Florida in his rearview mirror
John McCain won the Florida primary yesterday by five points. It was the first closed primary, so the talk that McCain could only win when independents and crossover democrats could take part is now put to bed.
McCain is not the choice of many of the “establishment” Republicans, for example George Will and Rush Limbaugh. Swallow hard boys and take your medicine.
It looks like Rudy Giuliani will pull out of the race today and some reports say he will endorse McCain.
McCain was all but left for dead a few months ago – just a carcass along the political road to November 2008. McCain’s all the way back and Mitt Romney is in trouble. It is far from over, especially when Romney has a personal ATM. It all depends on how much Romney wants to spend to buy the nomination.
Also, Romney’s sons may have to “deploy” more often from their luxury hotels and serve their country a few more hours a day. Super Duper Tuesday is looking like a fun day.
Grow Up
Speaking of Super Duper Tuesday, the Montana GOP and Lt. Governor John Bohlinger are at odds again. Now the Montana GOP will not let Bohlinger vote in the Republican caucus on February 5, because the ticket in 2004 only listed the top of ticket’s party affiliation and that was a Democrat (Brian Schweitzer). Bohlinger is a Republican and served many years in the legislature as a Republican. On the Schweitzer/Bohlinger campaign website, Bohlinger is listed as a Republican. Note to Secretary of State: Maybe you should change the ballots as there will be more of this in the future.
Anyway, the GOP says Bohlinger can’t vote in the caucus as a state-wide elected official, and he did not sign up as a precinct person to vote either (neither did I).
Special Comment: It’s time for the Montana GOP to grow up just a little. This tune has been played over and over and it’s getting very old. You may win this little battle, but you are losing the public relations war…and voters. We know Bohlinger ticked many Republicans off when he signed on with Schweitzer, but it is time to get over it.
There seems to be a lack of experience and thought put into some of the statements coming out of your HQ and it’s time to unbutton the tent flaps just a hair, and embrace more moderate Republicans and recruit conservative Democrats to win elections.
Stimulate Me
The House passed the stimulus package yesterday 385-35. Seems as though when you get that many House members to agree on anything, it’s a wonderful day. The House bill will cost $161 billion. So, the bill goes to the Senate where Max Baucus gets to play. Baucus wants his own stimulus bill. Basically Baucus wants to give people less money, but spend more ($191 billion) and give rebates to rich people. Some have called Baucus’ ideas on this bill “absurd” and Harry Reid said, “it causes me to want to gag.” Heck, that’s just the senate Democrats! The House Democrats dislike his ideas even more.
(Psst – it’s his reelection year and what’s better than buying votes with taxpayer money?)
Something that has only been lightly reported is that all the illegals in this country who paid taxes will supposedly get the rebates, too. Is this a great country or what? And I thought Christmas was over.
Baucus was not invited to participate in the negotiations. That had to hurt his feelings. Now he’s making his fellow Democrats mad. If he would just suck it up and accept the fact that he’s not as powerful as his press releases contend, the Senate could be voting on the House bill today, and the checks would be in the mail faster. Then we could all be stimulated just a little sooner.
The Western Word 
Hey Dan – thanks for visiting. I can see you’re a Romney man and that’s great that you stand up for your candidate this way.Sure, McCain has some negative things to deal with. I’m not leaning either way right now, but Romney has his share of negative issues to deal with that turns off some conservatives. People are not sure who they will get with Romney. Will they get a his pro-life stance now, or his pro-choice stance from the past? Will they get a protector of the second amendment that he promotes now, or will they get his anti-gun stance from the past? One thing I don’t like about Romney was what he said in the debate yesterday. He said one of the two major things he regrets in life is not serving in the military. Now, being a veteran, I’ve heard this crap from my non-veteran friends before. It does not impress me. Bottom line is he did not. He also compared his sons campaigning for him to men and women serving their country in the military. One thing that many folks are worried about is Romney’s religious beliefs. I have no concerns about it, but his religion scares some people. As governor of Massachusetts, Romney raised fees on things like drivers, marriage, and gun licenses. He increased the gasoline taxes. He increased tuition at state colleges. He promoted issuing marriage licenses to same sex couples. So it seems Romney and McCain have lots of baggage to deal with. It will be up to the righties to see who best fits their idea of a conservative.Thanks again for visiting.
Let us look at McCain’s conservative credentials:-IMMIGRATION: he wrote the bill granting amnesty to illegal immigrants (co-sponsored by Ted Kennedy)-SOCIAL SECURITY: he voted to give your social security money to illegal immigrants-TAXES: he voted against the Bush tax cuts multiple times (he has since flip-flopped and has campaigned as a lifelong tax-cutter)-RHETORIC: he routinely engages in Democratic class warfare against big companies in America, particularly the “evil” drug companies who research cures to debilitating diseases for a profit-ECONOMY: as recently as December 2007 he admitted “he does not know the economy very well” and needed to get better at it-1ST AMENDMENT: he wrote the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill that was declared to be an unconstitutional infringement of the 1st Amendment (co-sponsored by ultra-liberal Democrat Russ Feingold)-2ND AMENDMENT: he was called the “worst 2nd amendment candidate” by the president of the NRA-ENERGY TAX: wrote a bill (co-sponsored by his buddy Lieberman) imposing a massive tax on energy which, according to the Department of Energy, would drastically raise the price of gasoline and put 300,000 Americans out of work-GLOBAL WARMING: supports radical global warming legislation which involved him voting with every Democrat; think only America is responsible to take action, not other superpowers-JUDGES: he joined forces with Democrats (Gang of 14) to block the Senate Republican’s attempt to confirm conservative, strict constructionist judges-WAR ON TERROR: fought with Hillary Clinton to demand that terrorists be given a full American trial-GAY MARRIAGE: he joined liberals to fight against a federal marriage amendment supporting the institution of traditional marriage-CHRISTIANS: campaigning in 2000, he famously described Christian leaders as “agents of intolerance”-PRO-LIFE: he filed an amicus brief against pro-life advocates in Wisconsin-BI-PARTISANSHIP: he met with leading Democrats in 2004 to discuss the possibility of being John Kerry’s Vice-President-PROFESSIONAL ETHICS: ringleader of the infamous Keating 5 ethical scandal which cost US tax payers $160 billion (Google it)-PERSONAL ETHICS: McCain cheated on his first wife after she had a severe accident that left her partially disabled. He then divorced her and married his multi-millionaire mistress, whose daddy bought McCain a spot in the CongressVote Romney. This liberal, old fraud McCain can’t fool this conservative!