Tuesday was Super
But now it’s Wednesday.
The upshot? Hillary and Obama are still neck and neck, with Hillary a hair ahead. I see Tuesday’s results as a slight check for Obama in that his momentum may have been slowed somewhat.
For me, that’s a good thing, since I prefer Hillary as the Democratic nominee for two reasons: I see her as easier to beat in the general election, and I see her as less loony-Left than Obama in the foreign policy sphere if she happens to become President.
As for the Republican side—Rush, eat your heart out. McCain may have failed to clinch the deal but he’s sure got it nailed down awfully tight. Now the tough work comes: attempting to convince conservative Republicans that he’s not the devil incarnate.
Victor Davis Hanson (hat tip: Dr. Sanity) thinks McCain ought to give up wooing those Republicans whom he has offended:
…the McCain animus is deeply ingrained and apparently can’t be retracted….[T]he die has been cast, and everyone will have to live with the results.
Others disagree. Gerald Seib, for example, thinks a more conservative McCain choice for Vice-President could be just the ticket. And the editors of National Review think that verbal reassurances that McCain will get behind the conservative program with vigor might turn the tide.
Tony Blankley reminds us of an informative historical precedent, a stuggle for the soul of the Republican Party back in 1964 between Goldwater and Rockefeller. We all know how well that one turned out. And Blankley has the most succinct summary of McCain’s strengths and weaknesses I’ve ever read:
McCain is both the finest war hero since Eisenhower to run for president and the one senior Republican who has gleefully put his thumb in the eyes of his fellow Republicans and conservatives for a decade and a half.
And so the Democrats have a close race with some animosity between the two rivals but no huge doctrinal Party rift as yet. The Republicans, on the other hand, have a three-way race with a clear frontrunner who is poised to win the nomination without winning the hearts of the majority of his own Party, and who threatens to widen and deepen an ancient historical split in the Party itself.
I agree that Hillary is far preferable to Obama. I never thought I would prefer Hillary to anyone.
Obama, as enjoyable as he would be to josh and banter with over beer, has given us nothing but fluff. I retain my original impression: Obama is light as cotton candy. Obama’s head is in the clouds. The policies he does endorse come straight from fantasyland.
Hillary is the paranoid and vindictive second coming of Nixon, without Nixon’s talent. However, relative to Obama, Hillary lives less in the clouds, and more on Earth.
This is the first time I’ve ever endorsed Hillary Clinton for anything.
I don’t understand your animus towards conservatives, except to suspect a closed-mindedness toward people who have heart-felt concerns about your candidate, Mr. McCain. Some anti-McCain people were over the top, but it was amazing to me how others trashed these people as having “McCain Derangement Syndrome” (or having jumped the shark — that’s hyperbole just as bad as what the conservatives were saying) instead of analytically addressing their concerns and viewpoints.
“Rush, eat your heart out”
“Conservatives jump the shark”
Nice anti-McCain Derangement Syndrome there, Neo.
1976 gives us a blueprint for the way forward.
With the great Ronald Reagan available, the Repub. elites nominated the likable, moderate and thoroughly uninspiring Gerald Ford. He lost to the woeful Jimmah Cahtah.
Now to oppose the energized Dems. the party goes with McCain & they have upped the ante. He is neither likable nor moderate. In fact he is a liberal on nearly all but national defense & is despised by his parties base.
He will lose. There is no energy for him within the base, an absolute requirement for victory.
After the new Dem. POTUS is inaugurated he/she will receive their first CIA/NSC briefing and their pre-election rhetoric will come face to face with the real danger of the Islamofascist threat. They will immediately begin singing a different tune & stay the course in the GWOT.
Their socialist domestic agenda will however go forward. Amnesty, Kyoto/global warming, tax increases, etc. (a domestic agenda much like McCains BTW). However, unlike if McCain were the PTOUS & proposed the same garbage, the House & Senate Repubs will fight it tooth & nail. New conservative Repub. leaders will emerge from these fights and these new leaders will show the way. Romney will also, hopefully, be sharpening his message during this period & be primed for 2012.
“I see her as less loony-Left than Obama.”
Tweedle-Dum versus Tweedle-Dumber.
Dano: I don’t see them as having McCain Derangement Syndrome, or jumping the shark, for merely disagreeing with McCain or even for disliking him. I reserve those epithets for those who prefer Clinton or Obama to McCain in the general election, or who would sit the election out (almost the same thing). They are a smaller group, but not an insignificant one.
As for Rush, “eat your heart out” is merely addressing the man in his own style. If he can dish it out, I’m sure he can take it.
But whom is more likely to be defeated by McCain in the general election?
Terry—gee, I missed the part where Jimmy Carter, after his election, realized the danger his foreign policy would bring to the country and reversed it.
Beware the idea that you can predict a reversal of this sort in the Democratic candidates. It’s not outside the realm of possibility, I suppose, but to count on it is a form of dangerous hubris.
The threat during Carter’s era was strategic & distant.
The threat today is immediate & palpable.
I also see McCain’s open borders policy as a major threat to national security. House & Senate Repubs. will go along with “their” president on this issue in the event of a McCain presidency. They will fight it in the event of a Dem. presidency.
I might add that as clueless as Obama is & as evil as the Hildebeast is, neither one will risk sacrificing NYC in order to fulfill campaign rhetoric aimed at the loony left.
Terry, I believe you are profoundly mistaken. The Democrats—and I include Hillary and Obama—have made it clear they believe the present threat is strategic and distant rather than immediate and palpable. That is exactly the point. And they do not believe NYC is at risk. They believe Republicans—and people like me—are paranoid for thinking anything of the sort.
Hillary is out of money, from Political via Drudge:
“Spokesman Howard Wolfson emailed with the news minutes earlier:
Late last month Senator Clinton loaned her campaign $5 million.The loan illustrates Sen. Clinton’s commitment to this effort and to ensuring that our campaign has the resources it needs to compete and win across this nation. We have had one of our best fundraising efforts ever on the web stoday and our Super Tuesday victories will only help in bringing more support for her candidacy.”
Some people vote their heart, some vote their vagina, some vote their pocketbook, but I vote my gun safe. I’ll vote for McCain in the General….
neo-neocon,
The downside risk of retreat would be too great for either of them, particularly when weighed against the downside consequences of staying the course (virtually none).
A serious strike, after an Obama/Hillary retreat, would setback the Democrat party for decades as well as a any chance for another female/black pres.
Of course, (with apologies to Billy Joel) I may be wrong & they may be crazy, but I don’t think they will retreat with such an enormous downside.
To Gray:
The National Rifle Association assigned Senator McCain a grade of C+ (with grades ranging from a high of A+ to a low of F).
This doesn’t exactly make me feel all warm & fuzzy.
Terry,
I disagree, once again. Any strike would be blamed on their predecessor’s sins.
Victor Davis Hansen is right. Some rifts cannot be healed. McCain is not a healer, regardless, so this rift will only get worse with time. After McCain’s inevitable loss in November, the blame will flow far and wide.
If the Republican’s “big tent” has been burned, then the US as a driver of the WOT is finished. That means that websites such as this truly will be empty echo chambers.
Without the support of the US government, the US military–for all the good it has done–will have its budget slashed, and its higher officer ranks filled with social promotions such as Janice Karpinski.
Terry:
Here are some Romney quotes:
“We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts,” Romney said in 2002. “I support them. I won’t chip away at them.” In fact, Romney signed America’s first state-level assault-weapons ban.
Romney backed the federal assault-weapons ban and the Brady Bill.
“That’s not going to make me the hero of the NRA,” Romney said in 1994. However, he added: “I don’t line up with the NRA.”
McCain did not support the Brady Bill or the “Assault Weapons Ban”. He did, however, support Background Checks between private sellers and waiting periods.
He got a C+
Obama? Hillary? “F”
McCain sucks and sucks, but he’s still the lesser of the evils: bend over take it like a Republican!
Long, long, before i was born Uncle Bill, a 2nd cousin’s great uncle, or something like that, who was a rock ribbed small town republican, abruptly announced that he was voting for FDR. Asked why by his horrified relatives, he said that he felt in his bones that war was coming and that only FDR could unite the country to fight it.
I think that’s why a lot of Republicans have swallowed their rightful dislike and are supporting McCain.
He’ll need our help and constant supervision to prevent him from screwing this up, which is why we can’t stay home.
Terry,
You make a mistake in thinking primarily of the one big strike. The greatest danger is losing the belief in our right to live. The creeping accomodations to the jihadis pose a greater danger because we won’t know what we’ve lost till it’s gone. The problem with Obama and Clinton is that their patriotism is based on our potential to become their ideal. They aren’t too happy wit us as we are, and I’m not convinced that they will defend an America with warts.
I say Obama definitely doesnt think neither the evil nor the threat exists. I think Clinton see’s it, but weighs it as another dimension of a potential political threat. I dont trust either of them with the important task ahead because they dont understand what it is.
Then we have McCain. Do I trust him to understand? I think so. Do I trust him to do the right thing? No, I dont. And you know what? Nothing guarantees that guy is actually electable anyway. Still, I will vote for him and encourage others to vote for him and beg Maha Rushdie for forgiveness. I wont vote for the Maverick in the primaries, but by the time we even have them in Oregon, McCain will probably be choosing his cabinet members. Perhaps it will get his attention. Probably it wont. In any case, the next 4 years wont be boring, I predict that much.
Neo-neocon: a clear frontrunner who is poised to win the nomination without winning the hearts of the majority of his own Party
This is not true. McCain has an 80 percent approval rating among registered Republicans, higher than any other Republican candidate. That’s why he’s winning.
The 20 percent is a loud, sore-losing minority. They think they are a majority only because they hang out in echo chambers.
Like the netroots and the Ron Paul Revolution, they have a bigger presence on the Internet than they do in the general population.
armchair pessimist: he said that he felt in his bones that war was coming and that only FDR could unite the country to fight it.
I feel that a little when I’m here at home in Oregon. When I’m in the Middle East — especially when I’m in Lebanon and Israel — I can practically hear it over the horizon like it is a roar.
The Dems don’t have a problem recognizing their enemy. They are called “Republicans”. Granted, the caricature of racist, homophobic, jeebus screechers is not quite accurate, but it’s worked to galvanize the Best and Brightest toward larger turnouts than the hapless Republicans.
Let them have their presidency. Let them have the power they crave. Give them everything the nutroots crave.
Give them the house. And the senate.
And by all means, they can nominate a couple of judges. Who was that attorney convicted a few years back for passing communications for the blind sheik? That one! She’s the face and heart of the progressive movement. Give them control over the last non-electoral, half-assed obstacle to totalitarianism that exists.
Give them power.
I’ve gotten three phone calls this evening. One from a national polling outfit, asking if he could get my opinion on the primary races; I shut him off with “I will not cast a vote for John McCain.” The second was the Utah County Republicans asking if I was intending to caucus this year, and if I had any interest in being a delegate again. I told them that as a newly registered Independent I wasn’t eligible. The third was from the Leavitt campaign. I declined the invitation to a barbeque, on the same principle.
In a representative republic that wasn’t populated by zero attention span historical illiterates who can’t balance a checkbook or compute compound interest, the vast bulk of our elected federal government would be building desks down in Georgia someplace.
Muslims would be pretty scarce in the civilized world, too, but that subject will be coming up time after time in the next few years, so it can wait.
Michael, Senator McCain will lose to either Dem candidate, and it won’t even be close. There’s no reason for it to be close; the Dems are on fire to surrender to their new overlords and the Republicans aren’t going to make much of an effort to vote for their own liberal Democrat.
You want a metric you can follow? You might watch the stock market. Smart money is already moving for cover at a pretty brisk pace.
Myself, I’m going to watch military retention, by quarter. You want to know where the SMART and EXPOSED people think things are headed? Watch those numbers.
I’d shed a tear if I had any left. All power is ultimately responsibility. We do not have, in either party, viable leadership that will acknowledge that reality. It’s all a game to them.
Have a fine one, and we’ll see how that “fringe” stuff works out in November.
Ah, now Im a loud sore loosing minority. Mr 20% huh? Watch me stay the fuck home next general election. That way we can be truly united again.
TmjUtah Says: “…. All power is ultimately responsibility. We do not have, in either party, viable leadership that will acknowledge that reality. It’s all a game to them.”
Well put… I made a point of looking at Obama’s website tonite, especially focussing on Israel, an issue very close to my heart. Obama says all the right things, which left me momentarily puzzled…. He also talks about increasing the size of the military. Simultaneously he touts an aggressive diplomacy, as though nothing of the kind has been engaged for several decades…. The dim’s across the board paint Bush, Cheney and company as a greater enemy than the enemy…. Contemplate his positions on Odinga and Kenya, “engaging” everyone from Hugo Chavez to the leaders of Iran, that he’ll prevail over our adversaries by the sheer force of his compelling personality, even endorsed by the jihadi leadership,…. telling everyone what they want to hear simultaneously, in addition to promising to spread the “wealth” more equitably; It’s a smug shell game, where Obama and Hillary even have themselves fooled, but in the end we’re the suckers…..
You know, I’m throwing in with harry9000.
I respect Michael Totten. I love reading his blog. I have it linked at my blog. But, Mr. Totten, if you read this: “Repubs who didn’t vote for McCain = sore losers” is sloppy. The Schadenfreude seems a bit strong there in Oregon.
I’m also sick of Bill Kristol, Michael Medved, et al saying “I just don’t understand why people say McCain is not conservative”, and “McCain hatred”, and “McCain Derangement Syndrome”. Bull****. I just don’t understand the mountain of straw men erected to deflect legitimate criticism of Sen. McCain.
I’m also throwing in with Andy McCarthy in Wed’s Corner: there’s excitable opposition to McCain. They’ve gone further in their opposition than I have gone. So what? Logical reasons for opposing McCain are not somehow invalidated. There’s also a cranky old man element which supports McCain. Does this mean logical reasons for supporting him are invalidated?
McCarthy:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmY0YzlkOWMxYTYxZTlmOWRkMDY2NjIwZmM4YWExZDA=
harry9000 is lumped in where he doesn’t belong. He is vituperatively accused of vituperation. Ironic. Solidarity, harry9000. I got yer back. And, for those in these comments who have defended harry9000’s as a man of reason (as opposed to a man of derangement): you got both our backs. Thank you.
What I see in McCain is manifestly choleric temperament, awesome will for survival in dire straits and a gift for prescience. All these traits he demonstrated so many times that I can expect him to do it again and again, even in November. Fortune loves such arrogant mavericks. This is not, of course, a rational argument – only prescience.
Yeah, Im down with that.
What it is, is that Ive been vituperatively vituperfied and stuff. I’m tired of it. Im tired of the vituperation.
Right?
Terry, I have to agree with expat; Hillary and Obama love us Americans as, well—guinea pigs; subjects for their social science experiments, not the flawed, imperfect human beings that we are, living in sloppy, but vigorous, prosperous and dynamic America.
Also, some of the ideas they’ve put forward, and some of their connections, are quite questionable. Obama, for instance, seems to have a bug up his backside about Pakistan, and even seems to want to go war with it—-an ally; an ally, what’s more, in possession of the bomb. With the Clintons, it’s selling nuclear secrets to the Chinese, Whitewater, messing up terrorist investigations, etc., etc., etc.
I’m not sure America could survive intact four (and maybe 8) years of this sort of stuff. As Neo has often pointed out, we’re still dealing with Carter’s mistakes in Iran—and may have to deal with even more if Iran gets nuke.
And Terry, I also have to agree with Neo that any big strikes would be blamed on their predecessors—or on American intransigence in general—-and the Dems would just close ranks around these leaders, shouting down any criticism.
I think neo, that when McCain backers are thru insulting the non McCain backers, you could highlight a conservative issue a day and we can discuss exactly what it is that makes you people conservative. Id really love to hear that.
Neo:
FLASH – Romney has “suspended” his campaign. And so the Big Tamale goes to the Hon. John McCain.
The Republican Primaries now become a Triumphal March…Music, Please…
Now to watch the Rushes-Of-This-World explode. Hope they’re as colorful as echt Chinese Fireworks.
Sergey wrote:
I agree. Fortune does love such persons, and I admire that about McCain. In fact, it was the John McCainish hardheaded, willful, arrogant people who left Europe and built America; and who still immigrate to America today. So, now that Romney’s out, here’s hoping fortune will shine on McCain in this Presidential race, for all our sakes.
I saw the feminists, the can’t-wait-to-have-my-next-abortionists, the Jews and lesbians standing with Clinton. I saw old vets, Budweiser enthusiasts and Jews with McCain. Ron Paul the pro gun guy but at least he respects the constitution and clearly not worried about following popular foreign policy propaganda. I tend to think that when guns are too handy reletives and friends get killed. But whatever. He didn’t get very far anyhow. Jews surely hate Barak “Hussein” Obama since it is most probable he at least listened to the speaches of Louis Farakhan in his lifetime. Who knows how he is influenced. Who knows how much “Islam” is in his hidden psychic! Don’t vote for him “just in case”! And Romney, well, I can’t see past the “Don Draper” image. Just melts me like butter. I don’t know what he talks about. Huckabee? Looks like a banjo picker to me. World leader candidates? Jeepers creepers.