In this recent post I presumed to give some advice to Republicans based on the dramatic victory of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI).
Since John McIntyre of RealClearPolitics now makes a good argument that Tuesday’s national results strengthens the appeal of John McCain for the presidential nomination in 2008 (and I think the same thing, for the same reasons can be said of Rudy Giuliani), I think the advice I gave in my previous post is especially relevant for either of these two possible nominees.
Both McCain and Giuliani will have to overcome substantial resistance from Republican conservatives because of their positions on one or several social issues, including the sort of federal judges they would nominate. A good — indeed, perhaps even necessary — way for them to appeal to these conservatives is to come out strongly for race-blind, gender-blind, ethnicity-blind equality. And, as the overwhelming vote in Michigan for MCRI demonstrates, doing so would not just enhance their reputation as defenders of a core American value — that everyone deserves to be treated by the state “without regard” to race, creed, or color — but would be good politics as well.
Pawlenty as VP in 2008?
Pawlenty didn’t win re-election in Minnesota, the Democrats, who were leading in the polls throughout the campaign, lost it through their own midwest “macaca” moment.
A few days before the election the Democratic Lt. Governor candidate revealed a lack of knowledge about E85, an ethanol blend fuel made from corn that is important to rural voters. In response to this issue, the Democratic candidate for Governor blew up at a reporter and called him a “Republican whore”.
Pawlenty won by one percentage point because the third-party who received six percent, siphoned off mainly Democratic votes. The rest of the state-wide Democrats won by about ten percentage points.
Don’t count on Pawlenty to deliver Minnesota’s electoral votes.
Unless people are more totally stupid/memory lossed than I think, you can forget about McCain. His participation in the ‘gang of 14’, his trashing of the 1st Amendment and other things take care of that.
Guliani? Not sure, but have serious doubts.
I disagree with McCain about campaign finance and I disagreed with his Gang of 14 (though it worked reasonably well), but I certainly would not rule him out yet as a good choice for 2008. In any event, there are probably better ways of arguing against McCain than calling his supporters or potential supporters stupid.
True, the only McCain supporters who are stupid are the ones who expect to come out of a McCain administration with much left of their freedom of speech. Or who are suprised at what other liberties he goes after, once the interest groups defending them are suitably gagged.
I predict that if McCain is asked about MCRI, or something similar in 08 in another state, he will support it.
I make this prediction based on certain knowledge I can’t fully relay, although I will elaborate that I’m merely predicting it and the reasons could change. Someone should ask him the next time they meet him in person.