Sunday, November 25, 2007
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McCain's Enviro Mail in NH
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Posted by:
Patrick Ruffini at
6:17 PM
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This is going to sound crazy, but I've got a simple message for my friends in the Rudy, Mitt, Fred, and Huck camps: watch your backs for John McCain.
I'm the last person to write a piece of McCain puffery, but crazy-like-a-fox stuff like this is pushing me over the edge:
Examine these mail pieces sent to New Hampshire households, and you'll see that McCain is not only pushing his environmental credentials -- he's positioning himself to the left on the issue. The piece quotes the Natural Resources Defense Council singing the Arizonan's praises, along with Republicans for Environmental Protection -- a group that -- let's not kid ourselves -- borrows straight from the Ann Stone/Main Street playbook.
The piece also implies that McCain has been alone among the Presidential candidates, Democrat or Republican, in leading the way on climate change legislation.
This is McCain 1.0, going back to the well of New Hampshire independents who were so generous with their votes last time. The 2000 primary showed how it could work. This time, McCain only needs a fraction of the independents he got last time to make the same dramatic impact.
This development is something to be taken seriously. McCain only works as a stealth candidate. Positions like these are what killed his frontrunner status. But if he can sneak up on you from the back of the pack...
The electorate has not learned one bad new thing about John McCain in five months. No one has even bothered attacking him. The thick oppo books on him have scarcely been cracked. The anti-McCain army that had all but claimed victory this summer has demobilized. At the same time he remains extremely well known. As a result, his campaign has been touting poll numbers showing him as the most electable Republican against Hillary Clinton. That's what happens when you're popular and people refuse to attack you. It's the position Rudy was in a year ago, when no one took him seriously.
What happens to Rudy Giuliani if McCain edges him out in New Hampshire? What happens if the winners of the first two major nominating contests are Huckabee and McCain?
It seems to me that Rudy especially needs to start thinking about popping the McCain bubble. McCain remains the longest of long shots for the nomination, but he could play the homewrecker role, severing Rudy from his ascendancy with the center-right voters he needs to win.
Closing thought: If a vote for Huckabee is a vote for Rudy, there could also be some strange McCain-Romney alliance brewing wherein McCain is the instrument Romney uses to disqualify Rudy. MIA in all this is Fred.
(Hat tip to the McCain-friendly GreenMountainPolitics1 blog.)
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As a New Hampshire republican voter I am becoming increasingly concerned about my voting choices. While the republican candidates have some good stances on issues such as health care, national security, and the war, I am blind - sided by their LACK of a strong environmental policy. Climate change should be with the front concerns of each candidate - both republican and democratic! It is an issue that has gained international concern, and has the largest effect on society. Along with international support, climate change has become a major issue among American voters. In Specific, New Hampshire voters have expressed their support of climate change policy through their action in town hall meetings and formation of town energy committees. It would be a tragedy, in my opinion, if loyal republican voters were forced to vote democratic in this upcoming primary and election due to the lack of republican support for appropriate energy and climate policy. |
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Huckabee always talks about the environment but you do not mention it. He speaks about it as a moral and secuirty issue and he even endorses a market based cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Anybody who has attended a New Hampshire town hall, read this blog, or seen last January’s polling data that found that 82% of potential Republican primary voters favor taking action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions knows that NH Republican voters want to hear about his issue. Energy conservation, energy security, and the environment are fast becoming core Republican issues in New Hampshire.
Read, listen, and watch what all the candidates have said about climate change at http://www.carboncoalition.org/candidates |
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If global warming exists and man is the cause, wouldn't the first and easiest step that you could take as the leader of a country be to control the source of the problem? That source of course being man himself. The first, easiest, and most pain free approach to controlling the source (man) would be to stop importing them into your country -- right? You have asked for no sacrifice from any of your current citizens -- right? Once you have controlled the source of the problem then you can work to improve technology, strategies, and efforts to reduce the impact that your source (man) makes to the problem.
Sort of like the first duty of a doctor is to do no harm. Well the first step of a global warming doctor should be to stop adding sources (man) of the problem to an already bad situation. |
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Yes, I certainly have my share of hot air and I very well may have a larger carbon footprint than the average Mexican living in LA. Still, I'm not sure what that has to do with the concept that bringing in more people means more of an environmental impact on this country.
I do not believe in Global Warming -- or at least the idea that man has a significant impact on the occurance. Nonetheless, it becomes relevant to me when acolytes like Juan McCain want to institute caps, taxes, fees, and higher costs of doing business to solve this problem that doesn't really exist. And getting back to my main point, he wants to institute these taxes on the American people while at the same time shuffling in hundreds of millions of new "Americans" that will make the successful adherence to these benchmarks impossible -- that's the paradox.
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+++MIA in all this is Fred. +++
Don't count Fred out! Some of us call him "Phlegmatic Fred" with affection, not derision. He's like the turtle in the Turtle and the Hare story. While others are counting him out, little by little he's "dozing his way to victory" as someone once put it. |
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I'd be willing to bet even LA Mexicans emit alot less CO2 than you do. Certainly a lot less hot air.
So global warming isn't a real issue, except when you want to use it as a stick to beat illegal immigrants with, when suddenly it is a pressing concern? Did I get that right?
Believe me (or not, I don't care) I think illegal immigration is a problem, and I also think McCain screwed up, big-time, with his amnesty bill. But I also think it has little to nothing to do with global warming.
Your wide open spaces won't matter much, if they are scorched dry or underwater. |
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The last time I checked McCain was running for President of the UNITED STATES -- not President of the WORLD. So in other words, if America is supremely ignorant and elects McCain as their President he will have no control or influence over citizens of Mexico and the rest of the 3rd World. The CO2 releases from these people will be the responsibility of their respective country's leaders and not ours. When McCain signs us up for all of these global warming and environmental caps and taxes they will be levied on what the U.S. produces and not the world at large.
The crowding, development, pollution, waste, and resource requirements which are indeed local and regional effects rather than global also will be the responsibility of their governments and not ours so long as these people remain in their impverished countries rather than migrating here. I'm not a global warming crusader but I still like the idea that America is a land of wide open spaces with abundant unspoiled natural resources -- something that becomes less and less apparant as we continue to add 100 million people to our totals every 20 or 30 years on our current collision course fueled by out of control immigration (legal and illegal)
I don't have any studies, but yes my hunch is that when you combine 3rd world notions of fertility with a modern day healthcare system, anchor baby incentives, and a generous welfare state you do indeed get more people. Also, I'd be willing to bet that the average Mexican living in Los Angeles emits more CO2 than the average Mexican living in Guadalajara. |
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How does illegal immigration cause global warming?
IF there are data to prove that poor Mexicans have fewer kids in Mexico than when they sneak in the US, I'll agree, but barring that...
The reason global warming is a problem is because it is GLOBAL. Even if there are fewer people in the US, if there are just more in Mexico, than it probably won't make a difference.
VA Patriot: We all know you feelings on this issue. And we know whom you support. But Hunter will. Never. Get. The. Nomination! He is polling in the basement; even Tancredo out polls him. Your loyalty is admirable, but please, let it go, or at least stop posting the same post on every thread, even ones that it has nothing to do with. |
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Rudy, McCain, Huckabee.
All in favor of amnesty.
Wrong Party fellas, conservatives still love their country and want to keep it. |
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He could appoint Alan Dershowitz once elected. He has said he thinks Ginsburg is as qualified as Roberts. Trust him if you want, I don't, I've looked at what kind of judges he's already appointed. Liberal. |
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McCain is truly embarrassing.
Sadly, NH is probably the only place he could get a primary win, unless of course he switched Parties and ran as a Democrat. |
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"Several readers think the comparison of Judge Kathe Tuttman to Bernie Kerik is unfair. I'd just point out that Tuttman is why Romney can no longer go on the attack against Giuliani on Kerik; it's easy to picture during some future debate Giuliani responding to the jab, "Yes, my friend had ethical problems that he hid from me. I didn't look hard enough. But none of my appointees put a murderer back on the streets to kill again; no wrong decision I've made has ever cost an innocent couple their lives. How about yours, Governor?" It would be a "you're no Jack Kennedy" moment." http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YTZmYjEzN2I wZWJjNDhmYWFjMzJkYzEzOWQxODUxYjQ=
That would be quite the zinger, but even I, a strong Giuliani supporter, thinks it unfair. Mitt Romney could not have foreseen Tuttman releasing this murderer (unless she had some track record for this before her appointment) and certainly did not know a young couple would be murdered as a result. Nevertheless, it is a serious lesson to all GOP candidates. Judicial appointments are serious and can easily go wrong. |
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Nothing left about being a conservationist Briggsy. You're thinking about environmentalists. That's generally left, and that is generally stupid. |
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http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1107/7029.html |
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Nice try! The fact that man can (and should) make less of an impact on the earth still does not mitigate the fact that ALL people consume resources and emit waste. The guy driving a Toyota Pious (pun intended) still uses gas and emits pollution even if it is less than the guy driving a Hummer. If the extra hundreds of millions of peasants that McCain wishes to deposit within the confines of American territory over the next generation all live the frugal and environmental lifestyle of the average Californian that you laud, that will still be a tremendous impact on our environment.
Can you not see the paradox of someone who wishes to explode our population while at the same time assumes the mantra of eco-warrior? |
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Once the left side of the environmentalist sit down and crunch the numbers on McCain's immigration policy, they will consider him an abomination......Illegal's already leave their garbage residu all over the landscape like gypsies on the move! Dumping another 100-200 million into the country over the next 30 years will play right into the developers hands, as they justify building within the State and Federal Park systems. As usual, it will first be opened up to the wealthy as they leave their neighborhoods to move into the "Elitist" new areas that were once public domain. Teddy Roosevelt's vision of a "National Park System" for all to enjoy will be destroyed by McCain's vision of America becoming a "Banana Republic"! |
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Just read Novak's piece on Huckabee over at the WaPo.
I guess the MSM really loves Huckabee. Maybe he's their new darling.
He provides story content, and he's not really fiscally conservative, from what I read.
So, perhaps this will be the first time that the religious right will agree with the MSM.
Makes you wonder, anyway. If the MSM likes Huckabee, what does that really say about him?
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Let me see if I've got this straight... The guy who wants to grant amnesty to potentially 30 million high-birthrate illegals who will then be able to bring over all of their esposas, hermanos, padres, y ninos through legal chain migration; plus institute a guest worker plan that will bring in additional millions of peasants from south of the border, plus ramp up legal immigration beyond the already high level of over 1 million a year is somehow a caretaker and advocate for the American environment?!? The untold hundreds of millions of new "Americans" that McCain's open borders policies will bring in the next generation is absolutely staggering.
Sorry Johnny boy, you just can't get around the fact that more people equals a greater impact on the earth -- from resource depletion to development to pollution. And then to add insult to injury McCain believes that we should institute caps and taxes and penalties to companies and individuals when we don't make some bureacratically instituted marks set up by the global warming scaremongers. So in just one other way today's citizens and their direct descendants will be paying through these taxes and inflated costs for the additional humanity that made acheiving these benchmarks impossible.
The McCain Paradox -- policies in favor of high demographic growth coupled with global warming and environmental scaremongering |
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Mitt is well positioned. Rudy is going to probably take the Mid Atlantic, California and Florida. And Fred, if he can hang on, can mine some delegate rich states in the South. McCain, God Bless him, just keeps coming back like the GOP Rocky Balboa. Huckabee is stiring the pot in Iowa. And frankly, a lot of issues are getting serious discussion. Fred's defense of focusing on Roe and a federalist approach on abortiion rather than a life amendment (which any sane person knows comes after) was spot on.
Frankly, it is cool to watch. I do not think the GOP loses. This is a good process for the party and will help in the general. |
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NH again as the King Maker for the world?? So what if McCain rises, Mitt falls, Rudy romps, Fred figures, and the Huck hunches. NH is not going to decide the nomination. It is up to the voters to decide and any responses will probably be seen as just incivility nowadays. There already is fire by the candidates against each other. So OK< let's hit McCain on the socialist enviro agenda. Do you think that works in leftist NE?? There are more tree huggers there than you can pitch a stick at. |
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has already "shot his wad" with his ardent love of amnesty for his "lettuce pickin friends", and McCain/Feingold,....kissin demon-rat *sses of the likes of "Chappiquidicus Teddicus"!
He's a RINO, pure and simple.
Hunter in "08"! |
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When they have capped the volcanoes and turned down the sun to control the climate, they really need to get busy on Crust Shifting!
More people die from earthquakes every year than have died from climate change in the past 100 years. Someone needs to stop this Crust Shifting! |
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Someone should have told him. |
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We actually nominated a conservative??????
Landslide!!!!!!!
There is a huge majority of American citizens waiting for someone to pledge to uphold the laws and secure the borders, let's not ignore them any more.
http://www.gohunter08.com
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...and if he did, he's mostly back anyway, at the risk of contradicting myself.
And yes, it doesn't hurt that he's the only Republican besides Rudy who can win the general election, and that in fact he polls even better against Hillary (and Obama) than Rudy does.
Eight months ago it looked like Rudy and McCain would be the last two men standing, and nothing has really changed since then. |
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...with this piece.
What exactly are you objecting to Patrick? I think it's pretty safe to say ALL candidates IMPLY things in their compaign materials.
I'm a Fredneck and DO NOT support John McCain but I don't get what you're so bent about. |
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I'm going to vote for Chester A Arthur, which I know will be a vote for Tom Dewey, unless Dewey fails to get the Mormon vote, in which case it will be a nod for Nixon, except we don't have him to kick around any more, thanks to Hugh. |
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