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Liz Cheney or Meghan McCain?

It's a no-brainer. The answer, that is.

By: Josh Painter (Diary)  |  May 22nd, 2009 at 05:11 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

The daughters of two famous Republican politicians have been getting some serious face time in the media lately. Meghan McCain has a head start, thanks to her blog, her father’s campaign for the presidency last year and a set of beliefs which the Obama-loving drive-by media finds very close to their own. So she has been given a wealth of video footage and column inches to get out her message that even her father’s GOP is still not sufficiently Democrat Lite to successfully suck up to the generation she assumes to speak for.

McCain The Daughter has gotten so much media exposure that she’s starting to wear thin, even on the mellow nerves of crunchy cons, conservatives who are okay with some of the ways of liberalism. Meghan’s ways, especially her attitudes about sex, are not those aspects of liberalism that the crunchies are comfortable with. Rod Dreher, in his latest BeliefNet post, calls her “moronic” and “a useful idiot for the media left.”

On the other side of the Republican coin, there is Liz Cheney, whom Washington Whispers blogger Paul Bedard calls “the hottest Republican property out there.” A growing number of conservatives including her close friends are pushing Liz Cheney to run for public office.

Bedard doesn’t hold back on the praise for the elder Cheney daughter:

A forceful defender of the [Bush] administration and her dad, Liz Cheney has been appearing on TV with greater regularity. She brings to the screen a combination of her dad’s steely focus and her mom’s softer touch. “It’s a two-fer. She comes off a bit better than he does sometimes,” a conservative consultant said.

Allahpundit captured a fine example of that combination showing Liz Cheney easily pushing Lawrence O’Donnell into meltdown. In all fairness, however, O’Donnell has repeatedly proven that it’s not that difficult a feat to accomplish.

Dick Cheney’s daughter also did a fine job of pwning another O’Donnell – MSDNC’s Nora – in a televised appearance late last month. On the same network’s Morning Joe program, Liz reduced the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning liberal columnist Eugene Robinson to sputtering, stuttering ineffectiveness. Without question, Liz Cheney has inherited her father’s ability to drive the Left into derangement mode.

So the answer to the question posed by the title of this post is “Liz Cheney.” It’s a no-brainer. Liz Cheney, like the grown-up she is, calmly and effectively makes her argument, while Meghan McCain, in Rod Dreher’s words, is “making a national fool of herself.” The future of the GOP is found not in the valley girl foolishness of Meghan McCain, but rather in the clear-headed reasoning of Liz Cheney. 

- JP

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COMMENTS

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  • bk

    and one of Meghan’s lines to Liz is: “Unlike you, I support your sister’s right to marry whomever she pleases.” I’d certain expect that level of ‘class’.

    • ocleverone

      It backfired six ways to bad.

      • The_Gadfly

        But the two more important questions remain:

        1) Will Meghan?

        2) If Meghan does, will she still fire away anyway because it feels good.

  • Tbone

    write about MM the Airhead. Leave the little fool to her own intellectual squalor.

    • IJB

      The less we talk about the Meghan McCain’s and Colin Powell’s of the world, the less important they become.

      RedState plays in the Leftie media’s hands every time we waste a diary on McCain or Kathleen Parker or David Brooks.

      Embargo them. Ignore them. Focus all our fire on Democrats (and institutions like the NRSC or the Republican Congressional leadership when they mess up).

      These “little people” aren’t worth our time.

      • molybdanthan

        I was subjected to Meghan’s ‘pro-sex’ diatribe while listening to Laura Ingraham. It’s too juicy to pass up I suppose. Even Savage mentioned her, before he gave her the business. She’s been Hiltonized, like so many women under 25. The culture exacts a heavy toll on the young.

        Meghan, the G in GOP stands for Grand, not groin. I don’t want to know what you think the O and P stand for.

        Try to think before you speak. Or, maybe just stay off the talk show circuit altogether. Remember, it’s better to stay silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. Your father should have taught you this, if he grasped the concept.

        At least McCain’s son seems to have his head on straight. He just graduated from the Naval Academy. That’s why we won’t be hearing from him.

  • restofva

    on ABC’s This week this past Sunday? She was fantastic and stood her ground plus some with that mega-lib Katrina Vander-Whatever.
    In one instance Katrina made the remark that (paraphrasing) they may live on different planets but, and went on with some libiotic talking point. Liz responded I believe you and I do live on opposite planets.
    There’s no doubt she’s a fighter.

    • JadedByPolitics

      family the Conservative movement could ever hope for and the Bush’s are the best family a moderate could hope for! The evidence is clear!

  • Paul Seale

    She absolutely was wonderful. I can see how she makes other members of the media go into melt down like her father did.

    Should be interesting to see where she goes in life.

  • http://janicecantore.com Janice Cantore

    nt

  • youthgrunt

    What should Liz Cheney run for? I don’t even know where she calls home.

    I know some have called for her to run for President, but I still like my Presidents with a modicum of experience.

    • Alone_in_the_Dotte

      1. Five-years in the State Department prior to attending Chicago Law School.

      2.Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs

      3.Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State For Near Eastern Affairs

      4. Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group

      5. Two Presidential Campaigns.

      I’d argue she has far more experience than a certain half-term Senator.

      • youthgrunt

        We have elected a President with no relevant experience–and it shows. I do not deny that Liz has an impressive resume. However, in any election prior to this one she would have never been considered for the Presidential level because her experience is not the kind usually reserved for the highest post in the nation.

        I would like to see her in an elected office first before pushing her for the Presidency. Even a role that doesn’t have “assistant” in the title would be nice, but I don’t see her landing a high level administration job in the next 4 years.

        • The_Gadfly

          He stepped on more landmines than Obama, and one of them was much larger. Reagan had no federal experience and absolutely no international experience, yet he killed stagflation, destroyed the oil shortage, and eviscerated the Soviet Union so badly it fell without a shot being fired. All things the experienced professionals said were impossible.

          When I was younger I thought experience mattered a great deal as a qualification for a leader. The older I get, the more convinced I become that it is not the experience, but the more convinced I become that is a fully developed outlook on life and commitment to that outlook that matters most.

          • youthgrunt

            Having experience does not make you great. But you are wrong to talk about Reagan as not having experience. He had 8 years of executive experience in government as well as having several years of experience as the President of a Union. He was quite experienced.

            The argument is not that experience is the do-all, end-all. But rather the lack of experience is a DISqualification for the office of President. We are living the results of that.

            I agree that having a “fully developed outlook on life” is important. But experience is generally how you get that outlook and certainly how you demonstrate it to the world.

  • commonsense247

    But seriously… Ms McCain either doesn’t know why she’s a Republican (other than stating she’s prolife) or at least hasn’t ever listed the principles and beliefs that cause her to come to that conclusion. Did she change any of the positions or ideas she held as a Democrat? Her arguments sound more like sorority gossip about other girls and boys she doesn’t like or those she wish would like her. Substantive? Hardly.
    Ms Cheney on the other hand not only makes her case on solid ground, but obliterates the sensationalistic liberals in the process of her calm but informed expression.
    To me it’s a clear cut example of adolescence vs. maturity.

  • antisocial

    without sucking the fun out of my evening. Bringing MM into this post is not fair. There is no comparison. MM is like a confused and insecure kid. As you said Liz Cheney is “clear-headed”.

    Let us keep confused/insecure kids out of Adult business.

  • peg_c

    Liz is fantastic. Rush was playing a number of clips of her dismantling the usual idiot suspects in the lefty Drive-Bys.

    She is eloquent, articulate, talks rings around everyone who interviews her (too easy), and has principles, character and a certain amount of her dad’s type of gravitas. She could debate Duh-1 and leave him gasping and bloody.

    • smagar

      She is eloquent, articulate, talks rings around everyone who interviews her (too easy)

      Soon, Liz will get the same treatment Doug Feith and the Swifties got when they tried to get media attention. The Borg Collective that is our MSM will send sublinimal messages to each other, and no one will talk to her.

      They will silence her by taking her microphone away.

      • http://www.AmericanThinker.com Hammer2008

        I stood up and smiled wide when she took Anderson Cooper down three pegs for trying to “rewrite history”:

        http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052209/content/01125108.guest.html

        After what I saw, taking command of AC360, I doubt she will be invited back on CNN anytime soon. MSNBC’s K-O will probably deem her the “worst person in history” soon… which is a bold Red Badge of Courage for patriots.

        Frankly, I missed the whole Meghan McCain dust up (so I’ll have to catch up there).

  • smagar

    She decides to make a name for herself as a face and voice of the GOP…by going to those shows and those people who think of Republicans as Neanderthals.

    The View. Larry King Live. Hardball.

    What did she and David Frum think? That once we saw them get the blessing of Chris Matthews and Joy Behar, we would all swoon?

    Did Ms. McCain and Mr. Frum think that we’d pay the price they demanded for them to associate with us—pitch Rush Limbaugh overboard?

    Did she think we wouldn’t notice her Twittering that she liked Russell Brand’s music—the same Russell Brand that savaged Sarah Palin on MTV? Ms. McCain certainly seemed offended at the way Brand treated Palin, didn’t she?

    Amazing.

  • peters

    I see this phrase, “drive-by media” a bit here. What does it mean?

    • ceili_dancer

      When shopping for a house you think you’ll like it just by driving by. There is no deeper look at things, how’s the plumbing, termites(CA thing especially), is the electrical up to spec… You like the look and the fresh coat of paint and put your money down immediately. The drive by media are in the same boat, everything is a superficial look and no deep delving for facts. Facts could just get in the way of telling a good emotional story. Appearance is everything.

      • http://andrightlyso.com/ civil_truth

        The people who drive down the street, just spray bullets all over with no regards as to who is in the path, and take-off.

        • TNJim

          and c_t is right, he always describes it as being like the drive-by shooters. No regard to the consequences of someone getting caught in the crossfire, no apology’s, no remorse. Just blast away at what they think is the target, then speed off to the next “victim”.

          • The_Gadfly

            when he uses it, the phrase is clearly more derogatory than housing example. I get the sense of mercenaries hired to supress an uprising in the really bad old days in Africa. More of the ‘don’t even care if the target is missed just as long as there’s blood in the street’ than ambivalence about people caught in the crossfire.

        • 6eorge Jetson

          At their worst, the MSM act like “drive-by” hitmen.

          At their best, the MSM “drive-by” for a shallow look and then
          report the story according to their leftist templates without
          anything but the laziest of fact finding.

          Just my own interpretation. Both fit at differing times.

    • http://theminorityreportblog.com David Hinz

      and he IS the one who coined the phrase…

      …it most certainly does relate to drive by shootings — gang members who just drive down the street and start shooting at someone without any care or concern as to what innocent bystanders get hurt.

      This description perfectly captures The Oldstream Media…

  • carlsbadd

    Robinson was stuttering and making apoligies before Liz even said a word.
    I have quickly become a hige fam of Liz and love how she debate issues, she is always one step ahead of questions and quickly dismisses questions that are bases on a false pretense,
    GO LIZ GO!

  • rbdwiggins

    Grounded in reality, or reality-based?
    Principled, or personal preference?
    Decisive, or nuanced?
    Leadership, or populist?
    Conservative, or moderate?

  • secondpatriot76

    I will take Liz Cheney AND Bristol Palin over Meg McCain anytime. The media is falling all over themselves trying to make Meg McCain the female face of the GOP.

    I wonder if Meg McCain were not blonde and beautiful would the media be chasing after her. Watch for the media to agitate for Meg McCain to address the Republican National Convention.

  • aesthete

    It’s almost embarrassing how bad Lawrence is at defending his position, but the schadenfreude from watching Liz demolish him was a sweet, sweet nectar, indeed.