Hail to the Chief: Lindsey Graham?!
Here he is on the Hugh Hewitt show, sounding for all the world as if he has already made up his mind to get into the race:
Hewitt: Now I have to change to politics, because yesterday Senator McCain called you his illegitimate son, and said that he wants you running for president. Is your presidential campaign a single state/favorite son? Or if you do it, will you be on all the ballots?
Graham: If I do it, I’ll be on all the ballots. I’m not doing it to make a statement. I’m doing it to change the country and offer what I have to offer to the American people, and to my party. And I think I’m uniquely qualified to deal with the threats we’re talking about. So when I hear a United States Senator trying to rationalize that Iraq created the problems in France, and when I hear some libertarians on my side of the aisle associated with the Republican Party say that it is our interventionist policy that has brought people down on us, they don’t know what they’re talking about. When I hear the president of the United States and his chief spokesperson failing to admit that we’re in a religious war, it really bothers me. And I want to be somebody who can talk about the world as it really is.
Hewitt: And what was your reaction to Mitt Romney’s declaration of reentry into presidential politics?
Graham: Probably no finer man ever run for the office. He’s one of the most decent people I’ve ever met. I don’t know if the third time is the charm. I do know this. If he runs for president again, and he embraces self-deportation as a way of solving the immigration problem, we’re going to have a problem as Republicans in general. I don’t know where Mitt is coming from, from the third time around. He’s a decent fellow. He’s a talented fellow. I’m sure he hears all over the country, God, I wish you were president. But at the end of the day, it won’t be about what Mitt does that drives my thinking. It will be about what I feel like I can do. And if there’s a pathway forward, credible pathway forward, a competitive pathway forward, I will take it.
More moderates in the race arguably means more of a chance for real conservatives to survive and flourish. So, go Lindsey! Or something.
Graham as the left side scion of McCain?
Brain bleach please.
I know politicians have massive egos, but why does he think anyone would vote for him?
On the plus side he is obviously no more impressed by Romney than anyone here.
kishnevi (3719b7) — 1/16/2015 @ 6:07 pmhe’ll be the 2 percenter pansy candidate this cycle what wastes everyone else’s time at the debates
like how huntsman was last time
happyfeet (831175) — 1/16/2015 @ 6:09 pmThink of the money we will save. We won’t have to drywall all the WH glory holes, after all.
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/16/2015 @ 6:11 pmEvery Senator thinks he should be President. Let him run. Dodd did. If he (bwaaaaaahaha) gets the nomination, I’ll vote for him, too. But he will be pretty much the guy with “Kick Me” pinned to his back during the debates.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:26 pmI want somebody who can talk about the world as it really is, too. Which is why I despise Graham. He’s just as deluded as Obama/Clinton/Kerry.
http://shoebat.com/2013/08/07/rino-clowns-mccain-and-graham-a-disaster-in-egypt/
Whatever your opinion of Walid Shoebat he provides links to reports from CBS, AP, CNN, al Jazeera, etc. The CBS report mentioned just how P.O.’d Egyptians of all stripes were by their reckless, careless comments, and the fact they were lecturing the country and it was obvious they didn’t know the first thing about what they were talking about.
Which would explain McCain’s enthusiasm for John Kerry. His judgement is so bad that they thought Kerry would be a good SecState. But then, he demonstrated his piss poor judgement again in Syria so we have ample evidence he has none.
Everything I said applies to his mini-me as well. Grahams undeservedly high opinion of himself…
…reflects his lack of judgement and utter inability to understand.
I like Cruz, but I really think we need a governor like Walker. Not a Senator who just sits around an bloviates and falls more and more in love with the sound of their own voice. That’s one of the problems with Kerry, he went from the Senate where he was just all talk and never responsible for anything to SecState where he has to do more than talk and he’s responsible for the performance of his department.
And he’s getting his a@@ handed to him.
Steve57 (f1883e) — 1/16/2015 @ 7:56 pmno, the problem with Kerry is he has always been at best a fool, at worst a knave, same for Obama, Carter, Mondale,
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:00 pmWelcome, Lindsey Graham. Pass the popcorn.
DRJ (a83b8b) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:21 pmAs a general rule incompetents have larger egos because they don’t know enough to tell the difference. Competent people are more likely to have their ego in check because they know how hard it is to become competent. Most really successful people have a few failures under their belts that they’ve learned from.
Congress is a breeding ground for incompetents because the rubber never meets the road. It really is all talk. They screw things up, yes, but they’re never held accountable. First of all their are 535 of them in the House and Senate. How are you going to limit the blame to just one individual. So they can always make up excuses why what they did turned out to be a disaster.
One way to do it is to blame the people in agencies they oversee. To pick on McCain a little more, he embarrassed himself during Bob Work’s confirmation hearings when he was nominated to become undersecretary of defense. He didn’t know a thing about what he was talking about (just like in Egypt). McCain grilled Work about cost overruns and construction delays in the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program. Work correctly said they were within the range of normal. McCain feigned shock and amazement that anyone could call cost overruns and construction delays in a Navy procurement program. He made it clear that he didn’t think that was an acceptable attitude.
The thing is Bob Work was not responsible for those cost overruns or delays. He was the only one in that room who made a positive contribution to bringing the LCS program into control when he was Undersecretary of the Navy in Obama’s first term. If anyone in that room was responsible for those cost overruns and delays it was John McCain. In fact, for McCain’s entire Senate career every single shipbuilding program has never been completed on time or within budget. McCain has been on the Senate Armed Services Committee since the late 1980s. He voted to confirm most of the Flag officers who were in charge of those programs and he never held them accountable. Clearly John McCain thinks cost overruns and construction delays are normal and perfectly acceptable.
McCain is also pulling this stunt with John Kerry. He voted to confirm Kerry, and now he constantly critizes Kerry for not dealing with reality. McCain was in the Senate for over 20 years with Kerry, and Kerry was in an alternate universe the entire time. But McCain knows he never has to take responsibility for the consequences of any of his confirmation votes. He never has; there’s always somebody under him that he can perp walk into a Senate committee room and blame for his screw ups.
All congresscritters can, McCain is just one of the best especially when it comes to the DoD. That’s why congresscritters like Graham have outsized egos. They take the credit when they get something right, and blame someone else when they hose things up. After a while they convince themselves they’ve never gotten anything wrong; they’ve always been right about anything.
Steve57 (f1883e) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:38 pmWell we can least Juan McC for building the danged fence..oh wait, what?
Gazzer (c44509) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:43 pmjust as with the latest boondoggle, the arming of the Free Syrian army, there have been a series of pieces by Entous in the Journal, and Barnard in the Times, that interviewed dissident officers in a Syrian border town, that suggest very little funds ever went to them, it raises a question, where did the money and the weapons end up, (rhetorical question)
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:45 pmYes, he’s a fool and a knave. He was such a fool he thought the SecState job would be just as easy as being a Senator. Just like Obama was foolish to think being President would be easier than it turned out; “if that idiot Bush can do it anybody can.”
Their massive egos make them think the job they want is easily within their abilities. But their massive egos aren’t based on competence or real accomplishment. They don’t actually have those abilities their egos tell them they have.
Steve57 (f1883e) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:47 pmIf somebody tells us Lindsey Graham is electable we all have to vote for him, or something, because we don’t have minds of our own.
daleyrocks (bf33e9) — 1/16/2015 @ 8:57 pma cynic might say, that Graham fits the function, of checkmating the South Carolina primary, which has been one of the sources of expressing discontent, this is how they think, the Syrian emergency task force, from which McCain got one of his staffers, is headed by the same guy that ran the outfit for Libya,
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:01 pmLindsey Graham 2016!
This is the way the world ends
Leviticus (c1d138) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:16 pmThis is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a mincer
So… pretty sure American politics has officially jumped the shark
Leviticus (c1d138) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:16 pmAmerican politics officially jumped the shark back in November 2008.
Steve57 (f1883e) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:18 pmWell, as long as we agree that we’re a joke now.
Leviticus (c1d138) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:22 pmI’m curious what you think, is wrong with Graham, his intolerance for free speech, support of Salafists from North Africa to the Levant, his dabbling in the climate scam, are big issues,
narciso (ee1f88) — 1/16/2015 @ 9:29 pmhe alludes in not so veiled a notion to Rand’s view, but he held much the same view about Gitmo
being a ‘recruiting tool;
I might have considered graham when he was involved with the impeachment, but, who would vote for this ass hole now? Not me!
Jim (84e66d) — 1/16/2015 @ 10:37 pmGod bless little Lindsey’s heart. I hope everything works out for him.
Ag80 (eb6ffa) — 1/16/2015 @ 10:41 pmAs others have pointed out, this is more a declaration of availability for the VP slot than a serious candidacy. Graham couldn’t win the SC primary, even his supporters don’t think of him as Presidential material. His background is as an attorney, for many years with JAG. No administrative experience at all.
But I have to laugh at the critics who talk so tough against Graham. They’ve been threatening him since the “Gang of 14” nonsense in 2005 (for which he got a long scathing letter from me, and replied in length with detail, which did not convert me, but he did reply), but as I’ve been telling anyone who would listen (fewer than should) that they needed a strong candidate and at least $2 million to mount a serious primary challenge. They never have, because the young up-and-coming Republicans who might conceivably try don’t want to risk their whole career on unseating an incumbent.
For all his failings, you can’t beat Graham with nothing.
Estragon (ada867) — 1/17/2015 @ 1:50 amThomas Ravenel, who ran as an independent this year and trailed badly, had been elected State Treasurer as a Republican a few years back, and was the state party’s rising star. But he decided to celebrate his election by buying cocaine for his inner circle, and ended up arrested and in prison for a time – the shortest political career on record for an election winner, perhaps. He might have been a viable challenger for Graham – but then, why would he have? Had he kept his nose clean, so to speak, he might have had the appointment to DeMint’s seat instead of Tim Scott.
Estragon (ada867) — 1/17/2015 @ 1:59 amThe daisy ad against Goldwater is where the shark started jumping.
mg (31009b) — 1/17/2015 @ 2:28 amGraham\Issa 2016
mg (31009b) — 1/17/2015 @ 2:30 amWhy don’t you all take your representative democracy and stick it your collective republic. http://pagesix.com/2015/01/16/senators-husband-stands-to-profit-from-government-deal/?_ga=1.137700920.922370688.1421462337
nk (dbc370) — 1/17/2015 @ 3:25 amPar for the course, nk.
mg (31009b) — 1/17/2015 @ 3:52 amUp here we have the Combine. When Rahm Emanuel was a Wall Street fixer after leaving the White House, Bruce Rauner steered a big deal to him netting Emanuel a $3 million commission. That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. When Rauner ran for Governor of Illinois, Emanuel donated to his primary (and doubtlessly steered Machine voters to vote for for him against his Republican opponent, Illinois has open primaries). In the general election, Quinn, the Democratic candidate, only got 45% of the vote in Cook County. A Democrat incumbent governor, getting 45% of the vote in Cook County! Sure, the voters spoke. Rauner’s “transition team” includes Bill Daley and an Emanuel crony who’s name I can never remember — who went from patrolman to assistant police superintendent in seven months, to chairman of the Chicago Board of Education, to multi-millionaire. It’s all a big f***ing joke and it’s on us.
nk (dbc370) — 1/17/2015 @ 4:04 amVoters are toast.
mg (31009b) — 1/17/2015 @ 4:13 amThose previous comments were before my second cup of coffee and second cigarette and before I found a new Phineas and Ferb episode on YouTube. I’m in a better mood now.
nk (dbc370) — 1/17/2015 @ 4:37 amThe esteemed Senator Graham is yet another Senator who has never run a damned thing in his life, and somehow thinks that the Presidency is an entry-level executive job. As an American citizen over 35, he has every right to run for President, so he can go for it, but I’d be surprised if he made it as far as the Iowa caucuses (cauci?) before dropping out; I have a difficult time seeing him raising much money.
The politician Dana (1b79fa) — 1/17/2015 @ 9:50 amYou might be surprised to have me say this, but I think Senator Lindsey Graham is not nearly as good, and not nearly as informed, as he thinks he is. (and he’s not terribly honest, either, and it shows)
What probably convinces him that he’s competent, is that so many other Senators around him are living, or were living, in an alternate universe. This can create a delusion of being completely right in people.
Peggy Noonan writes:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-do-it-mr-romney-1421367202
But actually, this being captured by this worldview or that, this expert or that, os true also for Senators.
There are certain people who have an ability to discern, or to learn from experience. It’s not really experience that does anything, but a record can tell you if someone has this ability..
George H.W.Bush had a tremendous resume, most of it executive experience, and he was incompetent, and he lost his bod for re-election.
Jimmy Carter was a Governor, and in addition to his lying, he had a tremendous faith in experts and got things all wrong, especially in the field of energy, the economy, and foreign policy. There was the eneregy crisis, which he proposed to solve by beating ashortage to the punch. There were the innecessary gas lines of 1978-1979. There was his wrecking the economy by appointing Paul Volcker to be the head of the federal Reserve Board, and Paul Volcker “fought” inflstion till he had gotten interest rates up to a prime rate of 20% and created a bog recession and more inflation. He relied on others wih regard to Iran.
So someone being an executive is no panacea. And having to deal with an issue as a Senator, doesn’t guarantee you’ll get it right. And not making absurd errors in analysis doesn’t mean that you have things right.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:07 amEstragon (ada867) — 1/17/2015 @ 1:59 am
I can think of Alan Hevesi’s re-election as New York State Comptroller in 2006, but maybe he lasted longer after Election Day, and besides was an incumbent.
Sammy Finkelman (e806a6) — 1/19/2015 @ 7:35 am