Handicapping R-Party

Many political analysts have examined the challenges facing the Republican Party in this election cycle and the consensus goes something like this:

Since none of the top tier candidates excite or satisfy the majority of Republican voters, the Party either has to throw support behind someone like Romney or Giuliani who hold questionable Conservative principles but do have the resources to sustain a costly campaign against the formidable front runner, Hillary Clinton, OR..back a purer Conservative like Huckabee or Brownback who'll better represent traditional Republican/Conservative ideology...but lose in either case. Unacceptable!!

I agree that the Republican Party is up against a hard wall of discontent among Primary voters and the national electorate. Undoubtedly, it IS time for a transformation that broadens the Republican Party's constituency to include the vast middle of the political spectrum and that would require a difficult internal compromise. However, we have a candidate who is a life long Republican with Conservative bona-fides and a proven record of appeal to moderates, cross-overs, Independents and especially the only category of registered voters that consistently recoils at the mere thought of a President Hillary Clinton...White Men. That candidate, albeit a longshot, is Senator John McCain.

Notably pundits don't include McCain in their conclusions...nor does the Media mention the Senator except to point out his campaign's failings. Nevertheless, they no longer can ignore his recent all around up-tick as overall disenchantment with the other candidates mounts. McCain won the Michigan straw poll and his fundraising is in back in the black. Quietly (due to a Media freeze) McCain has methodically traipsed through the early Primary states of Iowa, NH, SC on the "No Surrender" bus tour. At small venues he looks people in the eye and tells them what he believes is right, even if he doesn't agree with them and his candor hurts his own political ambitions. No matter what, he tells the truth.

John McCain is the best retail politician in the field and the most authentic candidate on either side; a natural leader with the heroic biography and feisty ability to beat the odds, come from behind and defeat Hillary Clinton in a tough race between the Democrat's presumptive favorite and R-beleaguered longshot...the next President of the United States in 2008.

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