Conservatives were never deeply comfortable with John McCain as their standard-bearer. As his campaign falters, their rhetoric has turned fiercely hostile.<\/p>\n
Most still prefer a McCain-Palin victory over an Obama-Biden administration, but the right-of-center backlash certainly isn’t the tone the GOP wanted going into the final weeks of the election.<\/p>\n
Oddly, a lot of the vitriol seems to be centering on Palin — first the darling and now the butt of many conservatives.<\/p>\n
Here’s a sampling:<\/p>\n
William Kristol, of the Weekly Standard and a Fox News regular, called the McCain campaign “pathetic” and described their efforts as political “malpractice.”<\/p>\n
David Brooks, the NYTimes conservative columnist, called Sarah Palin a “fatal cancer to the Republican party.”<\/p>\n
Michelle Laxalt, GOP consultant, blasted McCain’s campaign (“the good old boys”) for bringing “a young governor into the national scene and tossing her into the deep end five weeks before November.”<\/p>\n
According to Laxalt, speaking with Larry King on CNN, Palin “is essentially being treated like a secretary.”<\/p>\n
She went on to call Palin “young” and “naive,” and said, “I think they should be ashamed of themselves.”<\/p>\n
Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker, speaking of Palin, put it this way: “My cringe reflex is exhausted. “<\/p>\n
More?<\/p>\n
Conservative David Frum opined that Palin Sarah Palin “cannot speak three coherent consecutive words about finance or economics…”<\/p>\n
Even conservative actor Dennis Hopper — a long-time vocal Bush supporter — is piling on. <\/p>\n
“I voted for Bush, father and son, but this time I’ll vote for Obama. I pray God, Barack Obama is elected.”<\/p>\n
And here’s Christopher Hitchens, the former liberal and prominent anti-terror hawk:<\/p>\n
It therefore seems to me that the Republican Party has invited not just defeat but discredit this year, and that both its nominees for the highest offices in the land should be decisively repudiated, along with any senators, congressmen, and governors who endorse them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Some conservatives are simply furious with McCain for not attacking Barack Obama hard enough, using language that borders on the unacceptable. <\/p>\n
Here’s columnist and former GOP presidential candidate Pat Buchanan:<\/p>\n
McCain seems ambivalent to the point of being bipolar on whether he wants to take responsibility for peeling the hide off Barack Obama.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
With all of the other hurdles McCain faces over these final weeks, this kind of sidebar criticism can be crippling, adding credence to attacks being hurled by the Democrats. <\/p>\n
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