Feb
7
Terrible Tuesday
February 7, 2008 |
First of all, let me say thank you to US Airways for getting us into Ronald Reagan Airport only two hours late. That’s a big step up for you guys. Dare I dream that one day you’ll actually get people to their desired destinations on time. NAh - that’s just silly talk.
Okay, and now for the events on Super Tuesday. First of all, it’s amazing to think that the Democrats are now the ones who might have the brokered convention. Evidently that whole proportional delegation thing ain’t looking like such a good idea, unless you buy into the theory that a contentious convention is actually a good thing - and it just might be.
It’s also not exactly over on the GOP side. The combined non-McCain delegate count is still pretty high, and there is a chance that McCain will be denied the 1150+ he needs heading into Minneapolis. It’s a longshot, perhaps about as long as the Giants defeating the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Oh, wait.
One other thing about Tuesday. Seeing as how I spent it in a Howard Hughes-like cacoon in my hotel room with no internet access, I was relegated to watching the returns on Fox News, CNN, and Headline News with Glenn Beck, with a little radio commentary from Mark Levin thrown in. And all I can say is that I really wanted to punch that smirking little neocon Bill Kristol in the face throughout most of the evening. Yes, this qualifies as my Daily Kos sentiment of the year. Kristol was so obviously cheerleading for McCain, and just dismissed anything remotely good happening for Romney. All in all, Fox’s coverage was so grating at times that I found myself tuning into frakking CNN for coverage.
As for the candidates themselves - Good showing for Huckabee. Now please go away. You have absolutely no relevancy in any state that does not have a disproportionately large percentage of Evangelical voters. Funny crack about it being a two-man race between you and McCain, but please put down the crackpipe. Let me know when you receive more than 15% of the non-Evangelical vote, and then I’ll think about taking you seriously. Oh, and let me just state that I still think you are a disingenuous, Huey Long wannabe with no discernible conservative principles. Oooooh, you want a “fair tax.” How about talking about how you want to get government out of lives, not further into them with smoking bans and other big government solutions. Dude, you make John McCain look like some sort of combination of Washington and Reagan by comparison.
And as for McCain, well, I’m disappointed of course. He remains a thoroughly average candidate in my view. I will vote for him in November if he is the nominee, though I might reconsider if that charlatan Huckabee is his running mate. That I would do so grudgingly is meaningless - a grudging vote counts equally to a fully enthusiastic vote. That I would not campaign for the guy is also probably of no concern - I think I spent a grand total of 2 hours at the RNC in 2004 making calls on behalf of George W. Bush. But there is reason to worry that McCain might just be unelectable.
In the past I have stated my belief that John McCain was the most electable Republican. This was based on the fact that he had considerable support among independent and even some Democratic voters. This has been borne out by the primary results where McCain has owned this portion of the primary electorate. But just as his support among moderates is encouraging as far as his potential November support among the general public goes, the complete lack of enthusiasm bordering on hatred has me wondering just how much of the base will refuse to support this man.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by the hate, but I am. I figured a few disgruntled conservatives would walk away, but I really had no idea that conservative antipathy towards McCain would be this deep. Just as I thought that Rudy had no shot at winning the general election because a huge number of social conservatives would refuse to vote for him, I now worry that McCain will do just as poorly, and no GOP candidate can win without solidifying the conservative base, no matter how many independents he might be able to attract.
I do not agree with conservatives that have publicly declared that they will not vote for McCain. I have written previously about how McCain is not as anti-conservative as he has been portrayed. He has no doubt opposed the majority of conservatives on a great number of issues, and I have had my own beefs with him, but he is still basically a conservative - just not as ideologically sound as most of us would prefer.
But just as I disagree with those conservatives who refuse to vote for McCain, I cannot condemn them. I would have refused to have voted for Rudy, so who am I to say that principled conservatives have to march in lock step and vote for the GOP nominee no matter what? Some conservatives have excoriated those that would dare not vote for their party’s nominee, but they seem not to consider that there are those who honestly do not see much upside in a McCain presidency, and who think that a Clinton or Obama presidency would not be so awful in comparison. Again, I don’t agree with such thinking, but it’s not exactly off the wall. There are some issues on which McCain might actually be worse than either of the Democratic candidates. Moreover, as a Republican he could be more successful than Obama and Clinton in pushing those items where there is basic agreement between himself and the Democrats. Just as it took a Democratic presidency to get welfare reform passed, it might take a Republican presidency to get certain key items on the liberal agenda passed.
There is a little bit of sanctimony on all sides. Some conservatives are acting as though voting for a candidate they fundamentally dislike is a crime of conscience akin to being a German citizen complicit in the Nazi regime. Get over yourself. Then there are others on the right who seem to think that we must all ublinkingly support the GOP nominee at all costs because the evil Hillary lady will lead us all straight to hell. Settle down. There is no law that states conservatives must automatically support the GOP candidate. And frankly, if I hear the “But Hillary is worse” argument one more time I will punch Bill Kristol in the mouth. And that is no empty threat.
Then again, when all is said and done, does it really matter? I have all but lost hope that the GOP has any shot to win the presidency in November, so we are probably bickering over which guy we want to see lose to Hillary or Obama.
Oh joy.