Jophiel wrote:
Sure. Everyone says they want a 'moderate' guy. Apparently McCain doesn't believe that hype because he's been working hard to re-establish credibility with the Right. I'm not going to hit you with a bunch of links, but Google something like 'McCain woo conservatives' and see what he's been up to. It hasn't been trying to suck up to the moderates. Particularally for the primaries where most of the voters do feel a stronger party affiliation than the general election voters.
That's the reason why this really raised eyebrows. McCain's been busting his hump to appease the Right only to cut his own standing down with a couple words on Letterman.
Of course he's wooing the conservatives in the Republican Party, and stepping out on Iraq is him opening the door to wooing conservative liberals who may be questioning the hard left's commitment to party and populace. If that door get's shut, it will be because Democrats jump all over him for co-opting their position and compromising their ability to win the independent, undecided and moderate voters.
There really isn't a Republican Party or Democratic Party anymore. The Republicans have been replaced by a cabal of NeoCons who rely on fear-mongering to steer votes their way. The Dems are at best federation of disparate factions (is that redundant?), and at worst, reactionaries whose primary political position is that they aren't fear-mongering NeoCons.
Politics is not a position of absolutes. Politics is as dynamic a system as any. A politician who want to succeed has to be willing to step to the right or the left as needed, or else fall prey to the Ann Coulter/Ted Kennedy syndrome.
As far as any party affiliation affinity (wtf?), round these parts (that being the Great State of Cheeze), during primaries you are required to vote the candidates representing a particular political party, on the grounds that it keeps people from crossing party lines and voting for an opposing candidate that can't possibly win. As such, regardless of any statistical or polling models to the contrary, primaries may well be meaning less is what people really want.
FWIW, I'm neither Republican or Democrat. I believe too deeply in the words
Quote:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness,"
to give allegance to anyone who would sell my rights for a 5 point bump in the polls.
