SCORING MCCAIN VS. HAYWORTH

As the Republican primary in Arizona heats up, both candidates are sure to do their level best to portray the other as less conservative. It's the reason why McCain called Palin for that favor she owed him, getting her to stump for him during this soon-to-be heated primary.

Based on the political landscape, that move may not be enough to put McCain over the top while seriously damaging to Palin who, on an almost daily basis, is pitting herself against the Tea Party movement she is supposed to be championing.

On February 9th, Sheriff Joe Arpaio formally threw his support behind Hayworth. On February 14th, The Hill reported that Joe The Plumber announced that he can no longer support Palin for supporting McCain. Now former Minuteman leader Chris Simcox has dropped out of the race and quickly announced that he too would be supporting Hayworth.

So why is all of this happening? Is Hayworth really more conservative than McCain when you eliminate the latter's recent hard right turn? American Thinker has the analysis:

The most recent online scores from the American Conservative Union are from 2008. In that year, John McCain scored 63 and had a lifetime average of 81.43. (All scores reported here are on a scale of zero to 100, with 100 being perfectly conservative according to the scorer.) His lifetime average put him in 32nd place in the 2008 Senate, or in the top 32%.

J.D. Hayworth's last full year in Congress was 2006. His 2006 ACU score was 96, his 2005 score was 100, and his lifetime average was 97.56. His lifetime average put him in 16th place in the 2006 House, or in the top 4%.

Hayworth should be passing those results around within his campaign and shouting them from the rooftops because the reason we see McCain taking such a right-wing posture these days is obvious - it's what the voters want.

Conversely, McCain will probably do his level best to avoid these kinds of damaging statistics:

Congressmen are also scored by the National Journal. McCain did not have enough votes in either 2007 or 2008 to qualify for a score. In 2006, his composite conservative score was 56.7, putting him in 46th place, or the top 46%. Only nine of 55 Republicans scored lower than McCain, including Arlen Specter, who later joined the Democratic Party, and Lincoln Chafee, who retired from the Senate and endorsed Barack Obama for president. McCain's economic, social, and foreign scores were 64, 46, and 58, respectively. His economic score was 36th-most conservative, his highest ranking in any category that year.

About all he will be able to do when those kinds of black and white figures are thrown at him is say something like, "Yeah, but I got Sarah."

American Thinker also itemizes some of McCain's "accomplishments":

He sponsored McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform, much of which has been ruled unconstitutional. Despite the bill's attempt to limit the influence of moneyed interests in politics, Barack Obama was able to raise three quarters of a billion dollars in his presidential campaign.

He sponsored the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act, which would have capped CO2 emissions at the 2000 level. It lost in the Senate on a vote of 55-43 in 2003. It was reintroduced in 2005, when it lost on a vote of 60-38.

He sponsored the McCain-Kennedy comprehensive immigration bill in 2005. The Senate did not vote on it. Its follow-on bill, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, was sponsored by Arlen Specter in 2007 and cosponsored by McCain. It failed to pass committee.

He voted in favor of the $850-billion TARP bailout one month prior to the 2008 presidential elections and influenced other Republicans to support it.

Sarah Palin likes to say that politicians need to "stay pure". After reading those, the phrase "Run, Sarah, Run" should mean something entirely different to her.

Read the whole thing.