To: JohnM who wrote (82790 ) 9/7/2008 4:29:05 PM From: Lane3 Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 541674 If McCain is elected, he will owe it to the furthest right elements of the party, the ones energized by the Palin choice. That constituency has been mostly ignored by Reagan, Bush, and Bush after having been instrumental in their elections. I don't see much reason it would be otherwise for McCain. (Didn't we just have this discussion?) Having a VP in your ear might make it harder but her message goes against his natural grain so I'm prepared to believe that little of it would get through and even less translated into action. I just don't know how much real damage he could do from where he would sit. I've been watching McCain for a while. I simply don't believe that he's a social conservative. Social conservatives make me itch and he doesn't make me itch. I also believe that his bipartisan streak is real. Notice I said "believe." Nothing sure about it.it would still have been a place too far for me, given the campaign he's run Bear in mind that I haven't been following the horse race so I haven't seen "the campaign he's run." Or Obama's. I hate that stuff. They'll all say and do anything to get elected and I don't want any part of it. If I watched, I'd drop out for sure. So I see the McCain I've seen for the last couple of decades, not the campaigner.So I'm more than puzzled. I think baffled is more the right word, given your stated political preferences. If you're puzzled, either you're skimming again <g>, or you just don't accept how much weight I put on the entitlement program thing. I'd actually join in the protest scrum for the first time in my life to defeat any big ones. I am deadly serious about it.