Are the scales falling. . .
. . .from Mark Levin's eyes? He started out the day as he does every other day -- trashing John McCain as an apostate by pointing out that a considerable number (23%) of Republican primary voters in North Carolina and Indiana voted for someone else. Of course, he didn't come out and say "John McCain is an apostate, and no true Republican will vote for him," but on the heels of everything else he's said about him -- particularly over the past six months, it's not hard to pick up on the implication.
Andrew Stuttaford, not exactly a McCain stalwart, stepped in to point out a very basic reality that ought to be plain to anyone who's ever pondered on how one goes about winning elections -- that even Republicans need the votes of independents and Democrats to pull it off. He also points out that the percentage of people who have a favorable view of the Republican Party right now stands at 27%, and that assuming that this percentage is representative of the Republican base (for the sake of argument), the 23% of the base who voted for another candidate makes up a very small percentage of the total electorate. So, it seems that McCain's choice at this point is to try to cater to the 6.75% of the purported base which is apparently angry with him, or the vast swath of American voters who are waiting for him to differentiate himself from the Republican Party that they're not too crazy about right now.
Levin then comes back to challenge Stuttaford's math, but comes around to his view shortly thereafter, but questions how McCain ought to go about appealing to the broader electorate -- taking jabs along the way at William Kristol, David Frum, and David Brooks for insufficient Reaganism.
But, this gets us at least a few feet down the road with Levin. At least he is showing a willingness to recognize that a Republican can't get elected to the White House by running a campaign geared toward getting elected to the Alabama state house. The hard part is going to be training Levin not to claw at his skin and launch radio jihads every time McCain makes an overture to the American center.
Andrew Stuttaford, not exactly a McCain stalwart, stepped in to point out a very basic reality that ought to be plain to anyone who's ever pondered on how one goes about winning elections -- that even Republicans need the votes of independents and Democrats to pull it off. He also points out that the percentage of people who have a favorable view of the Republican Party right now stands at 27%, and that assuming that this percentage is representative of the Republican base (for the sake of argument), the 23% of the base who voted for another candidate makes up a very small percentage of the total electorate. So, it seems that McCain's choice at this point is to try to cater to the 6.75% of the purported base which is apparently angry with him, or the vast swath of American voters who are waiting for him to differentiate himself from the Republican Party that they're not too crazy about right now.
Levin then comes back to challenge Stuttaford's math, but comes around to his view shortly thereafter, but questions how McCain ought to go about appealing to the broader electorate -- taking jabs along the way at William Kristol, David Frum, and David Brooks for insufficient Reaganism.
But, this gets us at least a few feet down the road with Levin. At least he is showing a willingness to recognize that a Republican can't get elected to the White House by running a campaign geared toward getting elected to the Alabama state house. The hard part is going to be training Levin not to claw at his skin and launch radio jihads every time McCain makes an overture to the American center.
posted by MsFalconersCabanaBoy @ 1:22 PM
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