# McCain wins his primary **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [August 31, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554 "2016-08-31T11:24:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/1 "2016-08-31T11:24:29Z")
This is a major relief. 🙂 McCain won his primary. The tea party candidate came on strong. We have to keep moderate Republicans in office. It’s in everybody’s interests to have moderate Democrats and moderate Republication in Congress. Moderates can often set aside political differences and compromise. Get stuff done. These tea party guys are doing a lot of damage. Obstructing legislation and generally being a PITA. Why is the Arizona primary so late? This gives McCain only 60 days to campaign for the general election? 😕 That doesn’t make much sense. [https://www.yahoo.com/news/mccain-challenge-sheriffs-latest-bid-top-arizona-primary-184841352.html](https://www.yahoo.com/news/mccain-challenge-sheriffs-latest-bid-top-arizona-primary-184841352.html) > [@](#): > > He faces a tough Democratic challenge in the November general election from U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick. She advanced Tuesday after facing only a write-in opponent in the primary. > > McCain vowed to not take the primary for granted, and he campaigned hard until the end. But the contest between Ward and McCain was often overshadowed by Trump and his outspoken comments. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/2 "2016-08-31T11:37:15Z")
I didn’t think McCain was particularly vulnerable, even against a T/tea-party opponent. Incumbent, war hero, ex-Pres candidate, long tenure, etc. tends to add up to re-election within the party. The general will be more interesting, and yes, that’s probably the understatement of the new millennium. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/3 "2016-08-31T11:38:06Z")
I’m not that sure that McCain qualifies as a moderate. All he seems to have done the past eight years is take every opportunity to take a shiv to Obama. Every crisis around the world is another excuse to blame Obama. His signature achievement, ending earmarks, resulted in trivial reduction in spending but also took a time-honored negotiating chip off the table and led to the do-nothing Congress of today. We need moderate Republicans, but there aren’t any. So we need moderate Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/4 "2016-08-31T11:45:37Z")
McCain is perhaps my biggest political disappointment. When he ran, he had my vote based on his background and his pragmatic, no-bullshit attitude - and I was and am a Dem-leaning independent with far-left ideals and practical-left voting. Then he turned into a complete GOP puppet, spewing ideological blather. He’d lost my vote, and probably many from the nominal center, even before he hooked up with Palin. I thought he’d recovered to some degree, but I guess the idiot-logical conversion was one way. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/5 "2016-08-31T11:45:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > McCain won his primary. > > We have to keep moderate Republicans in office. Bullsh\*t!! Moderates have no principles and cannot be counted on to do the right thing. They routinely trip up those of us that are true to conservative ideology. Moderate Republicans hamper good things getting done, not help. McCain is the absolute worst of the worst of these hacks. He has talked out of both sides of his mouth for decades, which may explain why his [cheeks](https://work949.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/john-mccain.jpg) look like that. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/6 "2016-08-31T11:46:07Z")
Q: Could this be seen as a Loss for the, “Yeah, well Aye liked da guys who Didn’t get captured” faction…? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/7 "2016-08-31T11:57:10Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Bullsh\*t!! > > Moderates have no principles and cannot be counted on to do the right thing. They routinely trip up those of us that are true to conservative ideology. Moderate Republicans hamper good things getting done, not help. So only extreme, ideologically-pure efforts work? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/8 "2016-08-31T12:48:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I’m not that sure that McCain qualifies as a moderate. All he seems to have done the past eight years is take every opportunity to take a shiv to Obama. Every crisis around the world is another excuse to blame Obama. His signature achievement, ending earmarks, resulted in trivial reduction in spending but also took a time-honored negotiating chip off the table and led to the do-nothing Congress of today. We need moderate Republicans, but there aren’t any. So we need moderate Democrats. Mccain is no moderate, he’s a maverick. McCain has taken a shiv to every President he’s served under except Reagan. Back when he was Bush’s enemy, he was almost the Democratic VP candidate. All he had to do was say yes. Would have been fun in hindsight, he should have done it. But yeah, McCAin is not a down the line conservative, but the four or five issues he feels strongly about he feels REALLY strongly about: deficit reduction, a hawkish foreign policy, veterans affairs, government reform, torture(an issue which should never have been something he’d have to debate), and despite his vociferousness, congeniality with most of his fellow Senators. McCain has his enemies, but he probably has more friends in the Senate than anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/9 "2016-08-31T13:04:19Z")
There is a certain irony that in todays political climate the old maverick McCain looks like a moderate. McCain could almost be a Democrat compared to some tea party candidates. It shows how widely the party has swung right in just a few years. Jeb Bush never stood a chance in todays tea party environment. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/10 "2016-08-31T13:08:37Z")
You want to do away with pork-barrel politics, then all you have to do is throw a revolution, scrap the entire Constitution, and start over from scratch. As long as you have senators representing specific states, you’re going to have them porkbarreling, because that’s their job. And senators representing the states is so firmly lodged into the Constitution that it can’t even be changed via amendment. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/11 "2016-08-31T13:10:02Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Bullsh\*t!! > > Moderates have no principles and cannot be counted on to do the right thing. They routinely trip up those of us that are true to conservative ideology. Moderate Republicans hamper good things getting done, not help. > > McCain is the absolute worst of the worst of these hacks. He has talked out of both sides of his mouth for decades, which may explain why his [cheeks](https://work949.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/john-mccain.jpg) look like that. And this is why the left is slowly winning, assuming it doesn’t fall into the purity trap that the Bernie-or-busters are aiming for. Not only is half a loaf better than none, but 1% of a loaf is also. Take the small victories, and build on them. As Obama noted, you don’t turn an ocean liner 90 degrees all at once. It also helps that the left is actually looking for change, so in general any movement is a success. It is very hard to be conservative, when your default response to any suggestion is ‘no’. You get called an obstructionist, and indeed that is what you are - the label should be embraced. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/12 "2016-08-31T13:11:00Z")
As I keep saying, moderation is often perceived more in temperament than ideology. McCain is probably one of the top 10 most conservative Senators. But he likes everyone regardless of their views on the issues. He only really has contempt for people who oppose his reform efforts, who love earmarks and big soft money donations. When most members of the other party like you it can make you seem more moderate. How he acquired his contempt from Obama stems mainly from Obama backing out of a lobbying reform effort. McCain liked the new guy, thought he was a serious reformer(he talked like one), and figured he’d take him under his win. McCain himself was shown the ropes of the Senate by a Democrat, Mo Udall, so a Democrat having a Republican mentor was not a crazy thing, especially for one who talked the talk Obama did. Just when things start getting serious on the lobbying reform bill, Obama bolts the effort for his own party’s version. The letter McCain sent to Obama apparently isn’t that well remembered, but it should be for it’s sheer moral dudgeon and sarcasm: > **[McCain's Letter To Obama](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mccains-letter-to-obama/)** > > Text Of Republican Senator's Letter On Lobbying Reform > [@](#): > > I would like to apologize to you for assuming that your private assurances to me regarding your desire to cooperate in our efforts to negotiate bipartisan lobbying reform legislation were sincere. When you approached me and insisted that despite your leadership’s preference to use the issue to gain a political advantage in the 2006 elections, you were personally committed to achieving a result that would reflect credit on the entire Senate and offer the country a better example of political leadership, I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable. Thank you for disabusing me of such notions with your letter to me dated February 2, 2006, which explained your decision to withdraw from our bipartisan discussions. I’m embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss routinely used in politics to make self-interested partisan posturing appear more noble. Again, sorry for the confusion, but please be assured I won’t make the same mistake again. And he hasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/13 "2016-08-31T15:40:42Z")
Now that the primary is over and there is another 6 years before he can be ousted from the right, is there any reason for McCaine not to go all out against Trump? There is certainly no love lost there, and according to 538 Arizona is flipping between pink and baby blue, so such a move would probably pick up as many moderates as it loses red blooded Republicans. Yes it would be a flip-flop over his recent support for Trump, but that itself was a flip flop from his earlier opposition so I don’t see that it would hurt him much more than he’s been hurt already. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/14 "2016-08-31T16:12:31Z")
Well, Joe Arpaio has also easily won his primary. Arizona really needs an enema. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/15 "2016-08-31T16:30:12Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > …And he hasn’t. You got that one,\*\* addy\*\*, fer sure, fer sure. Obama’s obstinate refusal to try to find common ground and a basis for compromise is surely the defining failure of his administration! Republicans have time and again told him exactly what they want kissed, and what they want sucked, and he just _won’t_ do it! Good catch! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/16 "2016-08-31T16:31:16Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Well, Joe Arpaio has also easily won his primary. Arizona really needs an enema. Does McCain endorse Arpaio? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/17 "2016-08-31T16:57:22Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > And senators representing the states is so firmly lodged into the Constitution that it can’t even be changed via amendment. Unfortunately some of them represent businesses and wealthy people. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/18 "2016-08-31T16:59:36Z")
What’s he polling vs. the Dem? With Arizona barely red due to Trump, is there a realistic chance the Senate seat will flip? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2016, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/19 "2016-08-31T18:11:39Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Does McCain endorse Arpaio? McCain has become a cowardly weasel, who won’t endorse or condemn anyone who isn’t absolutely safe. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2016, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554/20 "2016-09-01T04:08:23Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > You got that one,\*\* addy\*\*, fer sure, fer sure. Obama’s obstinate refusal to try to find common ground and a basis for compromise is surely the defining failure of his administration! Republicans have time and again told him exactly what they want kissed, and what they want sucked, and he just _won’t_ do it! > > Good catch! Common ground does not involve dictating terms based on what you think is reasonable for the other side to want. I’m going to propose a voting reform bill tomorrow that has voter ID, proof of citizenship, and bans felons from voting nationwide for life. But see, it’s also got an expansion of early voting, so Democrats have to support it or else they are dead enders who never compromise. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mccain-wins-his-primary/764554.md?page=2)