Junto Boys

TODAY AT THE POLLS

Early voting has been going on for two weeks. I turned down that offer near the beginning of the process, because I wanted Giuliani, but I wanted McCain to lose even more. That road has one choice, Mitt Romney. It was easy to root for Rudy or Fred, but Romney I'm coming to like out of necessity.

The biggest selling point on McCain seems to be that he can beat Clinton. Nonsense. Mitt Romney was the only person in the last 30 years to give Ted Kennedy a real race for his Senate seat. He was then elected as Governor of Mass. He's had to win over far more people who don't necessarily agree with him than McCain has ever had to do. McCain wins theoritical moderates and Romney has won real ones.

If McCain wins the nomination, should I vote for him?

E's comment earlier that we're really voting for the Supreme Court is dead on. That's why I think we have to defeat McCain in these primaries. McCain has made too many deals with Democrats and he would make a deal for a Justice that they can live with much like Bush nominated Harriet Miers when Harry Reid nodded approval. The difference is that unlike Bush, McCain will never listen to us. That's what campaign finance reform was all about, keep those people quiet so we can do our work in private.

McCain's Supreme Court selection will be another Kennedy or even worse, Souter. McCain will say he had no choice, but that's what he always says, Mr. Let's get things done. We need Mr. Let's get things done Right! McCain won't win any conservative victories, and he won't confront these Democrats in Congress and their legislation. To say he's right on the war doesn't answer why he went after Donald Rumsfeld. Rummy was a real breath of fresh air, a straight talker like McCain pretends to be.

The bigger trouble with McCain is that the party will be defined by what he does. Republicans cannot win every election, so we might as well lose the ones when we nominate a candidate who doesn't share our core values. So much of McCain is a reminder of Bob Dole, an old guy who makes back room deals and kisses and hugs the Clintons more than the Bushes.

I can't vote for the Democrat, but if McCain is the candidate and the election were tomorrow, I would vote for the Libertarian.

UPDATE: Thinking about it more. . . What makes John McCain dangerous is that he really thinks he's a conservative, a pragmatic one. This is a result of being Bob Dole's lieutenant for so long.

He buys into the MSM notion that the problem in Washington is the bickering. Like many he thinks that we need a leader to bring us together. Nonsense. It's the fighting that makes the government a slow moving instrument, and thus a stable one.

He thinks problems should be solved in Washington instead of the heartland. You never hear him talk of solving the problems created in Washington.