Alter: McCain Let the GOP Get Away | Newsweek Voices - Jonathan Alter

POLITICS
A New Voice Rises In the Red States
Suzanne Smalley 11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
Erick Erickson, the editor of the influential conservative blog RedState.com, knew he had arrived in politics two years ago when Tony Snow, the then White House press secretary, invited him to visit. Not wanting to presume, Erickson showed up at the Old Executive Office Building, where most staffers work. But when he arrived, the 33-year-old native Louisianan recalls, "they said, 'No, your appointment's at the West Wing.' At that point I knew Red State was kind of unique."
MCCAIN CAMPAIGN
Not The Change They Wanted
Michael Isikoff 10/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
The disclosure that the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on clothing and accessories for vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her family set off recriminations among GOP officials—and, more important, party donors. It wasn't just the volume of the purchases—which included new dresses for Palin, suits for husband Todd and outfits for her children—it was the use of swanky stores like Neiman Marcus. One top party fundraiser told NEWSWEEK that, ever since the story broke on Politico.com, he was bombarded with calls from Republican donors who were "furious" that their contributions were used for such purposes. "This has damaged everybody's credibility," griped the fundraiser (who asked not to be identified talking about party business). Among those upset was Saul Anuzis, the Michigan Republican Party chairman, still smarting over McCain's decision to pull out of his state. "I have no idea how you spend $150,000 on clothes," he says. Lobbyist Andrea McWilliams, a GOP fundraiser in Texas, said the flap undercut the party's message. Palin's "transformation from low couture to haute couture isn't the kind of change that voters had in mind," she said.
CAMPAIGN 2008
The Palin Problem
Jonathan Darman 10/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
John McCain's defeat will be a lonely one. The old soldier has always taken pride in proving no one owns him—not his party, not its leaders and, for damn sure, not the ideological purity police of the right. So if the polls prove right, and McCain loses to Barack Obama next Tuesday, no one but him will own his defeat. Already, from every corner of the conservative coalition, the same refrain is rising: nasty, obstinate old fool, he should have listened to me.
COUNTERPOINT
We’re Heading Left Once Again
Jonathan Alter 10/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
John McCain's "Joe the Plumber" would no doubt like to have a beer with Sarah Palin's "Joe Six-Pack." In truth, Joe Wurzelbacher isn't a licensed plumber and Joe Six-Pack is a horrible cliché, but no matter. They're cultural kin to the iconic "Average Joe" who was part of Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" in the early 1970s and Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in the 1980s. But conservative majorities come and go. If the polls are to be believed, today's hard-strapped Joes have more in common politically with Joe Biden. And millions of them are preparing to do something that they never thought they'd do in a million years—vote for a black guy with the middle name Hussein for president of the United States.
CAMPAIGN 2008
Power In The Pews
Arian Campo-Flores 10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
A few weeks ago, Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's former chief strategist, paid a visit to the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, a man some have dubbed his Latino alter ego. As president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC—which includes some 18,000 evangelical churches across the country—Rodriguez is known as a powerful orator and a politically savvy operator. He also sits at the juncture of two groups that Rove has courted assiduously on behalf of the Republican Party: Latinos and evangelicals. "If you're the Hispanic Karl Rove, then does that make me the Anglo Sam Rodriguez?" Rove asked as they sat down for breakfast at the Hyatt Regency in Sacramento.
CAMPAIGN 2008
A New Latino Mix
Arian Campo-Flores 9/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
At a Puerto Rican community center in Orlando two weeks ago, a parade of Republican luminaries took the stage to plug their presidential candidate en español. "John McCain es nuestro amigo," said John Quiñones, an Osceola County commissioner born in Puerto Rico ("John McCain is our friend"). "El país primero antes que la ambición personal," declared U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez ("Country first before personal ambition"). There, too, were former Florida Governors Jeb Bush and Bob Martinez and current Governor Charlie Crist. When McCain himself arrived, he rattled off a litany of proposals tailored to the audience. He pledged his support for a referendum on Puerto Rican statehood. He eulogized the sacrifice of Latinos who served in the military. And he exalted the "cultural input" and "vitality" of Hispanics across the country. Then he concluded with the bottom line: "We have to win Florida."