If she doesn't call and apologize to El Rushbo, it's sure going to make Michael Steele and the scurrying partridges of the Republican party look pretty darned wimpy!

Still glad Obama won!

If Sen. McCain had his mother's backbone and chutzpah.

This is so freaking weird, that the McCains would somehow join with the Colin Powell/Anti-Rush wing of the party, after Colin Powell abandoned McCain's candidacy.

Mrs. McCain, Rush Limbaugh gave your son's Presidential bid more support than Colin Powell did.

One of the few advantages of being old is that you can get away with speaking your mind. Not that Roberta McCain seems old! No wonder that occasionally I like her son. Of course she was also pretty harsh on Obama during the Primary, but what's a mother to do?

Don't let your sons grow up to be Rush Limp Dick Loonies and little crazy Sun Yung Moonies

nt

Actually, I think that's the problem! If John McCain could have been supported by the smooth-talking calm Colin Powell instead of the frothing-at-the-mouth all hate, all the time Rush Limbaugh, fewer people who habitually vote Republican would have deserted the party. There were a lot of what I'd call Eisenhower Republicans who were appalled by McCain's pandering to televangelists, right-wing radio hosts such as Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy (the guiy who advocated shooting federal lawmen in the head so as to not hit their Kevlar vests), and to the people at Republicans rallies screaming "Kill him!"

As that great Republican President Warren G. Harding said, "I can handle my enemies. It's my friends who keep me up walking the floor at night!"

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/US-Elections-2008/Roberta-McCain-Mother-Of-Presidential-Candidate-John-McCain-Airs-Her-Views/Article/200810415129714?lpos=US_Elections_2008_First_World_News_Feature_Teaser_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15129714_Roberta_McCain%3A_Mother_Of_Presidential_Candidate_John_McCain_Airs_Her_Views

How long till Rush calls her a feminazi and a lesbian? You know, his normal response to any woman who disagrees with him.

What has that got to do with the price of eggplants in Paraguay? I mean, that was mentioned in the article.

Damn, I'm getting old. Or maybe too many muzzle blasts back in the day.

"Mrs. McCain, Rush Limbaugh gave your son's Presidential bid more support..."

Actually, I think that's the problem! If John McCain could have been supported by the smooth-talking calm Colin Powell instead of the frothing-at-the-mouth all hate, all the time Rush Limbaugh, fewer people who habitually vote Republican would have deserted the party. There were a lot of what I'd call Eisenhower Republicans who were appalled by McCain's pandering to televangelists, right-wing radio hosts such as Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy (the guiy who advocated shooting federal lawmen in the head so as to not hit their Kevlar vests), and to the people at Republicans rallies screaming "Kill him!"

As that great Republican President Warren G. Harding said, "I can handle my enemies. It's my friends who keep me up walking the floor at night!"

-- MAV in Florida

So what is it? Is McCain condemned because people like Limbaugh acutally supported him?

Or is it because of something McCain actually did? ("Pandering," you claim, to a group of Republicans you deem to be outliers.)

This is the essential issue: based on all of the objective issues, McCain ought to have easily commanded Powell's endorsement. McCain had a long track record as a moderate Republican (so much so that he had been at odds with the so-called Limbaugh wing, for years) and as a leader who thoroughly shared Powell's devotion to U.S. military service personnel. You could hardly draw up a more perfect Republican candidate for Powell to support than John McCain, as long as you assume that Powell is actually a Republican.

But Powell turned on McCain, and endorsed Obama! Why? What issue or issues? Powell claimed things like the selection of Gov. Palin; he thought she shouldn't be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. But then, Powell said something incredible. He said he didn't want two more conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justices out of a McCain Administration. SAY WHAT? Show me a Republican who did not support the nominations of Scalia, Thomas, Roberts and Alito, and I'll show you someone who isn't a Republican at all. Seriously, did ANY Republican in the Senate cast a vote against the confirmation of any of the four? I don't think so. Scalia was confirmed unanimously, 98-0. Thomas' confirmation was the most contentious, but did he fail to win a single Republican vote? I don't think so. Ditto Thomas and Alito. Only the hard left -- the Obama left -- voted against their confirmation.

So what is it? Is McCain condemned because people like Limbaugh acutally supported him?

Or is it because of something McCain actually did? ("Pandering," you claim, to a group of Republicans you deem to be outliers.)

Well, yeah, it's something he did. The guy who got trashed by the extreme right wing of the Republican party in 2000, even being accused of fathering an out-of-wedlock baby, then went and sucked up to people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and convicted criminal G. Gordon Liddy.

To put it another way, how did YOU feel about President Barrack Obama's tenuous association with 60s terrorist William Ayers? WQell, that's the way people felt about John McCain's association with people like G. Gordon Liddy.

No, he's not condemned. He's still walking around without his trouser leg being slit and without his head being shaved (I'd mention that's not necessary, but Cindy found that he seems to be a bit touchy on that point).

He just didn't get the votes of people who looked at his schmoozing those outliers. That's all.

And now I've screwed up the italics! Oh well.

To put it another way, how did YOU feel about President Barrack Obama's tenuous association with 60s terrorist William Ayers? WQell, that's the way people felt about John McCain's association with people like G. Gordon Liddy.

-- MAV in Florida

Obama's association with Ayers filled me with disgust. I think it should have filled everyone with disgust. But it didn't, of course. It didn't strip off any of Obama's core support. No 'respectable' Democrat thought the "Bill Ayers thing" had any relevance. There were no Democrat Colin Powells, who rejected Obama for being too far left and too tied into far left figures like Ayers.

But on the other hand, you seem to say that McCain's tenuous association with Liddy really did strip off much of McCain's support, and that it might even have been the difference in the election. And, that it was "the difference" with Powell's 2008 endorsement.

There's no objective way to make this about any alleged Republican "extremism." Not with McCain as the candidate. This is all about Powell, and his own political rootlessness. Again I ask, does anybody know where Powell stands on any issues? Has the guy ever had to do anything other than play the role of "respected general"? If he wants to be a Democrat, he can be one. But that doesn't say anything about the Republicans. And that was Rush's point, going all the way back to last fall, when he asked how anyone could explain Powell's endorsement of Obama except as a matter of (arguably legitimate) Powell's enthusiasm that America elect, at long last, a black President? For asking that question, Limbaugh was burned at the stake by the national liberal media. Limbaugh, however, was simply demonstrating the guts to ask the right question.