Will McCain Reach Out to Me?

I ran across two posts today that really help me to define why I have such difficulty with John McCain on a personal level--not even paying attention to his centrist political views on just about everything that make me want to hurl.

First there is this portion of a post from John Hawkins at Right Wing News where he takes issue with McCain's treatment of fellow Republicans while sucking up to the Democrats:

Oh no! The guy called Barack Obama by his full name! How shocking and shameful -- give me a break. Here's a question: did any Democrat ever complain about liberals calling George "Felix" Allen by his full name? Maybe they did, but I don't recall a single one ever doing so.

Furthermore, it's no secret to anyone who reads RWN that I was never a fan of Mitt Romney, but here's a question: Did John McCain ever show a fellow Republican, Mitt Romney, even half as much respect as he has shown to Hillary and Obama? The answer is of course, "No, he didn't." So what does that say about McCain? A lot, actually.

Incidents like this one are exactly why so many conservatives loathe John McCain: the man is reflexively hostile to conservatives who support him while he bends over backwards to cater to liberals who think he's two steps away from being Hitler merely because he's a Republican.

If you're a conservative, how do you ever trust a man who has made a career out of spitting in the face of his friends while prostrating himself before his political enemies when you know that making nice with people like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the New York Times will always be of a much higher priority to him than defending other Republicans or pursuing a conservative agenda?

You don't.

And then there is Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs that asks:

Has anyone ever really shown that the allegations made by the Swift Boat Veterans against John F. Kerry were false? If someone has refuted the charges conclusively, I’ve never seen it—which makes John McCain’s continuing antipathy toward the Swiftboaters inexplicable[...].

I've said before that McCain will have to reach out in my direction to secure a vote that is most likely going to spent on a write in conservative candidate otherwise. These comments from McCain are just more of the same old same old. A sharpened stick pointed at the eyes of conservatives. If there is an outstretched hand being extended to me from the Arizona Senator I have yet to see it.

It seems as if McCain would prefer to get the Presidency by veering farther to the left to eat into the Democrat constituency rather than veer to the right to ensure support from the conservative base.

That is a losing strategy unless his ultimate goal is to run as the VP on the Democrat ticket. Which is, I suppose, one way to get him to talk nice to Republicans.