McCain’s Risky Anti-Birther Gambit

McCain’s Risky Anti-Birther Gambit

Senator John McCain’s Arizona Senate campaign is calling out his primary opponent JD Hayworth for his association with the birther movement.

In a television commercial released this week, the McCain campaign calls out Hayworth for questioning President Barack Obama’s American citizenship, casting Hayworth’s concerns as irresponsible and frivolous in a time “of serious economic problems.”

Though Hayworth has never explicitly accused Obama of not possessing an American birth certificate, the former radio talk show host has stopped just short of making the accusation on several occasions.

Not a bad analysis but I question what Mr. Craft thinks an open primary is in Arizona. Currently the GOP in Arizona is trying to close the semi-open primary.

After being crowned homecoming queen at the Tea Party Convention last week, former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin told tea party activists to "pick a party" rather than run their own candidates. Palin: Tea Partiers "Have to Pick a Party" - CBS News:

"Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party," Palin said... And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’."

Palin ... mentioned that her husband Todd was not a registered Republican and that the party should be open to embracing independents.

Well, not so fast there missy. The Arizona Republican Party has other ideas. The party that once championed open primaries in Arizona now wants to close its primaries to independent voters to maintain GOP purity. State GOP looking to close its primary to independents:

Lawyers for the state Republican Party are huddling to try to find out how they can close their primary election.

Republican leaders who attended a mandatory state meeting last month voted to put a halt to the state's quasi-open primary system. Voters in 1998 approved allowing independents and voters in minor parties to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary.

There's that Republican problem with democracy and respecting the will of the voters again. Voters approved Proposition 103 in 1998 by a margin of 576,466 in favor to 375,832 against to amend the Arizona Constitution to permit minority party and no party preference voters to vote in the major party primaries. Since then, the number of voters registered "independent" or "no party" has exploded.