So here we are in an era where two lightweights are tearing each other to bits for the DNC nomination. One is reminding us of all the dirty tricks Arkansas politics has to offer and how old every bit of it is including the folks involved. The other is telling the world he likes a belligerent wingnut conspiracy theorist in the racism business more than his own Grandmother. A real bang up choice for the suicidal. Even the polls show McCain ahead of both these lightweights, but I don’t believe it for a second. He’ll lose and it’s the Senator’s own personality that will lose it for him.

He seems genetically predisposed to side with Democrats. Just look at his website. If I was more blogsavvy I could link the YouTube film on the home page which shows Bill Clinton saying McCain is the strongest candidate, but I just told you about it so there. I’m assuming this is to show us how everyone thinks McCain is tough to beat. I saw it and came away with the impression that McCain holds Bill Clinton’s opinion in such high regard he thinks everyone should know about it. We’ve all noticed that when McCain talks to a somewhat right of center venue he uses the word “Conservative” so many times it has become a drinking game in America’s college frat houses. And methinks the Senator doth protest too much.  He certainly is under the impression that the voters have the memory capacity of a goldfish and for the most part McCain is right.

Another example of Republican John McCain’s disdain for Republicans was on 60 Minutes. This was an interview between a non-entity chattering skull whose name I don’t know and Senator McCain. It went like this:

            60 Minutes Teleprompter Jockey: Is waterboarding torture?

            McCain: Yes.

60 MTJ: So America tortures people?

McCain: Yes.

At this point Journalism School pantomime kicked in and the airbrushed twit leaned back in his chair.

60 MTJ: How did we lose our way?

And McCain said “I don’t know” and went on to reiterate but I tuned out. You do see what happened? He followed the lead of a filiopietistic champion of a dead medium that gets less ratings than a reality show just to besmirch reputation of his own country. Now if he wanted to show leadership skills the interview would have gone like this:

60 MTJ: Is waterboarding torture?

McCain: In the same way Navy Seals are tortured during Hell Week.

60 MTJ: So America tortures people.

McCain: Three of them. Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Abd al Rahim al Nashiri.

Then he could have gone on for the next ten minutes reading off every vile atrocity those three have committed while the chattering skull squirmed in his chair. That would have made sense to me. It would also show that the ol’ Senator is willing to fight for something. But he won’t.

Last week before Obama threw his Grandmother under the bus, McCain’s acolyte: Jack Kemp was a downright Obama apologist on Hannity’s radio show. In case you forgot Jack Kemp is the man who lost a debate to Al Gore back in ’96. Which I still don’t understand how that’s possible since the man talks like a Speak and Spell. The High Priest from the Church of Global Warming started off with a half-hearted compliment that said something to the effect of “Most Republican’s are racists, but you’re a nice guy.” And instead of picking the android apart, Kemp blushed, bowed his head and muttered thank yous. This showed the world that most Republicans are racists and none of them have the stones to lead. None of it is true, but that’s what Jack Kemp did by not sticking up for all those little people who’ve been signing checks over to him up to that point.

I digress the point is McCain will do the same exact thing. He’s proven to himself that his campaign finance bill can win him the Republican Primary without conservatives so he can focus on the important votes while we twist in the wind.

Problem is that’s a flawed strategy. McCain wants this election to be about issues. BIG MISTAKE! The plants in the ’92 town meeting debate wanted the candidates to stick to the issues. Primarily because the Democratic Candidate at the time was a habitual liar with the moral compass of the Caligula Administration. Making the election about issues means McCain doesn’t have the energy to fight back and instead will try to reason with liberals and independents.  He’s going to try to pander to liberals who will notice his fatal personality flaw of not being insane. And the independents that have gotten him this far will drop off as soon as the fur starts flying. For starters John McCain is old and boring. Nothing will change that. So there goes the stupid vote straight off.

Once the Democrats are done with their convention, which from the looks of things will be like the fight in the Thunderdome between Blaster and Mad Max, old media will give John McCain their undivided attention. Every fawning ego masseuse will turn on the Senator like a pit viper and he will have no idea why or even know how to react.

Example being the phony New York Times story that even they were embarrassed to print. John McCain said he was disappointed. Now seriously that language you use for a friend. Once the dogpile starts, and all the mouth-breathers who gave us this candidate in the first place find out about the Keating Five, and him being born in Panama, and the fact that he bombed people in time of war (I guarantee you that will be an issue! If we are supposed to be outraged one of the architects of the 9-11 attacks was waterboarded, killing people in time of war will be an issue!) and they’ll go off to one of the blank slates on the other side of the aisle getting all the puff pieces in the news. John McCain will still be mumbling about how disappointed he is.

The worst part will be seeing him crash and burn on the debates.  If he’ll apologize for an MC at one of his rallies bringing Barak Obama’s middle name, just imagine how he’ll back pedal if he says something the Democratic Candidate finds offensive? He’s probably going to apologize for being ahead in the polls. One thing I remember from the last time the media picked the Republican candidate back in ’96. The Democrats got away with bringing up Bob Dole’s lack luster record on tax cuts. No one called Bill Clinton on that; no one said “Bob Dole’s promising to cut taxes now. And Bob Dole keeps his promises.” Bob Dole could have said that word for word. But no one did. And in the debates this year, the Democrat will bring up McCain/Kennedy, and bring up his speech before voting against the Bush tax cuts. Not a doubt in my mind John McCain will be unable to deliver an acceptable answer.

What he should do is stop using the words “My good friend.” Every time he describes a Democrat. Maybe even use those words to describe a Conservative Republican who is still alive. What he could do is portray himself as the adult in the group. He could start bring up his experience instead of just saying he has experience. Maybe even bring up a few bad things about the bombastic psychos he’s running against. But even if he does this all the MSM would have to do to throw Senator McCain off is give him an insincere about his ability to reach across the aisle to “get things done” and John’s heart will swell and he’ll cave.

Until I see him stick his thumb in the eye of a Democrat for a change I don’t think he will make it. He’ll try to woo independents and liberals by being the nice guy with a maverick reputation. Problem is he got to be a called a maverick by keeping his head down and his mouth shut whilst in the presence of a Democrat. So the independents won’t see a thinker or even a leader. All they’ll see is a soft spoken mess who can’t even fight for himself at the expense to an opponent.

            The only hope I can see is if the current DNC slugfest tears them apart to the point where one of them runs as a third party candidate. Then McCain will squeak in the way he has for this whole election cycle.

As I was at the gas station filling up my truck I caught myself thinking "Wow only $3.15  a gallon, what a deal. All the other stations in town are $3.23 or higher". Then I though "What the hell am I doing? I actually think $3.15 is a good deal"? It was not too long ago that gas was $1.50 a gallon.

Then I got a bit peeved and I then came to realize that these high gas prices were the fault of none other than President Bush. I  am not talking about one of these, "We did not land on the moon" conspiracy's.

Begin rant: If I hear another person say the oil prices are driven by free markets I am going to scream! If you believe that I have some great beach front property I would like to sell you in Arizona. When my government makes laws so we cannot drill for our own oil it artificially manufactures less supply for the demand. So our own laws take any semblance of "free market" and flushes them right down the drain. End rant

So getting back to Bush being the one responsible for these high gas prices. He is not "In on it with the oil company's" It was his failure to  place blame where it belongs, on the Democrats. I blame his advisors, all of them. When he came to office there was not one of them who explained what a Bully Pulpit was and how to use it. I blame Bush for not finishing every speech, talk or event he spoke at with "Wow these gas prices are really high if only we could drill for our own oil, but the Democrats block every attempt". Or "Remember when you fill your tank it would be much cheaper if the Democrats would let us drill for our own oil". Or maybe "We would not have to buy oil from tin horn dictators all over the world if Democrats would let us frill our own oil". Or even better "When you are paying $3.30 a gallon think Democrats".

If Bush would have done something along these lines every time people fill their tanks they would think "Lousy Democrats". By doing this he would put them on the defensive and make the likes of Howard Dean go before the people and explain why his party is in favor of the U.S. relying on oil from dictators and not relying on our own oil.

So in this respect I will always blame Bush for sitting back and not taking any initiative to getting the truth out to help the American people for all the energy  and oil prices that have sky rocketed out of control.

Signed Barron Wasteland

So today Mitt Romney gave a "concession" speech which was the conservative's conservative oration.
I thought wow, where was this Mitt throughout the campaign. The only conclusion is that Dr. Evil had stolen
Mitt's mojo and he had just gotten it back in time for his concession speech.
Seriously I don't know if Mitt was afraid to show his true self, (which I knew was there all along, hence my vote
for him), or if he was drowned out by the pro-wrestling tag team of McCain/Huckamania.
I think that Mitt just didn't hit that stride we all aspire too in an interview for a job or in a high school debate or the worst place of all on a date. He certianly hit it in his concession speech, i'm guessing it was one of those "the pressure is off now I can relax' things.  Maybe this was the lesson which will be
applied for 2012 when the True Reganite will emerge and he will articulate with the passion and zeal we heard today. Whatever the scenario Mitt is a true conservative and I can only hope that he can help lead us to win in the legislative branch to keep that beautiful check and balance, balanced.
We have a lot to fight for and a lot of fighting to do but lets grab our mojo and proclaim freedoms worth in every conversation we hold. Lets never forget "live free or die" because freedom is worth that much.

After watching the Super Bowl I thought to myself, wow that was a hard fought close game.
Both sides playing their guts out played within the agreed rules and agreed to let the officials administer the agreed upon rules. The officials did just that.....and nothing more! Because that was all they were there to do!
Imagine officials stopping the game immediately after every sack of quarterback Tom Brady and beginning investigation proceedings or wanting to inquire into the tax records of the sacker?
What would happen if the officials told every player on the Patriots don't come on the field if there are 11 players on the field, but then turned a blind eye to every player that did come on Illegally. Then told the Giants, we know there are way more than the allowed players on the other team, but were going to grant them amnesty from the rules, because we're to lazy to enforce them, and we're gonna let them stay, so play hard. I think the parallels are quite obvious to the way a big government politician would govern and a limited government politician would.
So the question is do we want John McCains on the field creating another morass of legislation granting amnesty to the "illegals" instead of simply enforcing the rules? Will we let McCain be the head referee, with clinched jaw, angry at the rich corporations, not releasing enterprize to succeed so we all benefit?
I say let Romney have a crack at it. He's hit on what we all should be paying attention to, the economy.
We need a military to defend us, but we also need to fund that military with technology and rounds. Remove the military, lose the nation. Remove the funding, lose the military. Choke business, lose the funding. It's that simple.
So with all the pressures of an emerging juggernaut like China and the combined strength of the European Union, wouldn't it make sense to unleash our economy? Why do we let foreign nations strap our businesses with tariffs while they ease restrictions on their own industries? On top of that we want to hamstring our own industries with stronger restrictions. Can you say carbon offsets? McCain is consumed with capping spending...hurrah!! Yet he has no problem keeping our entire nation crippled with high fuel costs by not wanting to drill in anwr.
We have to be secure at home physically AND economically to fight terrorism. Does the spending war, a.k.a the Cold War, ring any bells?
If anyone in this presidential bid understands economics and its importance domestically and abroad, its Mitt Romney.
Check one vote for Mitt right here.

I just wanted to say hello and welcome to Hard Line at townhall.com!
This is a brand new blog and as such this is the inagural post.
I and others will be posting on the hottest topics of the day with a variety of perspectives and styles from a group
of talented and very opinionated bloggers.
The goal is to provied a down to earth and sometimes irreverent look at political and national issues from a very conservative point of view.
Just to kick things off a short statement on John McCain and immigration.
Does he think we have the memory of a 5 year old in front of nicktoons?
I recieved an automated call from him moments ago touting his strong stance on immigration and "not giving any special treatment to illegals already here". I mean its down right insulting to think our fellow "republican" thinks we're that dense. We are the ones that made the phone calls shutting down systems and sending aids to 4-bucks for coffee just to escape the wrath of the McCain/Kennedy "amnesty" bill.
So remember just like our party mascot the elephant who has life long memory capabilities we WON'T forget and we will not back down.
I and others will be posting soon we hope you enjoy our perspective and we look forward to blogging for our country's sake.
Gregg Shoemaker
Your fellow Patriot
and
Founder of Hard Lines