Sampiro - he’s got Stamina and resolve - he’s a Clydesdale there’s no stopping him. He has the time and inkling to stay in it. And people really like him…that helps too. He may get my vote if BHO doesn’t win. But I think there’s a good to great chance of him going all the way. I can see his little girls playing on the white house lawn. 
It doesn’t take much when you’re running against dudes with such high ‘icky’ coefficients.
I don’t think he has much of a chance personally. He is not conservative enough for a lot of Republicans…and to conservative for a lot of Democrats. Personally I wouldn’t mind if he were president (in the same way I wouldn’t mind if either Hillary or Obama gets in…which isn’t to say I’d be turning cartwheels of joy), but I think he’s just to damn old.
In a race between Hillary and McCain it’s pretty much a toss up who I’m least enthusiastic about. Between Obama and McCain (based solely on personality and charisma) I actually would lean more toward Obama. I think I would rather see Obama in the top spot at this point of any of the main stream contenders…
listens to jaws dropping all over the SD
-XT
WOW!
Wanna come campaigning with me
Fabric of space-time contiuum in tatters…rabbits fucking dogs…Ann Coulter supporting Hillary…must be the season of the witch…
Mostly, he won by default, but Huckabee and Giuliani helped – Rudy by adopting his brilliant “late state” strategy which caused his campaign to be over before it ever started, and Huck by effectively running as a lead blocker to Romney.
None of the candidates this year are exactly what the Republican voters at large want, which gave him an opportunity - but it sounds like he stopped trying to run as The Establishement Candidate and went back to acting like the John McCain people liked eight years ago.
I suspect this may lead to low Republican turn out in November giving the Dem candidate the election. I can’t stand McCain. I think I’ll vote Libertarian this year for the first time.
Probably me as well. I’m not sure who I will vote for, but it definitely won’t be McCain, and it will be the first time I haven’t voted for the GOP candidate in an election.
Good news for the DEMS? Maybe so. Actually, I hope that it will teach GOP voters to quit compromising our core values…
I think this sums it up pretty well:
Hmm…didn’t John Kerry do almost the same thing? McCain still had the advantage of being a sitting senator. He still got a lot of time on the Sunday talk shows, keeping his name out there. How many times have we seen front runners fizzle out? He probably figured if he just stayed in there, he’d have a chance to come back.
only in my mind. 
Not that I want to discourage you from sitting this one out, but do you think that Romney or Huck had any chance of winning? Do you consider Romney a true conservative? He comes across as a true opportunist to me.
It’s interesting to me that these days ‘Conservative’ seems to mean someone who is socially conservative but economically all over the board. The Huckster is certainly NOT an economic conservative. Romney is definitely no economic conservative by any stretch of the imagination…in fact, I don’t see him as even being a very convincing SOCIAL conservative. He has attempted to portray himself as one, no doubt…but it’s been pretty unconvincing from my perspective.
McCain is a moderate. He is conservative on some issues and, um, more liberal on others. He has also attempted to portray himself as more ‘conservative’ than he actually is…but he has compromised a lot less than some of these other bozos.
I find it appalling that to make it in the GOP today you have to toe the line on all these BS social conservative issues while not bothering to even pay lip service to economic conservatism.
C’est la vie.
-XT
Which GOP core values are those? The party has moved far to the right of where it was. It turned into a semi-religious party, which it never was. It was all about being fiscal conservative, tough on crime and strong national defense when I was young. It was not about whatever Bush & Cheney stand for. In 1984, Bob Dole was on the right side of the party’s spectrum, by 1996 he was in the middle without changing. There were no blowhards perverting the party like Rush and Pat Robertson. Do you even remember the party of Barry Goldberg? He was pretty much the core of the party and too right wing for the times.
Jim
Arghh! Goldwater, Barry Goldwater, I don’t have a clue who Barry Goldberg is. 
Then again, I’m one of those swing voters you always hear about and if it comes down to Clinton vs. McCain I’d vote for McCain. So who knows–McCain might be able to pick up a lot of independents that don’t like Clinton.
I’m very nervous about McCain being the Republican nominee. Most people are willing to call a spade a spade re: Huckabee and Romney, but for some reason a ton of moderates and even some liberals are really into McCain. I don’t see how he would be much more “maverick” or moderate than Bush.
Oh, you’re right! This may be good for Obama!
I don’t think the attraction is toward policy statements so much as personality. McCain has the air of authenticity, a person who has done things that few pols have, had personal experiences and successes that few pols have, who has personal integrity that other pols don’t have. The air of those things, that is, valid or not. His attractiveness is that he doesn’t seem to need to be a pol at all, he’s continuing a lifelong duty of public service.
Perhaps it’s that ideal that there is such a thing as public service, and that it’s a good and noble thing, is more in line with moderate and liberal thought than to the “Gimme mine, screw the rest of you” approach that typifies so much of the Republican side lately?