A quiz for conservatives
Okay, here goes.
McCain in Iowa: Ethanol subsidies are a boondoggle, and a waste of taxpayers' money.Romney in Iowa: I love ethanol!
McCain in Michigan: The hard truth is that many of those high-paying manufacturing jobs aren't coming back.
Romney in Michigan: I will use the power of the federal government to make those jobs come back!!
McCain in Florida: Taxpayers in Provo or Detroit shouldn't have to pay to subsidize the hurricane insurance of people who choose to live on the Florida coast.
Romney in Florida: I'll use the power of the federal government to make hurricane insurance cheaper!!!
So tell me again, which of these two guys is the "genuine" conservative, and worthy of our support?
The sad thing is, Romney's shameless pandering has a pretty good track record of working. Recent polls suggest that it may be working in Florida. He's getting help, of course, 24/7, from conservative talk radio. Once again, I'm listening to Mark Levin trashing McCain as we speak. Levin had the Wall Street Journal's John Fund on his program, and was belaboring a single passage from a recent Fund editorial that Levin found damning of McCain. Fund began the "interview" by saying he hoped they'd discuss the whole editorial, which was largely sympathetic to McCain, to which Levin snapped, "I don't want to talk about the whole thing!" Of course he doesn't. From recent polls, sadly, it looks as if talk radio's unrelenting anti-McCain barrage is having an effect.
Well, I hope Limbaugh and Hannity and Levin enjoy the 2008 Romney vs. Clinton campaign. I can't wait to hear what they're going to say when Romney, having bought the GOP nomination with their help, starts running hard to the left in preparation for a general election at a time when Republican approval numbers are in the cellar. We've already seen a preview of it in 1994, when Romney ran to the left of opponent Ted Kennedy on many issues. But I don't want to hear them bitching when that happens, and I don't want to hear them whining when Romney loses, and the Democrats control the White House and both houses of congress.
If the Republicans are shortsighted enough to vote for Romney, I'll vote for Hillary in the general election. Yeah, I know, that's not much of a threat, because I'm just one guy. My dozens of readers aren't a match for Limbaugh's millions of listeners. I'm the ugly, red-headed stepchild at the GOP family reunion. I show up late for the family portrait, in a cheap suit that's wrinkled and ill-fitting because I never go to church. And I need a haircut. But I'm also the canary in the goddamn electoral coal mine, and if I'm saying I'd vote for Hillary over Romney, that doesn't bode well, 'cuz I've never voted for a Democrat in a presidential election in my life.
Please, Florida, think about this, just a little.
Comments
While Romney has been disappointing on those issues you mentioned (McCain and Rudy also pandered to Florida voters about making federal Hurricane insurance cheaper), I think you're looking at Hillary as the pro-WoT, Supply Sider she and Bill Clinton have always been (and she certainly IS that) and assessing that she's "no worse" than some of the current GOP candidates.
I'm not sure about that.
In a head-to-head, I'd take Rudy over Hillary in a heartbeat. He is even more steadfast on the WoT, and even more resolute on sensible Supply Side policies.
In a head-to-head I'd take McCain or Romney over her too, for largely the same reasons....AND that I want to see the end of the Bush-Clinton now going on two decades old run (it'll be 20 years next january, that someone named Bush or Clinton DIDN'T occupy the WH).
I think you see (as I do) the Democratic Party shifting to the Right, just as France and Germany have. 2006 Was a watershed year for Conservative Dems.
BUT I agree with Mal, to this extent, Conservative Dems "are NOT there yet." We have a ways to go, before sound, Conservative policies hold sway in the Democratic Party.
I have always been a Conservative Democrat, in my case, a "Zell Miller Democrat," as he's the closest Democrat to my views to come down the pike in a long time.
But we're NOT there yet!
My wife thinks, as you seem to, that 2008 is as good as predestined.
As I said to her, "All we know is that we don't know."
None of us knows what events will unfold over the next ten months and which Party those events will favor.
Right now it looks like either McCain or Romney vs Clinton (247 delegates) or Obama (168 delegates), but who knows what events or personal faux pas might change that dynamic?
I look forward to the day that the Democrats run a Tester or a Webb for President. That would make me happier than just about anything I can imagine!
But we're not there yet!
I will, this time, as always, vote for the most Conservative candidate running...locally (on Staten island) that's as often as not, the Democrat, nationally, that's long been the Republican.
I'd dearly like that to change on the national scene. The GOP should naturally be the more Libertarian Party, while the Democrats should naturally be the more socially Conservative Party.
Posted by: JMK | January 28, 2008 09:42 PM
Dozen readers??? Make that a dozen plus one!
I agree--Romney as GOP nominee = me voting for whichever Democrat is the nominee. But I do want to see McCain as nominee just to hear the Rushes and Hannitys and that skunk Levin and the NRO crowd and Santorum twist themselves in knots this fall...
Posted by: fred | January 29, 2008 09:02 AM
Are you really that worried about Romney? It seems like he has a bit of Giuliani in him in that the more people know him, the less people like him. Although, I suppose that my own perception of him could be coloring that thought.
Posted by: K | January 29, 2008 01:48 PM
Have a beer, Barry.
McCain wins Florida. Rudy endorses McCain tomorrow.
Posted by: PE | January 29, 2008 09:27 PM
It is starting to look as though I will enjoy the cold comfort of spending the next four years saying "I told you so!" Anybody here old enough to remember the seventies? They're back.
Posted by: Paul Moore | January 30, 2008 07:04 AM
I hope we won't be expected to wear bell bottoms.
Posted by: BNJ | January 30, 2008 08:22 AM
Barry, the answer is: whomever Rush Limbaugh SAYS is the true conservative.
Right JMK? You listen to him every day at lunch, like a true moron.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 7, 2008 02:55 AM