values" were never anything more than a bag of slop they tossed to their God Squad...

Yeah, those Christians sure are hypocrites. It's like they forgot that passage where Jesus says: "Stone that woman, for she has sinned." Seriously AB, you can't handicap GOP primaries if you don't understand Republicans . . . and you can't understand people you hate. Try a little empathy, or don't bother. The above is pretty much a complete waste of effort. (<--preferred conservative "tough love" approach)

[clarice]

Ab..try taking off those blinders and consider if you will whether the Dems have not focused too havily on the values of NYC and SF and LA and too little on those elsewhere. Reports today are that there is a growing support for the House Reps stronger stand on illegal migration and that larger number of Blacks agree with that, that support for Roe v. Wade is at its lowest.
Michael Barone who does know what he is talking about says that in Ohio where for a variety of reasons the Reps were supposed to be most vulnerable, they showed much more strength in the primaries than anyone anticipated.
You can open your eyes or start drafting your Diebold was fixed article ahead of time.

[AB]

Cecil, I'm not calling Christians hypocrites. I'm stating the obvious about the Republican elite - who, if they are Christian, are of the "in name only" variety.

I know it's from the dusty past, but once upon a time this guy named Christ spent his entire life preaching a very incredibly SIMPLE belief system - based on love, of the poor, of the least among us, of everyone. Christians, by definition, can not kill another human being. True Christians that is. They must turn the other cheek. They can not accrue personal wealth at the expense of those who suffer. In fact, in order to enter the Kingdom of God, they need to leave behind all worldly things.

Now I understand that this particular faith is inconvenient in the modern world, as it was in the primitive world, but that was entirely the point...It is one of the great shames in the history of a great world religion that it was hijacked by the proponents of antithetical faiths - capitalism and imperialism - and the docile nature of its followers abused in pursuit of power. A great tragedy.

I don't ever doubt the sincerity of the Left Behinders. I know they beleive what they say they believe and that's why Giuliani is a loser for you. In the endtimes, they are not going to allow themselves to be led by an unredeemed Papist bigamist sodomite.

The hypocrisy lies with those "moral values" pimping Pubs that have no problem with giving press passes to friendly male prostitutes or enjoying the delicious brand of bribery offered by Duke Cunningham's prostitution ring. I know those guys wish Giuliani's piggish moral past could just be disappeared, because he's only one of their own in that regard, but...sorry, ain't gonna happen. There are pictures, there is video, there are screaming NY Post headlines!

Keep trying.