The game has been played well by those backing a John McCain run for the presidency, as his biggest opposition in the Republican Party bowed out today, for his love of America. (My professor in Game Theory is sure it was Karl Rove in the back pulling strings to catapult McCain over Romney on Super Tuesday.) As the Republican Party gears up for its national presidential campaign, all eyes will be on the democrats, who will be asking themselves, “who is better equipped to beat McCain?”
I originally thought Obama had a better chance to take the presidency, but now I’m just not sure. Either way, I think McCain’s early appointment (as it seems to be now) as the GOP nomination will give him a much needed boost to convince Americans to vote conservative. Nice strategery boys!
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 15:26 by Ossie and is filed under National, Politics.
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Sorry, things passed me by a little, but if I might explain:
I wasn’t trying to present that list of dark corners in the Republican Party as a coherent “coalition,” I was simply trying to say that as the (viable) candidate who inspired the most vocal dread from “conservative activists” John McCain may be poised to bring a more reasonable tone to the GOP. My problem with that is that he will make the GOP more mainstream without really bringing limited government types back into the fold.
In short, everyone saw the GOP shakeup coming, and I genuinely hoped that when all was said and done, the libertarian wing would emerge in a relatively better position. Although I commend Ron Paul for sticking with the Republicans rather than making a third party bid, it looks like his faction is going to stay on the outside looking in.
I may pillage a town or two now and then and eat babies occasionally, but, hey, who doesn
“I
Poly Sci Game Theory = game theory for kids that never took calculus. It’s better than most PS classes I’ve taken. The Battle of the Sexes is a tough one, but I guess i don’t understand women in the first place. Why do you need multiple strategies?
“How exactly does stating that I am dissatisfied with the current batch of presidential hopefuls make me a
“Hey Exquisite Dead Guy, you are just another scared racist white guy that is about to loose his place in this ever changing country. I would love to see your face after these racist war mongers loose the white house.”
???????????????????????????????????????
How exactly does stating that I am dissatisfied with the current batch of presidential hopefuls make me a “scared racist white guy”? Last time I looked, every person I have criticized on this site is very, very white. And even if they weren’t, I am criticizing based on policy, not on race. You don’t even know what my race is. Uninformed, knee-jerk reactions like yours are a big reason this country can’t get over the race issue. Yes, there are plenty of racist people still out there, but not all of them are white. People like you need to stop spouting off your hateful, vitriolic garbage and start thinking for yourselves, instead of relying on second-hand opinions about the world.
And Olly, you’re right. “Lied” was a poor choice of words on my part. “Ambiguous” would have been a better choice. I don’t feel as though McCain is being really upfront about what he really believes because he is trying to be everything to everyone right now. I used to like McCain, and would probably have voted for him in 2000 if had won the Republican bid. I certainly would have preferred him over Bush. I don’t consider a Bush a true Republican. He obviously doesn’t ascribe to the ideas of small government with limited intervention in citizens’ lives, or having a reasonable, balanced budget.
I may still vote for McCain, but not until I feel like I really know where he stands on things. Right now he is just staying a bit too ambiguous for my taste, but I understand it’s necessary to appeal to a broader voter base. But I agree that this election is the Democrats’ to lose. I think if Obama gets the nod, he’ll go all the way. Clinton might not. There are just too many people who don’t like her. Whether or not the Dems are smart enough to pick Obama is another question, though. If they had chosen anyone even slightly less liberal than Kerry last time around, we would have a Democrat in the White House right now.
Unless there’s calculus it doesn’t count.
Acutually it is Misha Myagkov. Poly Sci game theory class.
Do polisci professors ever start in the shallow end? I’ve never known one that wasn’t a little bit wacky.
Has Anne Van Den Nouweland gone off the deep end?
Uh, Ted…
“Now, I personally feel like the Republicans ought to throw away a few more election cycles chasing after the fading glory of the Tancredo/DeLay/Fallwell[sic, but he deserves no better]/Abramoff coalition because…”
Excuse me, the what?
Don’t get me wrong, by the way: there genuinely are issues where McCain is at odds with the Republican base. (Primarily immigration and First Amendment stuff.) My point was just that he hasn’t really been trying to cover these differences up – mostly because it wouldn’t have worked. The problem with being a career Senator is that the voting record follows you around.
(And hey, demagogues are people too, y’know.)
Yeah, Olly nailed the hilarity of the whole conservative base vs. McCain kerfluffle. If Romney was really the man for the conservative baseheads of the Republican Party, then how do we even know what it means to be a Republican any more? I thought that Reagan hath proclaimed in the times of yore that “yea verily, thou shalt mock and demean any governor of Massachusets under any circumstances, for to succeed in that electorate the man must surely be nancy-boy liberal.” Which brings me to my point: McCain doesn’t try to be all things to all the knee-jerk reactionaries in this country, which is ultimately a good thing for the Republican party. Now, I personally feel like the Republicans ought to throw away a few more election cycles chasing after the fading glory of the Tancredo/DeLay/Fallwell/Abramoff coalition because, well, they kinda deserve to lose right now. On the other hand, McCain will probably lose anyway, and at least he’ll be able to keep the Dems honest by appealing to real people rather than AM radio demagogues.
Andrew (presumably not an English major): “I would love to see your face after these racist war mongers [sic] loose [sic] the white house [sic].”
You heard it here first: there will not be a third G.W. Bush administration.
EDG: which issues has McCain lied about? If you’re talking about his vote against the Bush tax cuts, I think his justification for it is quite principled. (Representing the limited-government party, Bush just submitted the first $3 trillion federal budget. Golf clap, everyone.) I’m not a big McCain fan, but the Republican candidate with the mysterious Damascene conversion was Mitt Romney, not him.
Anyway, barring a complete Democratic meltdown, I think the race is theirs to lose. Of course, the same was true in February 2004.
Hey Exquisite Dead Guy, you are just another scared racist white guy that is about to loose his place in this ever changing country. I would love to see your face after these racist war mongers loose the white house.
All these “debates” over whether or not McCain is a “true conservative” (whatever that means) reminds me of all the lame debates about whether or not any given black metal band is “tr00” or “kvlt” or “grim” enough.
I’ll leave you to decide what that means.
Despite McCain’s repeated assertions that he is a “true” conservative, he still isn’t going to get the conservative vote. The easy solution to that problem? Huckabee as his running mate. I watched the interview (I believe it was on CBS) in which Huckabee was asked whether or not he would accept a McCain invitation to be his running mate. He danced around the issue, but he essentially said that he would take it if McCain offers it. That’s just what the nation needs: a quasi-Republican who has lied about his stance on nearly every issue just to get the nomination, running with a Baptist minister who has plenty of his own issues with deciding whether or not he is conservative. Huckabee is ultra-conservative in some things, Clinton-esque in others. I can’t wait to see the attack ads the two parties throw at each other this year. It would almost be worth have Hillary “Beelzebub” Clinton running just to see how nasty things can get. I’m sure her legions of demonic helpers (like her daughter, who certainly looks the part) to dig up all sorts of dirt on McCain. Looks like it’s time to start checking out the third parties. Yet again.
i agree that this has karl rove all over it, but for totally different reasons.
i think they’ve decided to “give this one to the dems” so they can be blamed for all of the disasters of the bush/cheney/rove presidency, and be stuck cleaning everything up for the next 4 years. and they THINK they’ll get it back the following term.
but they are completely out of touch with the majority of americans (as usual) and baraq will be re-elected in 2012!!!