John McCain Wins Florida Primary

[Antithesis]

ABC News just ran this update on their stations. No link, sorry. Apparently he is now the front-runner for the Republicans.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Yeah, he's also leading in the polls in most of the "super-tuesday" states. Pretty good for a guy whose campaign was thought to be dead in the water not that long ago.

One troubling sign for McCain is that he still does poorly among Republicans who describe themselves as "conservative"--but he showed he can win a closed primary in a state where he was outspent 9 to 1, so that's huge. His campaign is supposedly completely out of money, but we'll see on the 5th how important that really is.

For Giuliani, his distant third-place finish probably means this is the end of his presidential bid. What an underwhelming campaign from a guy who had so much early momentum--and who polled so well in the beginning.

[Antithesis]

No doubt, I thought for sure it would have been Guiliani and McCain duking it out for the bid in some huge clash of the behemoths rather than these other weirdos like Romney and such.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

No doubt, I thought for sure it would have been Guiliani and McCain duking it out for the bid in some huge clash of the behemoths rather than these other weirdos like Romney and such.

Giuliani's whole strategy has been mind-boggling from the start. He doesn't campaign in ANY of the early states, saying all along that his plan is to win Florida and go from there. Why? Because Florida has lots of retired New Yorkers.

Well news Flash: retired New Yorkers living in Florida are primarily democrats, and thus not likely voters in a GOP primary. This is information that would not come as a surprise to anybody who... oh, I don't know, owns a laptop.

As a result, Giuliani loses all the early states because he didn't campaign there. And he loses Florida because surprise, surprise, the "New York vote" isn't enough to carry the day. Now he's done.

Somebody needs to be fired on that campain--not that it matters anymore.

[jar_e]

A link from CNN....

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/...ary/index.html

Can't really say I'm surprised. Tuesday will be the big test though.

[Azure]

Guiliani was apparently going to endorse McCain according to a recent report...

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Azure

Guiliani was apparently going to endorse McCain according to a recent report...

Yeah, I heard that too, on CNN. Don't know if he's done it yet.

But yikes--talk about a charisma vacuum. I think McCain should pay Giuliani to stay far, far away.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Somebody needs to be fired on that campain--not that it matters anymore.

I wonder if this also damages Guiliani's future as a Presidential candidate if the screw-up was as massive as you're saying. I mean I knew this was a big deal but I didn't know it was this big. Didn't his campaign also have a huge amount of money behind it? Doubly embarassing then, to lose to a campaign that is flat broke.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Yeah, I heard that too, on CNN. Don't know if he's done it yet.

But yikes--talk about a charisma vacuum. I think McCain should pay Giuliani to stay far, far away.

I wish someone would play Giuliani to stay away period...for a long, long time.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Antithesis

I wonder if this also damages Guiliani's future as a Presidential candidate if the screw-up was as massive as you're saying. I mean I knew this was a big deal but I didn't know it was this big. Didn't his campaign also have a huge amount of money behind it? Doubly embarassing then, to lose to a campaign that is flat broke.

It's as big as big gets. Giuliani is done. He as much as pre-dropped out of the race earlier this week when he claimed that his whole strategy was to win Florida. Now they have no strategy at all, and are running a distant third in most of the key states on Tuesday.

Romney's campaign should be doing a gut-check too, though. They outspent McCain 10 to 1, and fell short.

[Devils'Advocate]

Can John McCain win the presidential election on a platform of continuing the war in Iraq ad infinitum?

Three years ago I said that Hillary Clinton had what it took to win the primaries, but not win a general election, while John McCain had what it took to win a general election, but not the primaries. But it looks like John may just do it, to my surprise and Hillary might not, again to my surprise.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Can John McCain win the presidential election on a platform of continuing the war in Iraq ad infinitum?

Perhaps.

I think it really depends on who runs on the Democrat side.

Hillary....McCain wins hands down.

Obama....could be close.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Can John McCain win the presidential election on a platform of continuing the war in Iraq ad infinitum?

Everything depends on swing states--but my opinion is that no, he can't. It's one of a number of problems McCain has as the nominee, the other major one being that he has trouble energizing conservatives and is bad at raising money. If he wins, he'll face a democratic candidate who is flush with cash and has an energized base. In a pure strategic sense, Romney is probably a better choice for the GOP.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Guiliani's problem wasn't his stupid decision to only campaign in Florida, it's that his campaign was one phrase: 9/11. i've never seen someone try to tie in a single event into every possible talking point he could, it was ridiculous

[SarichFan]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Guiliani's problem wasn't his stupid decision to only campaign in Florida, it's that his campaign was one phrase: 9/11. i've never seen someone try to tie in a single event into every possible talking point he could, it was ridiculous

Ummm, President Bush perhaps?

[moon]

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

Everything depends on swing states--but my opinion is that no, he can't. It's one of a number of problems McCain has as the nominee, the other major one being that he has trouble energizing conservatives and is bad at raising money. If he wins, he'll face a democratic candidate who is flush with cash and has an energized base. In a pure strategic sense, Romney is probably a better choice for the GOP.

If he is the Republican nominee I think there will be plenty of people ready to give him money despite how conservative he is just based on the fact that he is the Republican nominee. The Republicans certainly have never lacked money and even if not all contributors give him money he should be fine with those "leftover" who will support whoever the Rep. nominee is.

Those conservative voters may not be happy that Huckabee or Romney aren't there but I would imagine they would still want to support him over Hilary or Obama.

Considering most of those Conservatives will vote for the Republicans anyways I think it would be better for the Republicans to have a guy like Mccain that can get some of those swing votes in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It also would be interesting to see who Mccain would choose as a running mate and perhaps could take a more Conservative VP to help him with the right wing sect of the party.

[corporatejay]

One troubling sign for McCain is that he still does poorly among Republicans who describe themselves as "conservative"--but

While I agree this is an issue for the primaries, for the General Election, it won't matter. Given a choice between McCain and Obama/Clinton staunch conservatives will vote for McCain.

Re: The Iraq war, there is a huge difference between "staying the course" and what McCain is saying (at least that's what I get). Isn't he more in the "tactical withdrawl" camp?

[badnarik]

McCain recently said he has no problem being in Iraq for 100 years, or even a thousand or a million years. He also promised their will be "more wars to come". I think he's crazy.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by badnarik

McCain recently said he has no problem being in Iraq for 100 years, or even a thousand or a million years. He also promised their will be "more wars to come". I think he's crazy.

Link?

I'm guessing what you've posted isn't what was said.

[4X4]

Yea... Are you sure that wasn't Ed Belfour?