View From Lodi, CA: The Internet Could Defeat McCain In November
Super Tuesday was a rough day for Lodi Republicans.
The News-Sentinel reported that turn out was
sparse. In the early afternoon at my polling place, I
was the only voter in sight. [Voting
Is Smooth but Sparse In Lodi, By Layla Bohm,
Lodi News-Sentinel, February 6, 2008]
As I see it, the problem is that Lodi, a
Republican stronghold, faced a tough choice. A vote
for the frontrunner and eventual
California primary winner John McCain is an
endorsement for President George W. Bush.
McCain supports the Iraq War and promises to stay in
Iraq for
a hundred years if necessary. And McCain, on
domestic policy, agrees with
Bush that
illegal aliens should be amnestied.
But no matter how staunchly Lodians may have
supported Bush in 2000 and
2004, the Republican faithful who now
disagree with him on the war and immigration have
slowly but surely fallen away.
Voters like to support winners. But what are they to
do when the probable winner
endorses policies they don`t agree with? The best
thing is to stay home.
The
Republican conservative wing—the largest portion of
the party—has no love lost for McCain.
Among its complaints are that McCain has little
regard for his
fellow Republicans as
demonstrated in
his vulgarity-laced exchange this summer with fellow
Senator John Cornyn during a debate about immigration.
As
Jessica Echard, executive director of the
conservative organization
Eagle Forum said about the enigma that McCain
represents: “We`re in a political dilemma, as well as
a personal dilemma. What will we do? What can be done?"
[McCain
Gets His Party`s Cold Shoulder, By Stephanie
Simon and DeeDee Correll, Los Angeles Times,
February 7, 2008]
Republican options include uniting behind McCain,
pressuring him to change his policies, demanding that he
immediately name an unquestionably conservative running
mate or, as Lodians may have done on in the primary, sit
it out.
Assuming that McCain gets the Republican nomination,
things will quickly turn from interesting to
fascinating. The Democrats have the war issue on their
side. But its leading candidate, Hillary Clinton, has
more negatives than any other contender—with the
possible exception of
McCain.
One of the tools McCain
uses most effectively to promote himself is his
status as a “war
hero.” But many, including fellow Vietnam
veterans, challenge that. And a whole host of other
documented McCain negatives are widely reported on the
World Wide Web but ignored in the print media.
The
Vietnam Veterans Against John McCain, a site
organized and managed by Vietnam veteran and POW/MIA
advocate Jerry Kiley, has accumulated background
material from unimpeachable sources that could affect
the outcome of November`s election.
Among the most surprising charge against McCain is
that his fellow Vietnam veterans do not universally
respect him. Col. David H. Hackworth, who won 78 combat
awards during his 25 years of military service including
three Silver Stars for his service in
Korea and another seven Silver Stars for action in
Vietnam, was skeptical as to the
merits of McCain`s war hero status. While not
questioning McCain`s capture and torture, Hackworth
wondered if the media has spun it beyond what it really
is.[
Are McCain`s Handlers Playing The Wrong Card?,
January 25, 2008]
McCain`s success or failure may depend on the
internet`s effectiveness in getting out the Senator`s
full but largely undisclosed story to the electorate.
Republicans will have to sort out for themselves
which McCain is the real one.
But on a political level, as voters debate whether
McCain is a conservative or not, the answer may lie in
McCain`s
endorsement by the
Los Angeles Times and the
New York Times, two of the nation`s most liberal
newspapers.
No conservative Republican could ever get the backing
of such Democratic-leaning sources.
Joe Guzzardi [email
him], an instructor in English
at the Lodi Adult School, has been writing a weekly
column since 1988. It currently appears in the
Lodi News-Sentinel.
