My oh my, I feel like the Belle of the Ball all of a sudden. Email after email from my internet friends hitting me up to support this candidate or that one. With Fred dropping out, my buds must think I am searching frantically for some candidate to latch on to – as if I were lost without tying myself to one of the current crop of GOP con(pre?)tenders.
Believe me when I say I’m flattered. I haven’t gotten this much attention since I lost my bathing suit halfway through a 500 yard freestyle race while swimming competitively in high school.
But I must confess to being totally uninterested in who gets the Republican nod for the nomination from here on out. I will, like Bob Krumm, vote for Fred in the Super Tuesday primary in Illinois. I will then be able to sit back and watch with amusement as the party turns handsprings trying to make John McCain acceptable to most of the rest of us.
By the time the convention rolls around, McCain will be seen as a savior, just the right man to defeat Hillary Clinton. We can then be further amused as McCain loses handily to Clinton, admittedly as a result of factors largely beyond his control but which could have been mitigated by nominating someone who didn’t deliberately (and with apparent relish) piss off conservatives for much of his career. McCain’s questionable stands on core conservative issues are expertly covered up by his campaign. But Mark Levin exposed the senator’s record in a devastating piece in NRO that included these legislative measures with McCain’s name on them:
McCain-Feingold — the most brazen frontal assault on political speech since Buckley v. Valeo.
McCain-Kennedy — the most far-reaching amnesty program in American history.
McCain-Lieberman — the most onerous and intrusive attack on American industry — through reporting, regulating, and taxing authority of greenhouse gases — in American history.
McCain-Kennedy-Edwards — the biggest boon to the trial bar since the tobacco settlement, under the rubric of a patients’ bill of rights.
McCain-Reimportation of Drugs — a significant blow to pharmaceutical research and development, not to mention consumer safety…
McCain’s disdain for the party and for conservatives will almost surely come back to haunt him in November if he is the nominee.
Or let’s say the unexpected happens and Daddy Warbucks outlasts McCain and buys his way to victory. Here’s a guy who wouldn’t be able to remember what he said previously about an issue, the end result being he would end up flipping and flopping so much the media would have to keep a scorecard as to where he stood on an issue on any given day. This is a man who, in his only spin at elective office, governed as a center-left politician. And now we’re supposed to take his word for it that he had, as John Hawkins calls it, a “road to Damascus conversion to conservatism?”
John made the conservative case against Romney pretty convincingly:
When Mitt ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994, he came across as a squishy RINO of the sort that you typically expect to be running for office in states like Massachusetts. Yet today, he sounds like a cross between Newt Gingrich circa 1994 and Rush Limbaugh. Did Mitt have a road-to-Damascus conversion to conservatism during that relatively short period of time or is he just pretending that he did to sucker conservatives into voting for him? The problem is that it’s impossible to really know. The idea, I suppose, is that conservatives should get him into the White House and then we’ll find out where he really stands.And this is not just about abortion, where Mitt’s position seems to have radically shifted, it’s about a whole host of issues. He used to try to disassociate himself from Ronald Reagan and the Contract With America, but now he assures us that the Gipper and the Contract are close to his heart. He used to be pro-gun control and wanted nothing to do with the NRA, but now he’s against gun grabbers and thinks the NRA is peachy. He came across as a member of the open borders and amnesty crowd whose position wasn’t much different than that of John McCain on illegal immigration—until it became a hot political issue—and now he’s running ads that make him sound like Tom Tancredo on the subject. Then there are the Bush tax cuts, embryonic stem cell research, and the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. There have been so many flips that the flops are still running about two blocks behind, trying to catch up.
Are these shifts genuine? Are they purely for politics’ sake? Is Mitt Romney a conservative or is he a squish telling us what we want to hear while planning to take 3 or 4 steps back towards the middle once he feels less pressure to pander to the base? Probably the former, but there’s no way to really know the truth. Do we really want a nominee in 2008 that we have this sort of questions about?
I have little doubt that to please the inside the beltway commentators and pundits, Mitt would revert to his centrist “squish” style of governance – hardly what many of us believe is needed in these perilous times.
And then there’s Rudy. Suppose lightening strikes in Florida and Rudy wins while McCain is outed as a transvestite and Romney’s stock portfolio is drained by his 5 sons who take a weekend trip to Aruba to have a good time – a REALLY good time. Rudy sweeps to victory and is crowned at the GOP convention.
Aside from giving James Dobson apoplexy, the prospect of pro-gun control, pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, and a great big flip flopper on immigration Rudy Giuliani being the standard bearer sends our southern brethren shrieking for the exits in St. Paul, swearing they’ll never vote for that Yankee in a million years.
Yeah, but at least Republicans will take New Jersey.
Finally, there is just one scenario where Mike Huckabee can win the nomination and it has to do with his buddy Jesus coming down from heaven and campaigning for him.
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
I would say quite honestly there is something to hate in each of the remaining candidates for the nomination. You don’t even have to try very hard to find it either. So I will say to all my concerned friends who have taken the time to invite me to join in supporting one candidate or another that I’m embarrassed by all the attention but you really shouldn’t have bothered.
I will pick my own loser in my own time, thank you.
1:56 pm
Well, apparently our dislike of Romney as a candidate is simply due to our jealousy!
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/why_they_hate_mitt_romney.html
I’m not sure what’s the worse sign of the growing decadence of the conservative intellectual leadership: the fact that the American Thinker agreed to publish this dribble in the first place or that it was highlighted a few times at the Corner over at National Review.com.
1:57 pm
I agree on all points.
At this point, I just don’t want to see McCain get the nod. And Romney is the guy with the best shot right now in stopping him.
Otherwise I would just go into a state of denial for 4 years and wake up in time for 2012.
2:14 pm
Rick,
What we’re witnessing is a party caught in the throes of a severe identity crisis, not unlike the Democrats following the 2002 mid-terms. Like you, I don’t care whom either party nominates at this point, but if it ends up being a choice between Lady MacBeth and McCain, we’ll only have to put up with the lesser of two evils for four years anyway.
If you look at it from this perspective, a second Clinton administration has the potential to unite conservatives in a way none of the current Republican candidates can. A President Shrillary might end up being the best thing for the Republicans since Jimmy Carter.
3:59 pm
“con(pre?)tenders” -clever
Integrity is a big deal to me. It’s hard to come by in politics. Squish Romney obviously doesn’t have much. McCain apparently has quite a bit. My main concern now is who becomes commander-in-chief. McCain or Rudy would be okay; Flip and Huck are bad news IMO. My biggest issue with McCain is the GW/carbon BS.
I believe true amnesty is dead no matter who gets elected, but deporting 15 million illegals was never a possibility (unless Hezbollah brings a nuke across the Southern border—then all bets are off).
5:45 pm
Which candidates managed to govern rather well in hostile environments? The old boys’ Senate congeniality club served McCain’s compromising qualities well. I see McCain going along with Fat Ted’s, Lieberman’s, Feingold’s et al desires in legislation. Bush is usually the same. WHEN do libs compromise. When GOP had control of Congress, why did they kiss lib ass so much? They appear to work better as a minority in at least stifling some of the socialist agenda?
What if a President McCain decides he will embrace shamnesty regardless of what he says now? How come the money to build the fence was withdrawn?
Huckabee sure as hell governed in a kiss Mexico’s ass fashion in Little Rock (Mex. consulate crap/ in state tuition for illegals, etc. I suppose if the mad mullahs renounced allah and embraced Jesus, he bend over backwards for them too?
I still think we need to work for conservative judges appointment to the Supremes. I can envision big icehole Bubba Clinton getting an appointment via Hillary. The three dem contenders are all a total sack of spit with their class warfare/ tax and spend one world government/ goreacle worshipping agenda. I don’t know- McCain looks pretty scary to me. Guliani or Romney have to be superior to those donkeys. Funny how media vilified Dan Quayle as being inexperienced Senator and yet he had more seniority than any of the libs.
There must be a reason why senators do so poorly as candidates. Please pass on McLame….and that Holy Roller sanctimonious two-faced Huckster. And god forbid the Paultard!
6:28 pm
Rick, I agree entirely with you on our lack of choices here. Can we start a “Draft Michael Steele” campaing?
9:58 pm
McCain Beats Huckabee in S. Carolina; Clinton and Romney Win in Nevada…
COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 19—Sen. John McCain conquered the South Carolina Republican primary Saturda…
9:59 pm
[...] I’m not the only one getting these leters. Other Fredheads like Rightwing Nuthouse and Ray Fowler have received similar notes. [...]
11:01 pm
Very well put. A lot of people agree with your sentiments.
11:02 pm
There is a real lack of solid conservative choices here, with merely a lot of “vote-againsts”. Maybe I haven’t fully-learned my lesson of 1999/2000 just yet, but I’m currently at the “least evil” stage of my choices. Of course, that could very easily change before I get to vote on 2/19 over on my side of the toll booths.
Say, you interested in running a write-in campaign? I’m starting to come up with a short list of people I’d strongly consider writing in come November.
4:53 am
Write in Rush
7:38 am
Hmmmm, the Double R Connection. Who would be VP in that scenario?
11:00 am
As a fellow ‘fredhead’ I commiserate with you!! I got the official email notice last night. I had been DREADING it’s arrival!! It’s now real that the only person in the race I could support…because he represented my conservative values, was gone
Because I haven’t voted yet, I will not be wasting my privilege on Feb 5th…but it will be heartbreaking to not vote for Fred!! 
1:51 pm
...and Romney’s stock portfolio is drained by his 5 sons who take a weekend trip to Aruba to have a good time – a REALLY good time.
Fingers crossed!
1:54 pm
I really have no idea where I’m gonna go yet, I keep debating what I’m gonna do. Not that my state usually has a say in primaries…
10:23 pm
As for me, I keep the dream alive. Fred gives the Keynote speech at the deadlocked and brokered convention and lights the place up with a fire and brimstone, rock-solid, conservative speech! He’s nominated, breathes fire at the Dem Candidate, and wins the General Election by a landslide!
Please don’t wake me up until after November.
10:21 am
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