Contest: Who is the Media's Favorite Republican?

Every year at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a straw poll is conducted to measure which potential Republican presidential candidates generate the most enthusiasm from grassroots conservatives.  Imagine if the mainstream media had a straw poll to determine which Republican they liked best.  Perhaps they could conduct the poll at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.  Or maybe they could create their own political conference and call it the Mainstream Media Political Action Conference (MSMPAC).  After all, the mainstream media is nothing short of a political action committee for the Democrats masquerading as objective journalism.  The results of their straw poll would probably look quite different from the results of the average CPAC straw poll.  There are quite a few contenders, especially in the age of Trump.  In general, the media likes RINOs and Never Trumpers.  The media has a point system for rating Republicans, similar to the point system President Trump is thinking of implementing when it comes to immigration should the recently announced RAISE Act manage to reach his desk.  The media favors pro-choice, pro-amnesty, and Anti-Trump Republicans as opposed to everyone else, whom they consider part of the “basket of deplorables.”   Let’s take a look at which Republicans could end up winning the media straw poll.         

 

The mainstream media has already tapped many of their favorite Republicans to become contributors on their networks.  Look no further than Joe Scarborough.  It’s hard to believe Scarborough once represented Florida’s 1^st Congressional District, the most conservative district in the state.  Back when he represented the Florida panhandle in Congress, he had a 95 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union.  Since leaving Congress in 2001, he has worked hard to establish street cred with the MSM, culminating with his departure from the Republican Party last month.

 

While many of the media’s favorite Republicans either held their nose and voted for Trump, voted for a third party candidate, wrote in their own candidate or simply did not vote in last year’s Presidential election, Republican strategist Ana Navarro actually voted for Hillary Clinton.  Apparently, her disdain for now-President Trump was strong enough that she was willing to give liberals control of the Supreme Court for generations. After the satirical video showing President Trump body-slamming CNN surfaced, Navarro responded by saying “He is going to get somebody killed in the media.”  I wonder how much longer it will take for her to finally join Joe Scarborough as a “former Republican.”               

 

Some of the media’s favorite Republicans still serve in elected office.  Republican Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) has just written a book titled Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Policies and a Return to Principle.  The 140-page book criticizes President Trump’s tweeting habits as well as his anti-establishment positions on immigration and trade.   The junior senator from Arizona has spent the past couple of days promoting his book on anti-Trump media networks.  Flake had previously angered conservatives by cosponsoring the so-called “Gang of Eight” bill which would have given a path to citizenship to the millions of illegal immigrants currently residing in our country.  His popularity with the media ultimately means nothing; he has a 37 percent approval rating among his constituents.  This makes him one of the most unpopular Senators in the country. Flake’s dismal approval rating, combined with his failure to get behind President Trump virtually guarantee him a primary challenger in his re-election bid next year. The President has already met with some of them; including former State Senator Kelli Ward, who tried unsuccessfully to defeat Flake’s Senate colleague John McCain in last year’s Republican primary.

 

While he may not give them the thrill up the leg feeling that their lord and savior Barack Obama gives them, John McCain has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the mainstream media. In her book If Democrats Had Any Brains, They’d be Republicans, Ann Coulter made a list of the strengths and weaknesses of each potential GOP Presidential Candidate for the 2008 election.  One of John McCain’s strengths was “He is loved by his party (the MSM)” while his complimentary weakness was “He is distrusted by the other party (the Republicans).”  This distrust comes from his past support for amnesty as well as his opposition to offshore drilling. As McCain’s Presidential Campaign demonstrated, a good relationship between the media and a Republican presidential candidate does not guarantee said candidate electoral success. In fact, McCain’s “friends” in the mainstream media did everything they could to make sure that he would lose the election.  Some friends they are. 

 

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is another top contender to win the MSMPAC straw poll.  President Trump called her out on Twitter after she voted no on the clean repeal of Obamacare that she had voted yes on in 2015, when she knew President Obama would veto it. Murkowski was actually defeated in the Republican primary in 2010 but she managed to win re-election with less than 40 percent of the vote as a write-in candidate.  Murkowski and her senate colleague Susan Collins (R-ME) are hell-bent on continuing to fund Planned Parenthood; making them quite popular in the overwhelmingly pro-choice mainstream media.     

 

Fortunately, none of the Senate Republicans listed above were dumb enough to vote against the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch.  The most recent Republican Senator to vote against the confirmation of a Republican President’s Supreme Court pick was Rhode Island’s Lincoln Chafee. Following his failure to win re-election in 2006, Chafee became an independent.  In the middle of his term as Governor of Rhode Island, he switched his allegiance to the Democratic Party.  Chafee made national headlines when he referred to the State House’s Christmas tree as a “Holiday tree.” His controversial decision led to this exchange on “The O’Reilly Factor.”  However, there is one thing Lincoln Chafee is right about: Hillary Clinton’s judgment.  

 

So, there are plenty of viable candidates who could come out on top in the MSMPAC straw poll.  But the losers will not walk away empty handed; they will still get a participation trophy.

May the best man (or woman) win.