Yikes! The Real John McCain: Bush With Brains

On Friday, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) gave a speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, TN. Three things are now clear: 1) McCain will do ANYTHING to be President in 2008. 2) Southern Repubs are convinced Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) will be the Democrat candidate in 2008. 3) Southern Repubs are convinced McCain is the only candidate who can defeat Clinton. New York Times quotes re the conference in Memphis: “’We must keep our presidential ambitions a distant second to standing with the president of the United States,’ Mr. McCain said.” “The extent of Mr. McCain's embrace of Mr. Bush was striking, and Republicans here suggested it reflected two political facts: that he needed to reassure conservatives of his loyalty to Mr. Bush, and that, at this point, he was in a strong enough position in this field to have flexibility in presenting himself. “Mr. McCain went so far as to condemn the collapse of the port deal, saying that Congress had served Mr. Bush poorly by not permitting a 45-day review of security concerns, though he did not mention that the deal was sunk by fellow Republicans. "’The president deserved better,’ Mr. McCain said.” “Mr. McCain praised the president for his failed effort to rewrite the Social Security system, said he supported the decision to go into Iraq and blistered at critics who suggested the White House had fabricated evidence of unconventional weapons in Iraq to justify the invasion.” "’Anybody who says the president of the United States is lying about weapons of mass destruction is lying,’ Mr. McCain said.” "’There's a lot of frustration here — we've had a run of real bad luck,’ said Tom Rath, a New Hampshire Republican leader. ‘You've got such longevity in that White House team that they are tired. They need a break. They need a big piece of good luck. I don't know what it is.’” Washington Post quotes about McCain in Memphis: “The Arizona senator was full-throated in his support for Bush on Iraq, Iran and even the now-defunct Dubai seaports deal. In doing so, he continued to establish his bona fides as the Republican most likely to defend and extend the president's controversial foreign policy record. At the same time, McCain delivered a stern condemnation of fiscal profligacy and corruption in Washington that was rooted in his reputation as an advocate of change and an antagonist of pork-barrel spending.” “As McCain left the Peabody Hotel on Saturday to tour the hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast, he was matter-of-fact about his steadfast support for the president. "We elected him, we need him, he needs to do well and the country needs him," McCain said in an interview. "With all the challenges, all of these things that are going on, including slow progress in Iraq, we need to show our support. It's easy to support somebody when they're up. That's why I did it. If he had been up, I wouldn't have emphasized it nearly as much. You've got to rally the troops." WaPo also said: “When Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (Ky.) called Bush "one of the great presidents in the history of the United States," the audience rose to applaud and cheer. Former Texas Republican Party chairman Fred Meyer made clear that anyone running for president in 2008 should forget about running against Bush. "Not supporting the president on the high percentage of issues would be a mistake, because people value loyalty." LA Times quotes about McCain in Memphis: “Sen. John McCain, who made his name as a Republican maverick, is going mainstream.” “Six years after the Arizonan emerged as George W. Bush's nemesis in the bitterly fought 2000 GOP presidential primary — and, in the views of some, ran against his party's establishment — McCain is taking a different tack as he prepares for a possible second White House bid. “Even as he has picked high-profile fights with Bush over military interrogation tactics and with congressional colleagues over pork-barrel spending, McCain has been quietly courting GOP power brokers, emphasizing his loyalty to the president and burnishing his conservative credentials on litmus-test issues. “McCain was nearly alone on Capitol Hill in defending the administration-approved ports deal involving a Dubai-owned company. He has eased his opposition to tax cuts that he once complained were excessive. “He recently met with the Rev. Jerry Falwell, a leading evangelical conservative whom he previously had denounced as intolerant. To the delight of GOP partisans, he publicly lambasted Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois — a rising star among Democrats — over an ethics and lobbying overhaul.” “McCain's backers say an increasingly strong selling point for him among conservatives is that he would be the candidate best able to defeat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, the early front-runner in the Democratic presidential race and a politician loathed by Republicans of virtually every stripe.” May all Independents who are leaning toward McCain read the MSM’s evaluation of this weekend’s Conference in Memphis. John McCain will do and say whatever it takes to win the GOP nomination in 2008. The straight-shooter-man-of-integrity image he has tried to project is a lie. Yes, he was a prisoner of war for five years, but one lesson he may have learned does not necessarily make a trustworthy politician: Survive at all costs no matter what you have to do and say.