Classical Values :: McCain -- the last hope of a hopeless party?

January 09, 2008

McCain -- the last hope of a hopeless party?

Now that the dust has settled a little, it seems pretty clear what had been pretty clear before the outburst of Obamamania -- the Clintons are consummate professionals who can handle whatever is thrown their way.

The Republicans would do well to remember that.

Will Hillary be easier to beat than Obama? M. Simon thinks so, and last night we had an email exchange over the issue, but I'm not convinced. The fact is, Obama's a novice, and Hillary is not. The Democratic voters in New Hampshire -- at least those who weren't bamboozled by tears or voting purely according to gender -- surely recognized this. I think that most Americans would have recognized it sooner or later too. Assuming a competent GOP opponent, Obama would have eventually been seen as a naif. This is why I thought Huckabee would have been the ideal opponent from Obama's perspective....

But none of that theorizing matters now. What matters is who can beat Hillary.

I keep looking at the grim numbers, and only McCain seems up to the task.

Giuliani vs. Hillary:

45.2% 47.0%

Huckabee vs. Hillary:

43.5% 48.3%

Romney vs. Hillary:

44.2% 49.0%

McCain vs. Hillary:

48.8% 43.8%

Thompson vs. Hillary:

41.5% 49.0%

Of course, the above numbers don't guarantee a McCain victory. Americans are tired of the GOP, and the GOP seems tired of itself.

Hillary has the ability to endlessly reinvent herself, and right now she's looking like the brand new Hillary. The sincere Hillary. The feeling Hillary. The Obama-juggernaut-stopping Hillary.

I don't think she's going to be easy to beat -- not even for McCain.

But who says McCain will be the nominee, anyway?

UPDATE: Bridget Johnson worries that the GOP race is becoming "a foreign policy wasteland" and, noting some especially embarrassing lapses by Huckabee and Romney, concludes,

Let's just hope that, from here on out, GOP voters put foreign policy on the front burner. Otherwise, how do you say "doh!" in Urdu?

And lest anyone think last night means McCain is a sure thing, consider how few delegates he actually won:

McCain won seven Republican delegates to four for Romney and one for Huckabee. New Hampshire originally had 24 Republican delegates, but the national party stripped half as punishment because the state broke party rules by scheduling its primary so early.

In the overall race for the GOP nomination, Huckabee leads with 31 delegates, followed by Romney with 19 and McCain with seven.

posted by Eric on 01.09.08 at 08:29 AM

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Comments

Americans want change in Washington, there's no doubt about that.

But try as they will to convince voters that they're the candidate for change, it seems obvious to me that candidates who are already firmly entrenched Washington insiders are NOT the ones who will make those changes.

It's exactly that insider same old, same old "experience" so many of the candidates tout that most Americans want to get rid of.

WASHINGTON CANNOT FIX WASHINGTON!

Mitt Romney makes a telling comment:

“People who have been there all their careers don’t begin to have the freedom of movement and the capacity to change Washington. They’ve got lobbyists at every elbow, the deals have been worked out in the Senate cloakrooms are just so overwhelming – the scores that have to be settled, all of the favors that have to honored. You just can’t get the job done in Washington with people that have been in Washington all their lives. So people are saying you know what? We need change.”

To me it seems perfectly clear that the most qualified outsider candidate, the one who is most likely to make real change in Washington, is Mitt Romney.

Romney's MBA and Doctorate from Harvard, his proven record of success in making the right executive decisions time after time, and his lifetime devotion to the family values cherished by most Americans demonstrate clearly that he's the man for the Whitehouse.

I think it's time for Americans to unite behind that man - he's head and shoulders above ALL the other candidates.

http://justamere10.blogspot.com

Justamere10 · January 9, 2008 09:04 AM

Romney's MBA and Doctorate from Harvard,

Yeah. The American equivalent of France's École Nationale. That'll bring change, all right.

Bill Quick · January 9, 2008 01:38 PM

Someone bought the "change" line? I have never agreed with John McCain more than when he took his shot at Governor Romney.

I would not take any of those match-up numbers against Senator Clinton terribly seriously. I expect the responses can be accounted for by name recognition as by anything else, the Giuliani match-up is presumably within the margin of error and New Hampshire should have convinced even the trusting among us of the value of polling.

Now everyone may return to straight line predictions as per usual...

Flea · January 9, 2008 10:57 PM