# John McCain announces intention to announce . . . on David Letterman . . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 1, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155 "2007-03-01T14:53:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/1 "2007-03-01T14:53:44Z")
Story [here.](http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1860904.htm) The usual issues: 1. Is [McCain](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_mccain) nominable? 2. Is he electable? 3. What kind of POTUS would he make? ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/2 "2007-03-01T15:00:46Z")
I fell asleep with the TV sound off and woke up briefly while he was on screen saying this. This morning I woke up with visions of Tim Conway in the oval office. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/3 "2007-03-01T15:08:19Z")
Dumb move. Lots of Republicans are already calling McCain the media’s candidate, and by “announcing” on the Letterman show, he’s just playing to this perception. What he ought to be doing is shoring up his contacts with conservatives, where he is in real trouble. His fundraising is taking huge hits. Yet he didn’t find time in his schedule to go to the CPAC conference right here in DC. Unless he turns this around fast, he’ll be eclipsed in short order. Right now Rudy Giuliani has more traction among conservatives than McCain does. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/4 "2007-03-01T15:28:25Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] Unless he turns this around fast, he’ll be eclipsed in short order. Right now Rudy Giuliani has more traction among conservatives than McCain does. [/QUOTE] I have a question for Mr. Moto and any other conservatives. Disclaimer first: Rudy Giuliani is my choice to be our next President. Why do the conservative dislike McCain when his overall voting record is fairly sympathetic to the conservative ideals and Rudy’s record has many areas that differ greatly? - Rudy has supported gun control. - He has never acted or voted against pro-choice. - He is “Gay” friendly. - He appears to be quite fine with government control and regulation of business. - He is thoroughly a New Yorker. What I think conservatives might see in his favor: - He stands by his word to the point of ridicule at times. - He is hawkish. - He is extremely pro-police and tough on crime. What else am I missing? I had assumed for several years that he could not win the primary as he was too liberal of a Republican, but now it looks like he might actually have a chance. Jim ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/5 "2007-03-01T16:00:10Z")
Well, I am conservative, sure. But I am also a Republican. I’m far more comfortable with a party that includes people like Giuliani than a party that would shun him. Also, I’m a guy who prefers to look at results rather than rhetoric, and Giuliani is a man who has actually gotten results, and clearly ones a conservative can largely agree with, in his years as a prosecutor and as a very effective mayor. He also is one of the only people in this race who truly understand the nature of this war, and the measures we must take to win it. Of course, the man has done some things that I don’t agree with. But so has McCain, and McCain’s transgressions have pissed me off far more. While I can chalk up Giuliani’s gun control efforts to his experiences as a big-city crime fighter and a differing interpretation of the Second Amendment, and thus be satisfied that it was a mistaken act by a man of good will, I’m not so convinced of McCain’s campaign finance efforts. These were so blatant an assault of First Amendment principles that I can’t really excuse them at all. I don’t see McCain as being the future of the Republican Party in any way. Running him just because it is his turn risks another loss like Dole’s. With Giuliani and Romney, I’m keeping an open mind, and also watching for late entrants. I don’t think anyone else running on the Republican side right now (Hunter, Tancredo, et al) have a snowball’s chance. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/6 "2007-03-01T16:04:31Z")
I’d previously posted that McCain was going to be the next POTUS. I’m retracting that now (well, actually, retracted a few minutes ago in a pit thread). Announcing on Letterman was tacky…and he’s also said he thinks _Roe v. Wade_ should be overturned. One thing I read said he’d made the Roe comment earlier, but it was new to me. I figure we may as well issue McCain a fonzie jacket and some skis, and start looking to rent a shark… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/7 "2007-03-01T16:14:41Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] [Giuliani] also is one of the only people in this race who truly understand the nature of this war, and the measures we must take to win it. [/quote] What exactly has he said about that, that distinguishes him from the other Pub candidates? [QUOTE=Mr. Moto] . . . I’m not so convinced of McCain’s campaign finance efforts. These were so blatant an assault of First Amendment principles that I can’t really excuse them at all. [/QUOTE] :rolleyes: You’re not talking about [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mccain-feingold) sorry, feeble, lame, pathetic, half-assed excuse for CFR, **are you?** ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/8 "2007-03-01T16:29:32Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] He also is one of the only people in this race who truly understand the nature of this war, and the measures we must take to win it. [/QUOTE] How’s that? I mean, what’s Rudy actually _know_ about foreign policy, the Middle East, or any of that? I mean, sure, he could have read up on it in his spare time, but so have many of us. AFAICT, he represents the all-too-predominant Bar-Fight School of GOP thought: if somebody gets on your nerves, they need to be punched out. Is there a way in which his ‘understanding’ of the nature of this war differs appreciably from that? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/9 "2007-03-01T16:31:01Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] Well, I am conservative, sure. But I am also a Republican. I’m far more comfortable with a party that includes people like Giuliani than a party that would shun him. Also, I’m a guy who prefers to look at results rather than rhetoric, and Giuliani is a man who has actually gotten results, and clearly ones a conservative can largely agree with, in his years as a prosecutor and as a very effective mayor. He also is one of the only people in this race who truly understand the nature of this war, and the measures we must take to win it. Of course, the man has done some things that I don’t agree with. But so has McCain, and McCain’s transgressions have pissed me off far more. While I can chalk up Giuliani’s gun control efforts to his experiences as a big-city crime fighter and a differing interpretation of the Second Amendment, and thus be satisfied that it was a mistaken act by a man of good will, I’m not so convinced of McCain’s campaign finance efforts. These were so blatant an assault of First Amendment principles that I can’t really excuse them at all. I don’t see McCain as being the future of the Republican Party in any way. Running him just because it is his turn risks another loss like Dole’s. With Giuliani and Romney, I’m keeping an open mind, and also watching for late entrants. I don’t think anyone else running on the Republican side right now (Hunter, Tancredo, et al) have a snowball’s chance. [/QUOTE] Thank you so much for your answer. I hope more conservatives see it the way you do. As a moderate Republican, I have been feeling rather disenfranchised and I now have some hope that Rudy can move the party in a direction that will have wider appeal and be less unpalatable to large numbers of socially moderate to liberal voters. Jim ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/10 "2007-03-01T16:32:50Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto] Dumb move. Lots of Republicans are already calling McCain the media’s candidate, and by “announcing” on the Letterman show, he’s just playing to this perception. What he ought to be doing is shoring up his contacts with conservatives, where he is in real trouble. His fundraising is taking huge hits. Yet he didn’t find time in his schedule to go to the CPAC conference right here in DC. Unless he turns this around fast, he’ll be eclipsed in short order. Right now Rudy Giuliani has more traction among conservatives than McCain does. [/QUOTE] Disclaimer: I’m not likely to vote for any of the Republican candidates in '08. Having said that, I find myself thinking that McCain’s campaign is figuring (probably correctly) that Giuliani’s glow among conservatives isn’t going to withstand closer examination of his politics and political history, and that a closer exam of McCain’s is going to make him look better to conservatives. And that media coverage alone will accomplish a lot of that as it ramps up. So perhaps he’s looking ahead to the general election: trying to burnish his own shine among independents and swing voters. Losing those is a bigger risk in the long run than losing the conservatives. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/11 "2007-03-01T16:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=Oakminster] I figure we may as well issue McCain a fonzie jacket and some skis, and start looking to rent a shark… [/QUOTE] I’m enjoying the irony of a guy whose campaign apparently peaked months before his announcement that he’s going to announce his candidacy. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/12 "2007-03-01T20:00:17Z")
Win the war!?! How the hell does he plan on doing that? But I like Rudy. He’s a tough guy and we need someone in office that will kick some heads around. He’d be the first President that we’ve had in a long time that will have come from an extremely civic-minded background. I can see him doing a lot for Urban America, to tell the truth, and I think he approaches thing from a very common sense standpoint. I like the guy, regardless of what his personal life was like. I like Mayor Mike too though. However, I am generally a liberal in most aspects, and I gotta say that John McCain grows more and more despicable in my eyes. His Straight-Talk Express days earned my approval, but his post South Carolina behavior has really let me down, then made me feel that he had no character. Sure he was a torture vicitim, and a general American treasure in that regard, but his political behavior has been repulsive. He’s stated that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Now, why does this annoy me? Because it’s simply politics of the lowest common denominator. He hadn’t really come out on that much before. It’s annoying to me that he’s pandering to the far right. Well, he has to though, right? With Rudy on his left, he’s got no other choice, because he can’t push Rudy too far. Sorry for using Rudy, but I can’t remember how to spell Giuliani. I’d rather only get it wrong once! But most Republicans are going to get stuck on the Iraq issue. Not many people think it’s possible to solve that problem. But then again, pulling out won’t help matters either…We need to invent a peace ray… I’d say that McCain has little chance though. He’ll also be very old at the time too. 72 years old. If he’s elected he’ll be 80 by the end of his second term. That’s simply too old if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/13 "2007-03-01T21:04:55Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] But I like Rudy. He’s a tough guy and we need someone in office that will kick some heads around. [/QUOTE] The Bush/Cheney foreign policy is based on kicking heads. How’s that working for you? I think the last six years have amply demonstrated how toughness is overrated unless it’s combined with a great deal of cluefulness. And I don’t see that Rudy has a great deal of that quality. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/14 "2007-03-01T21:11:50Z")
[QUOTE=Merkwurdigliebe] We need to invent a peace ray… [/QUOTE] The decade is not right . . . ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/15 "2007-03-01T21:13:30Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] I think the last six years have amply demonstrated how toughness is overrated unless it’s combined with a great deal of cluefulness. And I don’t see that Rudy has a great deal of that quality. [/QUOTE] Please explain. I think he is a policy guy, myself, and those policies he pursued have demonstrably improved New York City. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/16 "2007-03-01T21:14:45Z")
[QUOTE=RTFirefly] The Bush/Cheney foreign policy is based on kicking heads. How’s that working for you? I think the last six years have amply demonstrated how toughness is overrated unless it’s combined with a great deal of cluefulness. **And I don’t see that Rudy has a great deal of that quality**. [/QUOTE] Gee, based on what deep insight compared to the 3 leading Dems or John McCain? How is Rudy not filled with this mystery quality of cluefulness? He was a sharp prosecutor and a sharp mayor. Hillary was a divisive first lady and a Senator. Edwards has no foreign policy experience, no executive experience and only a small amount of political office experience. Obama ditto. John McCain was a POW and a long term Senator with some foreign policy experience. Out of the current top five, Rudy ran and improved our largest city and should be given credit for some cluefulness. Jim {my bolding above} ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/17 "2007-03-01T22:31:57Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] Gee, based on what deep insight compared to the 3 leading Dems or John McCain? [/quote] [Here ya go](http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/12/05/giuliani/index.html): > [@](#): > > Giuliani hired Bill Bratton as police commissioner, and Bratton put together a team of cops who transformed the way America polices itself. Deputy Commissioner Jack Maple had invented a statistics-based system called Compstat that entailed “flooding the zone” with cops in whatever physical location showed an uptick in crime. As head of the city’s transit cops Bratton had applied the “broken windows” theory, which posits that cracking down on petty crimes catches perps guilty of bigger crimes and sends a message of order, and had cleaned up the subways. Together, Compstat and “broken windows” and Bratton’s team helped push New York’s crime numbers down. > > They also pushed Bratton to center stage, and that drove Rudy crazy. Only a year into Rudy’s first term, when Bratton was praised in the pages of the New Yorker, NYPD press spokesman John Miller was asked to downsize his staff of 35. The former ABC newsman refused, saying he wouldn’t be “a loyal Nazi,” and quit. > > In 1996, Bratton’s face appeared on the cover of Time. Giuliani got rid of him. He also, apparently, initiated an investigation into whether a Bratton book deal constituted a conflict of interest. It was speculated that Rudy fired the man many called the nation’s best police chief because he was, simply, insanely jealous. > > To replace Bratton, Giuliani brought in Howard Safir – a move that alienated the remaining players on Team Bratton, particularly Bratton’s No. 2 man, John Timoney. When a visibly dismayed Timoney referred to Safir as a “lightweight,” Giuliani, in a move that would set the tone for his zero-tolerance policy toward dissent, first tried to demote Timoney to captain, then forced Timoney out of office, ordering him to take a leave of absence until his retirement. Jack Maple, the man responsible for Compstat, resigned days later. And he followed up Safir with America’s hero, Bernie Kerik, the ultimate clueless tough guy. But Giuliani didn’t have a clue about how clueless Kerik was. > [@](#): > > Giuliani’s strangest bedfellow was surely Bernard Kerik, the even less qualified successor to Howard Safir. Kerik, who during his undercover days dressed like Lorenzo Lamas and compared himself to Serpico, enjoyed a tendency to play fast and loose with law enforcement, using his detectives as virtual Praetorian Guard for resolving personal matters. Kerik’s autobiography was published by his own extramarital bedfellow, shameless publishing gorgon Judith Regan (who published Kerik’s book long before failing to publish O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It”). Kerik allegedly sent detectives to search, SWAT-style, the homes of Fox TV employees after Regan claimed they had stolen her cell phone … he was also reprimanded for sending detectives, on the city’s dime, to do research for his book. > > But he had once been Giuliani’s personal bodyguard and thus was qualified to become New York’s police commissioner. When Giuliani recommended that Bush nominate Kerik (then his business partner) head the Department of Homeland Security in 2004, Kerik’s life unraveled miserably under the scrutiny of the vetting process. He withdrew his name and eventually pleaded guilty to accepting such perks as apartment renovations and personal loans, while a public official, from businesses with alleged mob ties. > > After 9/11, with the help of Kerik, Rudy cashed in his own newly refurbished reputation as a leader by launching a consulting firm called Giuliani Partners, which includes Giuliani Security & Safety. It is, of course, a clubhouse full of cronies that included, until his recent difficulties, Bernie Kerik. Half of being President is getting capable people in the right places. We’ve just had six years - it’ll be eight by the time the next President is sworn in - of a guy who absolutely sucks at that. Be nice to follow him up with someone who doesn’t have serious problems in that vein. And then there’s his thin skin, and his tendency to use the powers of office to deal with those who get under it: > [@](#): > > In 1997 a man named James Schillaci, who took a videotape exposing the existence of an NYPD speed trap in the Bronx, was crushed like a bug. After Schillaci took his evidence to the New York Daily News, the NYPD went to his apartment and hauled him off to jail for unpaid traffic tickets. A police spokesperson described Schillaci as a sex offender because of sodomy and burglary charges against him from years before. The traffic tickets were dismissed, just as the sodomy and burglary charges had been dropped. Giuliani said, “There is nothing to apologize for.” > > That was the same year Giuliani officially adopted a zero-tolerance policy toward any and all criticism and satire aimed at himself. He had the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority remove an ad for New York magazine from city buses that joked that the magazine was “Possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn’t taken credit for.” A U.S. District Court judge slapped Rudy down for his inability to take a joke or tolerate the First Amendment; the ban was lifted. > > \ > > In 1999, Giuliani picked his most absurd fight: with the Brooklyn Museum over the art show “Sensation: Young British Artists From the Saatchi Collection.” Without seeing it, Giuliani became offended by “The Holy Virgin Mary,” a now famous painting by Turner Prize-winning-artist Chris Ofili, of a black Madonna, employing the controversial (yet puerile) elements of elephant dung and female genitalia – ostensibly for shock value. And Rudy, shocked down to his adulterous Underoos, went off on a rampaging fit of Comstockery that made even ardent supporters think he was an overreaching jerkbag. > > In a move widely perceived as power drunk and control freaky, Giuliani threatened to close the Brooklyn Museum and cancel its annual funding if the offending painting was not removed. He even issued statements about his intention to establish a “decency panel,” granting his office (read: himself) the power to decide what creative works were decent enough to be allowed to be considered art in New York City. When graffiti artist Steve Powers staged a protest by drawing a caricature of Rudy and charging all comers a buck to throw fake elephant poop at it, cops threw him in jail. Yeah, I don’t find him particularly clueful. I can’t see this guy helping unravel tense situations in the Middle East or on the Korean peninsula. I see him being the sort of guy who will take a tense situation, and make it worse. We’ve already had six years of such a guy. He unquestionably did do a great deal of good, but even as his term as mayor wound down, New Yorkers had had enough of him, despite his successes: > [@](#): > > By May 2000, with crime at historic lows, the city’s economy still aglow, real estate prices soaring – the kind of external factors that normally make politicians untouchable – his approval rating had slid to a Bush-oid 37 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2007, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/18 "2007-03-01T23:00:48Z")
Dunno how representative they are of “conservatives,” but the Freepers’ reaction appears to be consistently [negative.](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1792980/posts) ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/19 "2007-03-02T18:13:11Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] Dunno how representative they are of “conservatives,” but the Freepers’ reaction appears to be consistently [negative.](http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1792980/posts) [/QUOTE] Don’t go by them. Leave that bunch to their devices, and they’d nominate Tancredo. The thing about Giuliani is that conservatives don’t see him as one of their own, necessarily, but they like him, respect what he’s done and see him as a genuine American hero and success story. That likability can excuse a lot. I’m sure a lot of liberals excused some of Bill Clinton’s more moderate stances for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2007, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155/20 "2007-03-02T19:56:42Z")
[QUOTE=What Exit?] I have a question for Mr. Moto and any other conservatives. Disclaimer first: Rudy Giuliani is my choice to be our next President. Why do the conservative dislike McCain when his overall voting record is fairly sympathetic to the conservative ideals and Rudy’s record has many areas that differ greatly? [/QUOTE] This has always been a puzzle to me. McCain is a solid conservative. Maybe some of the anti-media conservative wingnuts just assume that because McCain was a media darling that he wasn’t “one of them”. Or maybe it’s because he isn’t partisan enough-- he’s willing to buck the party when he thinks it needs to be done (eg, the gang of 14). Somehow, though, many Democrats seem to like him (witness the interest in drafting him as Kerry’s running mate in '04) and many Republicans seem to distrust him, even though the guy is what I would call a rock solid conservative (pretty much like Reagan). And he’s a social conservative, too, even though he’s not an in-your-face type of social conservative. I wouldn’t call him a gay-basher, but I don’t see him championing gay rights, and he’s always been anti-abortion (AFAICT). Like **Oakminster** , I was predicting 6 months ago that McCain would be the GOP nominee and the likely next president, but I’m backtracking on that now. I’m cautiously optimistic that the GOP will nominate Rudy Giuliani. Even with his faults, he’d be a good candidate and it would signal a shift away from the religious right’s overinflated importance to that party. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-mccain-announces-intention-to-announce-on-david-letterman/394155.md?page=2)