Tag: Lindsey Graham

Lindsey Graham Drops bid for White House

One neocon hawk down, many more to go. He says he simply could not win. Well, duh. Nobody liked the guy. 🙄

The video announcement:

CNN reports:

(CNN)Senator Lindsey Graham is ending his presidential campaign, he told CNN during an exclusive interview airing Monday.

“I’m going to suspend my campaign. I’m not going to suspend my desire to help the country,” the South Carolina senator said in a wide-ranging and candid discussion in which he acknowledged: “I’ve hit a wall here.”

He made the official announcement in an email to supporters and Youtube video posted Monday morning.

Graham is known for his quick wit and famous for his one-liners (just ask Princess Buttercup about his retort from the last debate), but he was sober, serious and emotional as he described his decision to leave the race just weeks before the voting begins.

One thing is clear: Graham still wants his voice heard on the direction his party is headed, especially with regard to the Middle East.

“Here’s what I predict. I think the nominee of our party is going to adopt my plan when it comes time to articulate how to destroy ISIL,” he said. “We’ve fallen short here, but the fight continues. To those who are doing the fighting, I want to be your voice. To those in the Republican Party who want to win, check my plan out. Hillary, if you get to be President, I’ll help you where I can. I hope you’re not. But if you are, I’ll be there to help you win a war we can’t afford to lose.”

One of Graham’s handicaps is that he is a part of the old Bush-era establishment Republican cabal. America has moved on since 9/11 and Bush’s style of hawkish Conservatism has grown very stale. His “plan” for defeating ISIS is basically to put America into another long-term boots on the ground war. Which, as we found out with Iraq; turned out to be, not a quick military exercise; but rather a long drawn out war.

Simply put Graham’s ideas for the middle east are classic neo-conservative, Wilsonian nonsense that even now Conservative and Republicans reject. This is why Lindsey Graham is out.

Related:

Katie Glueck / Politico: Lindsey Graham drops out of presidential race

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Lindsey Graham is ticked off at everyone

I would say, “What else is new?” But, I think he has a very valid reason to be ticked off.

Via Politico:

Sen. Lindsey Graham is angry. He’s frustrated. He’s upset. In his own words, he’s “very dangerous.”

With the government shutdown now in its 12th day, and a possible U.S. debt default looming on Oct. 17, the veteran Republican was in the mood to lash out at everyone Saturday. President Barack Obama, House Republicans, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans — they were all the target of Graham’s ire.

“The president is a pathetic leader. He’s only engaged in the last couple of days,” Graham said after the Senate blocked action on a Democratic plan for a “clean” debt-ceiling increase through 2014. “Every time you get close to getting a deal over here with our Democratic friends, they move the ball because some poll comes out. Our friends in the House apparently can’t muster the votes to send something over here to open up the government. So it’s dysfunction at every level.”

But the 58-year-old Graham wasn’t through venting yet. “You can blame us [Republicans], we’ve overplayed our hand, that’s for damn sure,” Graham said. “But their response, where the president and [Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid] basically shutting everybody out, and when you try to negotiate, they keep changing the terms of the deal … it’s very frustrating.”

“This is a very frustrated Lindsey Graham,” he added. “Which is a very dangerous thing.”

[….]

By Saturday afternoon, Graham suggested he may try to attach a version of Sen. David Vitter’s (R-La.) amendment ending health-care subsidies for lawmakers and congressional staffers to any Reid-McConnell agreement. Graham knows it’s a potential poison pill for any deal, but he is that unhappy right now.

“I am going to look at offering the Vitter language on anything that comes out of the Senate,” Graham told reporters. “If we’re going to screw up the whole country, we might as well throw ourselves in the mix.”

Graham had just come off the Senate floor where at least 15 senators huddled in bipartisan group discussing the current state of play and how to break the deadlock.

“There were how many, 15 people? There were 13 ideas,” Graham joked. “Two guys didn’t have an idea. They were the smart ones. They were the ones that kept their mouths shut.”

Graham then excused himself to go home and watch a football game.

Cranky old feller, ain’t he? Hee hee But, seriously, the reason why Graham is so upset, is because he is up for reelection next year; I mean, you would be cranky too, if the polls were showing that you might not actually win the election.

It goes without saying that Senator Graham is an establishment GOP type of a person and that the Tea Party, along with many others; are simply not happy with him at all. I think he knows this and this is why he is upset.

Either way, I hope football game was better. Tongue