The McCain team scored a major coup tonight with its victory in the Florida primary. And the right is cringing. The POW, elder-statesman, pro-life and fiscally conservative front-runner is simply not biggoted enough for the likes of many who are gunning for Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee.
But he's just the man for us Dems.
I'm sold by this endorsement from my favorite anorexic, bottle-blonde pundit:
"Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.
I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska.
And I might lie if I had called the ads of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.'"
Which brings me to the title of this post.
This election is not going to be won on promises of birthing babies within the confines of marriage, per Romney's defeat speech tonight. It's not going to be about demonizing every last American who isn't a heterosexual WASP and it's not going to be about making stupid promises about securing a border that's been jumped over, dug under and walked around forever.
This election is going to be about restoring the government to its rightful place as the arbiter of big issues, not the indivdual affairs of private citizens.
Our next President will be the person who proposes a convicing approach to three issues:
- Iraq
- Healthcare
- The Economy
Our government needs to demand accountability from the government of Iraq for the course the country is on, our government needs to ensure that all citizens have access to healthcare, and our government needs to repair the damage that years of reckless spending and nonsense tax rebate programs have done to our economy. The "illegals" didn't eff up the economy, this stupid war and our government's dukes-up international policy did. It's time to fix that and not the idyllic, unrealistic notion of the American family.
A defeated but magnificiently coiffed Mitt Romney was swinging at everyone tonight. According to him, us Dems have it all wrong because we think America's greatness comes from our government and not the people of America.
Thankfully, the leading Republican and Democrat candidates do believe in the power of our government. That's why they're in and Romney's on his way out.
2 comments:
OK, I'm much more in agreement with you here. :) Thanks for the thoughtful response to my last post.
I have to say I'm torn about McCain (very nearly) capturing the Republican nomination: on the one hand, I would love to see the Republicans nominate someone like Romney, because I think that both Clinton and Obama could trounce him. On the other hand, I'm just cynical enough about the Republicans' dirty tricks that I would feel really uneasy about the *chance* of a neocon automaton like Romney winning the Presidency.
So I'm glad that McCain is in a more secure spot this evening. At the same time, I really think that McCain will be difficult to beat -- and honestly, more for Clinton than for Obama. (Clinton will have a hard time going after him without the media making her look like a shrill harpy attacking ol' Grandpa.)
So...these are the two scenarios I see emerging: on the one hand, you have a McCain-Clinton race, in which McCain would probably take the high ground and Clinton would have trouble shaking her reputation as a dirty politician.
On the other hand, you have a McCain-Obama race, which would probably be too polite and feel-good to excite most pundits (though of course reporters will always manage to find drama somewhere). One of the good things I would see for Obama in a race with McCain is that McCain would, I think, unequivocally condemn any Swift Boat-style "but he's a Muslim"-type ads promulgated by crooked 527s.
But we absolutely agree on one thing: if McCain keeps doing well, that bodes well for this election season. He's against torture and he's not afraid to compromise. He's a Republican but not an asshole. And even though I'd prefer to have a Democrat in the Oval Office next, I wouldn't lose sleep over McCain. For all my disagreements with some of his positions, the guy's a leader, and I respect him.
Thanks for the comments, Chris. And yeah, I guess I can live with McCain in office too. But let's please stop calling Hillary a dirty politician, how many wars did she start?
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