McCain town hall in Reagan Democrat country
By Soren Dayton Posted in 2008 | Economy | John McCain | Michigan — Comments (22) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Macomb County, Michigan, is one of the homes of the Reagan Democrat. Today, I saw John McCain give a town hall in the closing stretch of the Michigan primary. I don't have pictures because my video camera was stolen, but I have impressions.
Michigan is in an a single-state recession. Unemployment is above 7%. Many of the current jobs are in manufacturing which, the Detroit News, the conservative paper in the state, has noted won't come back. How to handle this is the fundamental debate. Mitt Romney is saying that he, personally, can turn the state around and that the future of Michigan is bright. McCain has argued that more realism and effort is needed, and has focused on retraining programs. My gut is that McCain wins this fight by recognizing the challenges. In New Hampshire exit polls McCain received substantially more support from people with economic anxiety, and Romney won only one economic subgroup, those making between $150k and $200k.
McCain's answer is a retraining program. In March, I was in New Hampshire (before my camera was stolen), and asked him a similar question. This was his answer:
McCain was asked about the subprime crisis, and he passed the microphone to Carli Fiorina, the CEO of HP (formerly Hewlett Packard). She said that she had never campaigned before and was supporting McCain because he is "a unique and inspiring leader." She turned to answering the question and focused on the need for transparency and accountability. She said that there were many things "off balance sheet" so that risks couldn't be properly accounted for. She then invoked Enron and said "if you can't see it, you can't understand it." One person in the audience liked the answer enough to say "Thank you Madame Vice President."
Off to an event at the Americans for Prosperity Forum.
mccain is like voting for a democrat, and huckabee the same. can anyone not see what is right in front, romney is from michigan, he loves this state, everyone is saying he is out of touch and cannot bring back michigan jobs or bring back the economy, but have we all forgotton what he did for the olympics, it was unbelieveable, it was in shambles going bankrupt, there was corruption, but he took it over and it was a huge success and he saved our reputaion here in the US. everyone loved him back then, that is when I first heard of him, I truly believe that he will make it a top priority just because he loves it and because everyone says he cannot do it. what mccain is proposing is a high gov. cost, and it usually never works, this is not what mccain is good at, this country is heading for some bad times and it is getting more and more obvious, we need somenone like romney, and mccain is going to do to romney what he did to BUSH, facts are facts, democrats and independents can vote in the gop primary and because of that , that worries me, they want to mess in our primary just to take romney down.and huckabee is using his religion to get elected because he sure knows nothing. that last debate proved it. PEOPLE WAKE UP TO WHAT IS HAPPENING, IT IS TRUE, THESE TWO HUCKABEE AND MCCAIN ARE DEVIDING THE PARTY AND WE ARE NOT GOING TO WIN, LISTEN TO RUSH AND SEAN AND OTHER TRUE GOP. MICHIGAN PLEASE VOTE FOR ROMNEY, HE WILL TURN THE STATE AROUND.
I like the comparison to the Industrial Revolution. I think that can be a useful way to understand the economic shifts that have been taking place, and that will continue to take place over the next several decades. McCain is making the case that we need to look forward, not backward, and I think it's an important case to make.
There is no President but Lincoln, and Reagan is his prophet
At Newt's public insistence in 1994 I read the Toffler's book the "Third Wave". It lays out exactly what is happening now. People working from home, information driving the economy etc..
If he can't strangle the economy enough with global warming regulations, he can take care of the job with a Sarbanes-Oxley style bureaucratic oversight of the finanical sector.
Just what we need. Another big government Republican.
McCain ought to be loved in Michigan. He shovels enough global warming hocus on them, and he can put the Big 3 into financial heaven. No more SUVs, no more trucks. Just little compacts--what they do best!
Heaven, of course, referring more to the aspect of being dead.
"Don't ever be afraid to see what you see." ~Ronald Reagan
Found through Instapundit:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/10/2713/87225/55/434206
The Dems are afraid of a McCain challenge.
is right twice a day?
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Considering where the good doctor's head was, when practicing medicine, is it any wonder that the man has issues?
McCain, if I understand him right, says that the US as a manufacturing power is history. It's all about Information. Software. Little bitty Gigs here and a new car plant there in India. Peachy, awesome, John, you sure took a weight off my mind!
No steel mills, no auto plants, no factories. Where we get our ships, tanks and fighters from? Who builds them? Do we go to China and say Please sell us a carrier so we can have a war?
Forget I-want-to-buy-the-world a Starbucks, This new century of ours is going to make the last one look like the kumbaya hour.
McCain had his chance to be in favor of job growth and voted no when he voted no on the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts.
Today he tries to fool conservatives by saying that he opposed the Bush tax cuts because they didn't include spending cuts. But McCain never proposed an amendment to the Bush tax cuts to include spending cuts, but McCain did vote for the Rockefeller amendment, which would have requried that spending be increased before the Bush tax cuts could go into affect.
Also, during the debate over the 2001 Bush tax cuts, McCain said that he couldn't support them because there tilted towards the rich. He used rhetoric nearly identical to that of Ted Kennedy. McCain sided with the Democrat minority leader Tom Daschle.
Now, add in McCain's pro-regulation views on Global Warming and CAFE standards and you know that the US economy would sink under a McCain presidency.
Then add in the affect on the McCain-Kennedy immigration bill, which the Heritage Foundation estimated would increase the cost of America's social welfare programs by over 2 trillion dollars.
Honestly,
How can any thinking center right person even consider voting for McCain at this point? Why not just vote for Obama or Hillary? At least with them they are open about being liberals.
Good post Spiral, well said on rihgt on point.
If you think McCain is a conserevative then you may as well put a few dozen Ron Paul stickers on your car
McCain is a thinking center-right person, I assume he'll be voting for himself.
The "no thinking person could possibly agree with you" line of argumentation is really unfair.
There is no President but Lincoln, and Reagan is his prophet
Well, there are a lot of us out there. But as I don't think you actually want to know the answer to your question, I'm not going to waste my time on it.
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It's an emotional thing for them, which is why you couldn't possibly be thinking if you disagree with them.
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
It's based on the experience of knowing that when you need an extra vote in favor of the Bush tax cuts or an extra vote in favor of ending the Democrat judicial filibuster, you can be reasonably sure that McCain will be appearing on TV announcing that he is siding with the Democrats.
Accusing Republicans who don't like McCain of being "emotional" is like accusing pro-lifers who don't like Senator Barbara Boxer of being emotional, when it really is all about the issues that are important to both groups of people.
Excellent post, Spiral!
You can always bet on McCain to side with media and Democrat liberals when the cameras are rolling!
For more on McCain and his dismal record, see my new blog John McCain - Just Say No
"My gut is that McCain wins this fight by recognizing the challenges."
Well of course you do, Soren! Seeing how you've never once written anything positive about Romney and have long been a McCain booster. You're a skilled writer and I think a generally bright analyst, but your faux objectivity gets tiresome at times.
Oh, and I love how McCain passes the economic question off to Fiorina. That should inspire confidence in his grasp of economic issues.
Ed54, do you really think people opposed to McCain have no reasons to do so? Really?
only some of the most vocal and aggressive ones.
People opposed to McCain have plenty of reasons, and I respect them and their reasons. But there is a second category, the McCain haters. They are easily spotted because their argument generally defaults back to "McCain insulted us in 2000 and we ain't forgetting it." Sure, they make an effort to construct a fig leaf of justification, but it's just rationalization after the fact. Their true logic (or lack of) is revealed by their frequent references to McCain committing the terrible sin of being seen in public with various Democrats, and even occasionally cooperating with them. They are also usually the ones spouting overheated rhetoric about how the party is destroyed and the true conservatives are gone, and making the idiotic threat to boycott the election rather than vote for McCain.
"If all men were just, there would be no need of valor."
- Agesilaus
because the party that nominates McCain isn't a conservative party any more. A McCain nomination would signal that 2008 is already lost, and it's time to start working towards 2012. It's not irrational to cut your losses and move forward.
of a nuclear attack in this country. If this matter's not to you, good riddance. I support Fred, but I would consider mylself to be a self important castrati if I failed to vote for the Republican candidate opposing Hillary or Hussein.
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Molon Labe!
A naval career that maxes out at Captain and a senatorial career where he's worked to stop water boarding and close gitmo. An apparently bad temper and disposition, and the belief that he alone is right. Count me as unconvinced that McCain's supposed strength as CIC is something Republicans should long for - and that's his best quality.
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With what punitive cuts and contra intellectual economics? If residents look at what the Club for Growth says about McCain and contrasted it against, say, what Rudy or Mitt actually did as Governors, McCain would only see their dust. Honestly, are we going to run into some real conservatives who can follow the facts soon?
McCain has a long record in the Senate. They should examine it and consider the real accomplishments not his alleged "straight talk". It will only lead to one conclusion, there are much better choices.
People of Michigan, please wake up.
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