Centerfield

Well, it looks like McCain speaks about the Republican party the way I used to speak about the Democratic party. I have still not completely given up the idea of changing the party from within, but I've accepted that I have to be willing to withhold my vote from time to time to have any effect. And since all most Democrats care about is getting rid of Bush, it always feels like I'm fighting a losing battle. We're always going to end up with candidates like Kerry.

Of course, McCain should know better than anyone that the party machinery (on both sides) views change as the enemy. The goal is not improving the party, but insuring that it retains control, even if that destroys what the party was supposed to stand for. Individuals within the party may care about issues, but the party only cares about politics -- that's why both parties are now ruled by the best fundraisers, and the principled members within the ranks are viewed as embarrassing relics who can't recognize progress when they see it.

Sorry, I guess I'm feeling particularly cynical today.

My neck almost hurts from nodding in agreement, Jeremy. Cynicism may not be fun or uplifting, but it has the advantage of being pretty consistently accurate.

If more people would tilt at those partisan windmills rather than just accepting that the pols have taken over and surrendering, they could actually budge those windmills a bit. But it takes patience and persistence and determination, or apathy wins. Again.

It has been said that lost causes are sometimes the only ones worth fighting for. It is also said that a cause worth fighting for is never really lost.

As long as the undecided independents decide the election of the president, they'll get listened to at least once every 4 years...

This is one reason why I think it's a legitimate idea to designate a moderate or maverick candidate as a proxy for dissatisfaction in non battleground states. If you live in a battleground state, I think you really must hold your nose and vote for the lesser of two evils. But in a non-battleground state, you can write in whoever you want and get your voice heard.

If I were making an endorsement for CC, my advice would be just that. In a battleground state, you must vote your conscience and choose from the viable candidates. But if not, I endorse a write-in vote for John McCain as a proxy to express the idea that both Bush and Kerry are pretty odious. Not to mention demonstrably inferior to McCain.

I also endorse the idea of answering political polls by refusing to state a preference. If all polls were refused, then the candidates would be forced to wing it. And the media would hate it, too. How bad could that be?

Oh, and that McNamara column? If I didn't already know she's a loyal democrat, I'd think that this was advance spin from the GOP. If McCain were not pro-life, she'd probably be leading the draft McCain band.

Choosing what would in essence be a bipartisan ticket would be so bold and so unorthodox comnpared to all past election tickets that I think it would cast what some people call "Kerry's equivocation" in the most favorable light possible. He'd be standing against partisanship and for loyalty to his country over party politics, and for unity and compromise and taking the best from all sides after giving all sides fair consideration. That's the positive flip side to "equivocation" and any criticism from any side is going to sound like partisan sour grapes, whether it came from the left or the right.

John McCain delights in tweaking the noses of the GOP leadership. Always has, always will. But he's not jumping ship. McNamara is right.

I can see John Kerry asking McCain to join the ticket. A desperation move, to be sure, but I could see it. I can see McCain hinting at the possibility to generate some buzz, and just to tweak some more noses in the White House and Congress.

But I can't see McCain actually accepting such an invite. And I think such a move would be a death knell for Kerry among the leftists, who would start looking harder at Nader for their protest votes.

The leftists might abandon ship, but liberal and moderate support would make up for it.

Anyway, I recommend Mark Schmitt's post about Southern white conservatives -- it explains a lot about the current Republican leadership and why it frustrates people like McCain.

http://markschmitt.typepad.com/decembrist/2004/03/is_the_white_so.html

Kerry looks like a temp.

I am an independent voter and this Nov. I will do something I have never done before: I am going to write-in Sen. John McCain for President of our country.