| 麦肯恩角逐美国2008年总统大选-2 He recently defended the new military strategy on the Don Imus program on MSNBC. "And those who want to leave, just withdraw, I think they have an obligation to tell people what they think is going to happen. I know what is going to happen. It is going to be chaos and genocide and it will spread throughout the region and we will be involved again in one way or another." Some analysts believe McCain is taking a political gamble with his high-profile support of the president's Iraq policy, given the opposition evident in public opinion polls. Stuart Rothenberg publishes an independent political newsletter in Washington. "You listen to Senator McCain and he will emphasize that he disagreed with the policy early on in term of the U.S. not having an enough troops. He thought [former Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld was inept and incompetent, the wrong person, and he will continue to be critical of how the war was handled. But overall, his support for the president is pretty strong on the war and increasingly he is identified with it." In addition to his stand on Iraq, McCain also has a challenge in winning votes among conservative Christian voters, an important constituency within the Republican Party. McCain was critical of some religious conservative leaders during his 2000 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, when he lost out to Texas Governor George Bush. But in recent months, McCain has tried to mend fences with religious conservatives and is emphasizing his generally conservative voting record on social issues like abortion. But analyst Charles Cook says some conservatives remain wary of McCain. Cook is editor of the Cook Political Report and he recently appeared on the C-SPAN public affairs TV network. "A lot of these folks were never terribly comfortable with McCain, even though he really voted with them the vast majority of the time. But they always really doubted, 'Is he one of us?'" In addition to McCain and Giuliani, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is in the running for the Republican nomination. Others who have either formally announced or who are considering a bid include Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, California Congressman Duncan Hunter, Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. |
