Frontrunner
Okay, I'm considerably calmer after last night's Florida primary. John McCain had a convincing win and looks poised to go into Super Duper Tuesday with fresh momentum, a lead in the polls (and now delegates too) as well as the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani.
Sigh. Rudy. That'll be a bittersweet moment. He was my other favorite candidate, but I always knew it would eventually come to down to (at most!) one of them. And if I'm being honest, I knew that Rudy's temerity was ill-fitting for the office of the president. Still, his blend of fiscal conservatism and social liberalism was unique in this party, and seemed made to order for Republicans like me. Oddly enough, I thought Rudy's supposed "strength" (national security) was in fact a weakness. I liked Rudy because of his domestic agenda.
But McCain's ascendancy is encouraging too. It's shown that the Republican Party isn't completely controlled by the blow-hards of conservative talk radio. Let's face it, they've been hitting McCain with everything they've got for weeks now, but in the end, McCain prevailed. That's a good sign for the party. We've got a long road ahead to repair the damage it's sustained over the past 7 years, but last night struck me as a good first step.
Comments
I am wondering whom will he pick as his VP candidate. I dont think he will pick Lieberman or Giuliani. I think he will pick another conservative. And I suspect that he will try to pick a relatively young conservative republican to balance the ticket. Who could that be?
Posted by: Blue Wind | January 30, 2008 08:15 AM
It's almost enough to make me want to listen to Rush to hear what he has to say to this. Eh. I lied. I don't care what he says.
Posted by: K | January 30, 2008 09:16 AM
Rudy was the greatest Mayor of NYC in my lifetime, but I never wanted to see him in the Oval Office. He simply does not have either the temperment or the "vision thing" for that job. I also wouldn't be enthusiastic for him as either AG or SCOTUS, but I could see him in either job.
Assuming McCain continues to hold off Romney (not a done deal yet) I think he will tap Huckabee for VP to nail down the Evangelicals, although that would further alienate him from the movement conservatives.
In the end, I think the Rush Limbaugh wing of the party will wait to see who the Democrats nominate before deciding what to do with this election. If it's Hillary -- as now seems likely -- I'm sure they'll hold their noses and support the ticket. If it's Obama, they may decide to roll the dice and sit this one out.
Posted by: withoutfeathers | January 30, 2008 09:31 AM
I don't know WF, I don't see McCain tagging Huckabee.
I believe that would be a bad political move, the evangelicals aren't going anywhere, for that matter (no offense Barry) but neither are the more economically Liberaterian/socially Liberal Republicans going anywhere either.
It's like those who are (rightfully) outraged over GOP inaction on the border-issue - where are they going to go?
Not to a Party (the Dems) that embraces ILLEGAL immigration! Likewise fiscal Conservatives aren't going to embrace the fiscally irresponsible Dems, no matter how hard they try to convince themselves that the GOP are "just as irresponsible" (they're not).
McCain is a savvy politician and he KNOWS the bulk of the votes are to be found in that largely apolitical center.
Even the most apolitical Americans are aware of the extreme disharmony between the two Parties and they don't like it.
It would be a brilliant election strategy for McCain to tab Lieberman (even though I'm no Lieberman fan at all). It would be a bold bipartisan ticket and a merging of two political mavericks.
I'm far more Conservative than either McCain or Romney and I don't particularly care for the Liberal (except on Iraq) voting record of Joe Lieberman, BUT, again, as noted above, where am I going to go?
Maybe if the Democrats were running Jim Webb, or Jon Tester or a cloned Zell Miller, I'd have a home, but, in this case, I'll take the "most Conservative" candidates and thus "the lesser of two poor choices" (for me).
If McCain did win, I'd LOVE to see Romney get a major spot in that administration. He worked magic with the Salt Lake City Olympic Games, went a long way toward straightening out Massachussetts (that state lost over 160,000 jobs under his predecessor and he cut those losses to under half, by regaining appz 90,000 jobs for the Bay State) and he's had a Midas touch turning failing companies around his whole life.
I say that while reviling his "Romney-care Plan," which is almost precisely the same one that Hillary and Obama are offering nationally.
I could see a conversation between either Hillary or Obama and Romney;
(Dem): "I thought you said it was impossible to set up a state-run managed care system."
(Romney): "No, I said it was impossible for YOU, for ME, it was merely three phone calls and a handshake."
Posted by: JMK | January 30, 2008 11:27 AM