The Mac May Be Starting To Come Back With Conservatives, But The Crowd Isn’t Exactly Going Wild

12 Feb, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Last week, I wrote my 2nd straight “Why conservatives should support McCain in November” column over at Townhall. The good news is that after the last column, the email I received probably ran about 8 out of 10 against voting for McCain. However, after the latest column, it flipped around and about 7 out of 10 of the emails I received were from people who did intend to pull the lever for McCain.

That’s the good news, such as it is, because McCain still needs to do significantly better than 7 out of every 10 conservatives. The bad news is that a lot of the people who are going to hold their noses and vote for McCain, understandably, aren’t very enthusiastic about it. As you read these fairly representative emails, ask yourself how many of these people are going to volunteer for the campaign or chip in money. Not too many is my guess and the McCain campaign better understand that and keep trying to mend fences on the Right,

DEAR JOHN,

AS MUCH AS I DISLIKE JOHN MCCAIN, I DOUBT I WOULD SURVIVE WITH MY SANITY INTACT IF I WERE OBLIGED TO LISTEN TO SCREECH-A ROONEY CLINTON FOR 4, OR HEAVEN FORBID, 8 LONG YEARS. I WILL VOTE FOR HIM, AS I VOTED FOR BOB DOLE. (I’M STILL BUBBLING OVER WITH ENTHUSIASM OVER THAT ONE!)

I agree and will vote for John McCain come November. I have no doubt that McCain will be better than either Clinton or Obama. I will, however think about the sorry state of the Republican party as I cast my ballot. Amnesty John is the best we can do. No wonder the country is in trouble

Thank you for your great insight. I hope many people read your message. As a retired government employee, I saw first hand the disaster resulting from just 4 years of Jimmy Carter on the federal government. The State Department (and other agencies) was packed with subversives, who stayed in place for years after Carter left, effectively stopping any progress by Republican leaders that followed. Can you imagine all the communist fellow travellers that either of the current Democratic candidates will bring to our government? You elect more than the “pretty face” — you get all the “hangers on” too.

I so appreciate your column. While I’m not completely thrilled with McCain, (I personally had hoped for more from Fred.) I’d rather vote for a billy goat than Hillary Clinton. If we as conservatives start throwing the baby out with the bath water, we’re going to throw our own agenda out with it.

John, I couldn’t agree more. I confess, until this morning, I wasn’t certain what I would do. But after giving this a lot of thought, and after reading your column (and some of the comments of those who disagree with you), I am certain that I will vote for McCain in November (assuming that he is the GOP candidate). The idea of four to eight years of Hillary or Obama is enough to make me vote for the Devil if he were running on the GOP ticket!

The McCain campaign needs to do more than just get the grudging votes of people like this, who’d “rather vote for a billy goat than Hillary Clinton.” They need to actually give these people strong reasons to vote FOR John McCain, not just against Hillary or Barack.

That means the ball’s in the McCain campaign’s court and they need to really think about what they’re going to say to conservatives to help turn them around and/or get them excited about beating the Democrats.