McCain pulls even in National Polling

Love for McCain continues

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If you have a few minutes, check out the debate recap by Liz Mair from GOPProgress.com. I was planning on doing a thorough analysis of the debate but Liz hit the nail on the head in so many ways. Here are some excerpts but I really do recommend that you read the whole thing:



"But here's where McCain's point comes into play. Ultimately, the reality of the situation in Iraq is that if we haven't seen substantial progress by September, we're going to have a lot of options on the table to assess, and none of them will be good. As McCain implicitly acknowledged, if this situation came to pass, you can bet there would be vastly diminished political will for keeping the troops in Iraq. The flipside of course is that if we just withdraw, we risk leaving Iraq in an incredibly dangerous situation-- both for its citizens, and for ourselves, both in terms of the potential terrorist-haven scenario and (more importantly, in my view) in terms of the spiraling-out-of-control regional hotbed scenario-- and in all of those cases, there is a great likelihood that in due course, we would find ourselves right back fighting the same people, in the same place, months or years down the road, regardless of any withdrawal right here, and right now."


"Ultimately, McCain earned credit from me for not running the tired and rather simplistic and therefore only half-accurate line that "we have to win because if we don't beat them there, we'll have to fight them here." That may be true on one level, but as I've said before, it's not the best argument to make in relation to staying in Iraq (or, rather, against the pursuit of other options) and frankly, it sounds desperate, pathetic, fear-mongering and propagandist to most people now. Instead of falling for the simple talking point, McCain actually offered some thoughts, some rationale and some logic-- all of which are in desperately short supply in politics these days."


"McCain was also brilliant, as pretty much all the major pundits have noted, in responding to the young woman whose brother died in Iraq. He was genuine, heartfelt, sympathetic, compassionate and honest. His response to her was perhaps the finest moment of the entire debate, and he absolutely shone. If there is any argument for a McCain presidency, it is essentially the character and personality that was demonstrated by his response to her question."

Debate Highlights

Pundits and political experts seem to give John McCain very high grades for his debate last night in New Hampshire. For your reading pleasure, I included links on post-debate analysis.

The most talked about segment was when McCain stood up to address a lady who recently lost her brother in the Iraq War. It was very touching and showed a level of empathy that is simply not found on the "other" side of the aisle.......



Even more symbolic is how up until that point in the debate (the second half) all the candidates were sitting down. McCain, being the leader that he is, began a trend of standing up to answer questions, which was followed by every other candidate. Maybe I'm reading into it too much but, yet, this appears to be another example of McCain leading and everyone else following.


Debate analysis:

Jonathan Martin from the Politico: "John McCain turned in a strong and steady performance. He was clearly prepared for the immigration question, and offered an effective defense of his position."

Washington Post's Chris Cillizza: "As we said above, this debate was all about moments. And to our mind, McCain had two of the best in the two-hour scrum."

Marc Ambinder from the Atlantic: "McCain's easy command on national security issues drew the evening's first applause when he criticized Hillary Clinton for calling Iraq "Bush's war.........A very good night for him, too. At times, he was noticeably in a league of his own."


After the debate, a slew of McCain supporters celebrated with the Senator for a masterful performance:



"Character, integrity, vision, straight talk, compassion, and leadership...."

Not afraid to debate

Solving our illegal immigration problem is controversial. McCain and President Bush have proposed, along with other Democratic and Republican Senators, a comprehensive immigration reform that will secure our borders and protect our values. The reform includes a guest worker program.

Some will say that this is amnesty for the illegals that are already here but isn't doing nothing amnesty also? As John McCain said on the O'Reilly Factor, "Right now it's de facto amnesty because we have 12 million people here illegally." Many want to criticize the bill but none offer alternatives. Gov. Romney has been a vocal opponent, however, we all continue to wait for his policy recommendation.

Not only is McCain leading the immigration reform, he is not afraid to debate the issue. According the the Washington Post, he's been on "The Mike Gallagher Show," Sean Hannity's radio show," The Michael Medved Show," "Captain's Quarters Blog Radio", and entered the No Spin Zone with Bill O'Reilly (see video below). Truly, this is a presidential quality - to be able to take a stand on a policy that you feel in your heart is the best for the American people and also be open to stumping for the policy (Not unlike Pres. George W. Bush and his social security privatization plan).