Meghan McCain: Newt Gingrich Can’t Beat Obama

The GOP presidential nominee contest continues to provide entertainment even as it at times is horrifying to see just how low the Republican Party has descended into ignorance and bigotry. I'd be lying if I did not admit that I don't hope to see the GOP tear itself apart. In my view, it is the only way in which ultimately decent, rational folks can regain control from the Christianist/Tea Party base that is dragging the party downward. Inexplicable, Newt Gingrich is rising to front runner status, but many see this as disastrous if the party hopes to block Barack Obama from a second term. One Gingrich critic who represents what could in time be the new face of the GOP is Megan McCain, daughter of John McCain. In a column in The Daily Beast she lays out why Gingrich - should he be the GOP nominee - cannot beat Barack Obama. Her reasoning is on target. Here are some highlights:

[D]o you know one of the few things that can make me a cynic? Politicians with a history of ethically questionable behavior who miraculously reinvent themselves as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Politicians with a history of corruption who think people who question their history “don’t have a clue” about America and what is right for our country. I am, of course, referring to Newt Gingrich.

Gingrich is the new flavor of the month, the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. He has seen such a dramatic surge in the polls, I’m actually scared. The idea of Gingrich becoming our nominee makes my stomach turn. What exactly are we doing as a party?

The primary process exists for voters to discover which candidate can best represent the party in the general election. So far, I have not heard one argument for how Gingrich could beat President Obama next year. Gingrich is a smart man and a talented politician. But he’s also a Washington insider, who served this country for 40 years with a track record of being a questionable character.

Democrats would love nothing more than for us to nominate Gingrich because all they will have to do is delve into his past for easy ammunition. If we nominate Gingrich, we lose to President Obama. In these tumultuous times, we need a leader who is stable and consistent. Gingrich is neither.

What Republicans need right now is a statesman and a real leader who will inspire America, not someone who reminds them of all the things they hate about Washington. The possible nomination of Gingrich makes it difficult for even a person like me to continue to be an optimist when it comes to politics and the future of the Republican Party. I don’t know what kind of choice I am being given if this election ends up between Gingrich and President Obama, because from my perspective, that is no choice.

The real question that looms is, why do Republicans continue to resist Mitt Romney? He is by no means a perfect candidate or politician (as much as we want our politicians to be infallible, they never are), but he is light-years less controversial than Gingrich.

I just hope the voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida wake up in time to realize this before it’s too late and we forfeit the election to President Obama and the Democrats.

The McCain Women with Rachel Maddow - Tony Perkins Must be Wetting Himself

You have got to love this picture of Meghan and Cindy McCain with Rachel Maddow. Both women - unlike the increasingly senile John McCain - support gay marriage and Meghan seems to be forward looking compared to most in the GOP. Meghan in particular seems to realize that the Neanderthals of the Christian Right are (thankfully) dying off and that, unless the GOP wants to become extinct in not too many years, the party's homophobia and far right extremism need to end. Here's a video clip of the interview:

Will Conservatives Co-Opt Gay Rights Issues? One Democrat Says Maybe

It's certainly no secret to readers that I am far past being just a little disgusted with Barack Obama's betrayal of LGBT Americans. He courted our votes and more particularly our money during his presidential campaign and has delivered nothing in return. The feckless Congressional Democrats by and large have been little better. One would almost think that a deliberate effort is being made to alienate LGBT voters. Some even say leaving an opportunity for moderate Republicans - rare breed that they are - to court LGBT voters. Do the Democrats and Obama in particular really want to allow themselves to be on the wrong side of history given the support for LBT equality among younger voters? Sam Stein has a post at Huffington Post that looks at what some are viewing as Barack Obama's error in allowing Republicans an opening to potentially Co-opt LGBT issues or, at least, use Obama's failures against embattled Democrats. Here are some highlights:
*
The notion that the gay rights community would abandon the Obama White House over its unwillingness to fully embrace their legislative priorities may seem absurd to the casual political observer. But the recent embrace of same-sex marriage by prominent conservatives, most notably former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman, has some Democratic operatives concerned.
*
On Monday, former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt argued that there was a "strong conservative case to be made in favor of gay marriage" and that more and more Republicans are dropping their opposition to the cause. Shortly thereafter, a prominent Democratic consultant got in touch with the Huffington Post to make the case that the Obama administration risks losing the gay rights community (or at least depressing their votes) with its tepid embrace of their priorities.
*
I think they have been put in a tough place by these conservatives and they should be," the consultant said. "There are a whole group of people who are to the left of them [the Obama administration] on gay rights. And they are Republicans. It should make them feel uncomfortable."
*
Though hardly a barometer for the Republican Party's collective psyche, John McCain's daughter, Meghan, made overtures along these lines on Tuesday night. "We get the bad rap as Republicans being against gay marriage," she told Fox News. "[Obama] isn't doing anything for the gay community."
*
She's right - Obama isn't doing anything for the majority of the LGBT community. Policy changes that impact a small number of LGBT federal employees are not the change that Obama promised. Nor do these tiny mincing steps do anything for those who still lack basic employment non-discrimination protections. With Margaret Hoover, Laura Bush, Meghan McCain and her mother, Ted Olson, and for God sakes even Dick Cheney more supportive on the issue of gay marriage than Obama, stranger things have happened than a possible future GOP move to the left of the Democrats on LGBT issues. Yes, it's true that the Christianists within the GOP will have a conniption fit if the GOP begins to jettison its anti-gay plank. On the other hand, time and demographics are on the side of proponents of LGBT equality. As crazy as many in the GOP are at present, anyone with an eye to the future ought to realize Obama has made the Democrats vulnerable on the issue.

Why the New York GOP Should Embrace Gay Marriage

While I'm still not totally sure of her motives, Meghan McCain continues to be saying all the right things about gay marriage and I'm sure she is causing the Christianists base of the GOP to have conniption fits. With children of her age bracket of my own, most have gay friends and they are turned off by the non-stop anti-gay jihad of the GOP. Thus, I suspect Meghan McCain sees the hand writing on the wall that as the old guard of the GOP extreme far right die off, the younger voters replacing them will see gay marriage as a litmus test as to whether or not they can be Republicans and feel forced to vote Democrat. McCain has a column in the New York Daily News where she expounds on this topic. Oddly enough, some of her statements sound like those of Andrew Sullivan. Here are some highlights:

*

In Open Letter to New York Republicans:

*

As I read the news about the recent advances of marriage equality across our country, I think it is easy for many to get distracted by the politics and rhetoric on this issue and lose sight of what is really at its heart: the equality of freedom.

*

No matter how politically charged the discussions about marriage equality may get, the question is really a simple one: Do the rights and privileges we offer citizens include everyone in our country, or only some of us?

*

I believe that allowing gays and lesbians the freedom to marry is an idea whose time has come. Though my opinion is no doubt influenced by my family's public role in political life, I still approach this from personal experience, as I think most people do. For me, this is about treating all of my friends, and all of our brothers, sisters, children and grandchildren the same as I want to be treated. Equality under the law and personal freedoms are what make America the greatest country in the world, and they are core values that I hold as a Republican.

*

Gays and lesbians are a vital part of our communities. They are doctors, teachers, firefighters, emergency personnel and neighbors. In this way, marriage equality is also about supporting good citizens and strengthening our communities. When a committed gay couple seeks to declare their love for one another and get married, the whole community benefits from the added stability and strength of that family. On top of that, we don't give up anything by sharing responsibilities and protections with those whom we love. That's why I support marriage equality.

*

I believe marriage equality will soon come to New York. My hope is that Republican senators will offer their support and make the difference to pass the marriage bill. By voting for the marriage bill, they will make a strong statement about supporting New York families, strengthening New York communities and demonstrating that equality and fairness are fundamental values of New York Republicans. It will leave a legacy that will make us all proud.

Signs of Some Intelligent Life in the GOP

Even though the base of the Republican Party has increasingly become dominated by knuckle dragging Neanderthals and unhinged religious fanatics, speeches at the Log Cabin Republican convention over the weekend by Meghan McCain and Christie Todd Whitman suggest that not all intelligent life has yet fled the GOP. Both came out in support of same sex marriage and urged the GOP to move forward instead of trying to hang on to the fast slipping away past. With younger voters overwhelmingly identifying with the Democrat Party and supporting gay marriage, if the GOP doesn't wish to become today's equivalent of the Whig Party, it must change course and move with society. Whether and how McCain, Whitman and other non-theocrats can regain control of the GOP remains to be seen. A look at McCain's remarks correctly identifies one of the major problems with the GOP: Most people are ready to move on to the future, not live in the past, but most of the old school Republicans "are scared shitless of that future." Here are some highlights from the Daily Beast:

*

People in our country have much more important issues to deal with on a daily basis. But the experience did reinforce what I learned on the campaign trail in some major ways. I’ll summarize them in three points:
1. Most of our nation wants our nation to succeed.
2. Most people are ready to move on to the future, not live in the past.
3. Most of the old school Republicans are scared shitless of that future.

*

I feel too many Republicans want to cling to past successes. There are those who think we can win the White House and Congress back by being “more” conservative. Worse, there are those who think we can win by changing nothing at all about what our party has become. They just want to wait for the other side to be perceived as worse than us. I think we’re seeing a war brewing in the Republican party, but it is not between us and Democrats. It is not between us and liberals. It is between the future and the past. I believe most people are ready to move on to that future.

*

Christie Todd Witman went even further and spoke out directly about the need for the GOP to separate religion from the civil laws. This is precisely the issue that first caused me to leave the GOP even before the advent of the Chimperator's fool's errand war in Iraq and his administration's trashing of the Constitution. Here are highlights of Whitman's remarks on this issue which no doubt will have the Christianists writhing with fits:

*

The government should have no say about marriage, and the plank in the Republican Party platform that calls for preserving marriage between a man and a woman should be scrapped, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman (R) told CNSNews.com. Furthermore, the U.S. military should not differentiate between homosexuals and heterosexuals, said Whitman. The former governor spoke Friday at the Log Cabin Republicans’ (LCR) 2009 convention and symposium in Washington, D.C.

*

“Well, I am somebody who believes in the separation of church and state and that the government, frankly, ought to be out of the business of marriage entirely,” Whitman told CNSNews.com after her speech. “It ought to be everybody – heterosexual, homosexual. When you go down and register to get married, that’s when the legal transfer of everything occurs and that’s a legal recognition of a relationship – and if you want to get married in a church, a temple, whatever, and you find one, great!” she said. “Civil marriage, everybody,” said Whitman. “I am not against marriage for gay couples. I just think it would make the issue easier if it was civil marriage for everybody.

*

“I am not saying to Christian conservatives, ‘There is no place for you,’” said Whitman. “I am saying, ‘Please stop saying there is no place for us.’ “We can't succeed nationally as a party that only has 31 percent of the American people behind it,” she said. “It’s not going to work.

*

I wonder how many death threats Whitman has receive so far from "loving" Christians because of her candid and legally correct remarks.