Is McCain cooked?

[saltpoint]

Poll question: Is McCain cooked?

[City Lights]

1. Stick a fork in him. eom

[saltpoint]

2. A long, twisted, rusty one at that.

[wuushew]

3. He would not have enough money in any case

How will the co-sponsor of McCain Feingold compete in what is already described as the most expensive election in US history?

Too old, too pro-war and too pandering.

[saltpoint]

6. Yes. The pandering is very off-putting for independents. Many who were

drawn to him in 2000 now find him hugging the Fake Cowboy.

And the poll numbers reflect the drop in support.

[napi21]

4. His decision to glue himself to Shrub and all Shrub's hated

policies and the war destroyed him BEFORE he ever really got started. The only reason he was leading the campaign polls thus far is because the media artificially put him there.

The strong supporters he hadback in 2000 rejected him after seeing how he waski**ing Shrub's a**!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. It's an overload of attention getting charisma. Like a turd in a salad.

[saltpoint]

7. I like your last phrase there as a campaign theme for the McCain effort in 08.

It captures the essence, IMO.

But CHARGE them for it. No freebies to freepers.

[leftofthedial]

8. more like congealed

[saltpoint]

9. LOL! I love it.

[KingofNewOrleans]

10. The field is weak

plenty of time for McCain to "reivent" himself and for Rudy to crash and burn

[saltpoint]

11. I think Rudy's early poll numbers are grossly inflated.

Agree also that McCain has time to fiddle with his image. Whether it's going to take, I have no idea.

On the far outside lanes I see Brownback charging faster than the frontrunners think. Could be ol' Sam finishes very strongly in Iowa and grabs a headline or two.

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Tweety's fallen in love with Rudy this year.

Poor John, cast aside.

[saltpoint]

13. Hi, DemBones. Yes. Tweety attaches himself to the strangest things

sometimes.

There's more than one walrus in that guy's cat cage.

Love your image of McCain cast aside.

[DemBones DemBones]

28. You know, it just occurred to me

to wonder if Tweety has sent McCain a "Dear John" letter. :evilgrin:

Do you read The Daily Howler? (http://www.dailyhowler.com) Bob Somerby has been analyzing the ludicrous behavior of Tweety, Maureen Dowd, basically all the media whores, since 1998. Funny and incisive stuff.

[saltpoint]

33. 'Appreciate the link. I'll explore over there in a while. Good question

on Tweety and the "dear John" letter.

The next few months are going to be very telling in the McCain campaign. Both Hagel and Fred Thompson, longtime McCain hangers-on, may both be running against him this time.

[DemBones DemBones]

38. McCain, Hagel, and Thompson --

now there's an unholy trinity! I didn't realize they were all buddies. I saw a pic the other day of Thompson with his much younger trophy wife, wondered if he dumped the mother of his kids, too. I know women dump men and spouses also die, but it certainly seems that a lot of Republican men are cavalier about discarding wives.

[saltpoint]

39. And it's an especially prevalent trend in this year's crop of Republican

candidates.

Good point. 'Read somewhere where Romney, the Mormon, seems to be the only Republican candidate with just one wife.

It wouldn't bother me very much if the GOP candidates tore each other to bits on the issues, and to the extent that they can't figure out what the issues are, I hope they attack each other's personal integrity.

Then we move in for the big show in November 08.

[SoCalDem]

14. McCain's organization miscalculated his "support"

During the '00 primary season, he got a lot of support from Democrats who preferred HIM over Bush or the other republican candidates..and yes even over the democratic candidates at the time. (Remember, Gore was not all that exciting and many were unsure of the others too)so Mccain's positive press and his "maverick" image were working for him then..



BUT..


when he allowed Bush to slime his family and then ended up hugging and kissing him, he LOST any independent/democratic support he may have had before...and he never really HAD much hardcore republican support.

he LOST any chance of winning in '08...waaaay back in '00..he just didn;t realize it :)

[saltpoint]

16. Yes. His attraction in New Hampshire was strong. Folks saw him as

a refreshing, authentic man next to the idiot monkey Bush. During the New Hampshire primary campaign, no less a corrupt soul than Katherine Harris was attending campaign rallies, passing out Florida strawberries -- as New Hampshire Republicans sloughed through snow drifts to and wondered why Governor Bush was talking like such an idiot.

In a weak field, and god knows the GOP field is weaker than ever, McCain still has some time, but it feels like the sand's slipping thru that hourglass faster by the hour.

[brazos121200]

15. McCain will be 72 next year, probably too old

to make a successful run for the nomination,but it's early and anything can happen. Gingrich, after his revelation of massive hypocrisy, will probably gain more support from the Falwell crowd, which could only hurt McCain. I think 2000 was McCain's moment and he blew it, or rather it was blown for him by the Rove machine. After what Bush/Rove did to him in South Carolina I'm surprised McCain will even be seen in the same room as Bush, and the fact that he will only serves to diminish his image.

[saltpoint]

17. Very good points, especially the mention of the South Carolina

disgrace by Rove et al. against McCain there in 2000.

A disgraceful and repellent piece of work by the Bush campaign.

I hear you on the man's age, although as someone who's seen the seasons change a few times myself, I am less concerned with McCain's chronological age than his political age. Often I get a pre-Eisenhower vibe from McCain. Especially that far right voting record of his.

[TlalocW]

18. Yes, and in a schradenfreude kind of way

I hope in the future as his natural and political life come to an end, he looks deep into what little soul he has left and realize that the reason he crashed and burned in 2008 was his fault for coming off as a desperate little puppy wanting to please anyone in the GOP power structure, flip-flopping on everything he ran for in 2000, so he could be president, and I hope he's miserable about it until the end.

TlalocW

[saltpoint]

19. Yes. There'll be McCain in a mostly-deserted Winslow tavern, half the

remaining few customers drunk as skunks and only half in their chairs, and lonesome John on stage singing "I got them schradenfreude blues again mama."

Couldn't agree with you more -- he brought his demise on himself. Ya gotta make good choices in life and in politics, and he hasn't.

Nice post, TlalocW.

[BlueManDude]

20. He'll be the GOP nominee

[saltpoint]

23. It could happen. As some others here have mentioned, he does have

time to work with, and in a media age, much can take place to rehabilitate politicians' image.

Even Nixon, working with cruder tools, managed it.

Very possible.

[gollygee]

21. LOL I though this said, "Is McCain coked"

and I thought, "He may have a few problems, but I don't think that's one of them."

LOL

[saltpoint]

22. LOL! That's a great image -- John McCain doing a

line in the Senate Men's room... and Chuck Grassley at the next sink, wondering what's going on...

[SoCalDem]

26. And Arlen & Joementum in another stall, adjusting their

jowls:)

[saltpoint]

37. LOL! Are we allowed to use phrases like "adjusting their jowls" on DU?

I hope so, because that's a great line.

[bobbie]

24. And good fuckin' riddance

To that souless heartless spineless bastard.

[On the Road]

25. The GOP Race is Still Wide Open

Kerry looked dead a few weeks before Iowa. None of the other candidates is invincible.

If nominated, I doubt McCain will win the election, but you never know who the Democrats will nominate or what scandals or mistakes might affect the races. Complacency at this point is not wise.

[saltpoint]

34. Agree. Hard work's where it's at, and it almost always pays dividends.

At the same time, I like our chances, and the national circumstances are so dire that I think the inside track may be ours to claim.

The hard work and the possible advantages are encouraging. Your examples are fair admonition to Democrats that nothing can be taken for granted.

[skipos]

27. No. He still beats Hillary, Obama and Edwards in some polls.

I hope that neither Weathervane McCain nor Dame Rudy are the Repub nominess.

[HappyWeasel]

29. Yeah. McCain can be beaten, but he still has some of his magic from 2000.

I think we might really have to go after McCain REALLY hard...none of his BS is getting around. We might have to dig far into his past. Romney might be the same way. In this environment, we are going to have to do some of our own swiftboating. We might really have to smear this guy really good. I think Rudy will take care of himself and if he does get elected, won't be that radical.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

32. I think his blind support of Bush's Iraq policy should be plenty, not much "digging" needed.

[saltpoint]

35. With any luck at all, it'll be Sam Brownback. Also I hear in the last

couple of days that former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson may jump in, that calls are being made in his behalf by Howard Baker.

I wish Howard Baker were working for us instead of for the Republicans, but there you have it.

Thompson is a former McCain loyalist from the 2000 campaign. Very possibly, had McCain somehow won that nomination, we might have seen Thompson as his veep on the GOP ticket.

[WiseButAngrySara]

30. Like a Goose with a Noose around his neck. Plum sauce. ...n/t

[Swamp Rat]

31. DOA

He lost his chance many years ago.

[saltpoint]

36. Hi, Swamp Rat. The rat in the picture tells the whole story.

Yep -- McCain is going to have to claw his way through a pack of fierce party rivals. I'm not laying too much on the outcome right now, because there is some residual support for the man. On the other hand, his numbers are looking anemic these days, maybe because of that Bush hug he did & the support for the surge, etc.

Hard to parse it out to exact portions. But I think he's got his work cut out for him.