Law School Conservative

CNN reports tonight that Sen. John McCain has won the Rhode Island, Ohio, Texas and Vermont primaries, and has clinched the GOP nomination.

Here is an analysis on possible GOP Veep noms.

Don’t even get me started on the democrats…

Ok, so in a surprising move Romney endorsed McCain.

Here’s what will probably happen:

• Half to three quarters of Romney’s delegates will probably go for McCain, the rest will remain “uncommitted” or will go for Huckabee
• The GOP nomination will be decided in the next week, if not, then definitely by March 4 (the original Super Tuesday), and the Dems will be in turmoil until the convention (right out of season 7 of West Wing)
• Huckabee will be pressured to drop out

Now, all of this makes sense, here are some other things that might happen:

• Romney will lobby for the VP slot and try to let bygones be bygones
• Huckabee will lobby for the VP spot and remind McCain how much Romney used to hate him, before he changed postitions, again
• Republicans will finally realize that this is not the year to find the next Ronald Reagan, but this is the year that will elect Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama President unless they suck it up and vote.

Stay tuned….

The Democrats plan endless attacks on McCain…but are they right?

Wow. There are a lot of disgruntled conservative Republicans out there. I am one of them. Here’s where I, and many other folks are:

1) I would go to Mike Huckabee’s church (but don’t want his Populist ideas anywhere near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue).

2) I want John McCain to make good on his promise to “follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell.” (but want him to do that in a context other than Chief Executive of the USA).

3) I would greatly prefer that people who call themselves conservative held true to their conservative principles of limited government, cutting taxes, personal freedom and responsibility, and believing that rugged individualism is the fabric of the American way of life. Had people done this, Mitt Romney would be in a distinctly different position, as would the Republican Party.

To echo the great Maha Rushie (that’s Rush Limbaugh folks), this is like watching a time warp of 1976. In 1976 the Republican Party clamored to the center and nominated Gerald Ford as their presidential candidate. The guy was a great golfer, but not so much a great president or presidential candidate. Ronald Reagan lost the nomination in 1976 to Ford, which is largely why our country suffered through 4 years of hell with Jimmy Carter at the helm. However, Reagan did not back down in his defeat, re-brand himself as a moderate or centrist, or try to redefine conservatism. He simply knew that 1976 was not his time and conservatism was going to be the answer in 1980 and beyond

How does this apply today? John McCain is no conservative. My biggest beefs with McCain are primarily his named legislation and show why he is not a conservative, despite the rebranding:

-McCain-Feingold: basically prevents private groups (Swift Boat Vets and religious organizations) from advertising in campaigns. A gross violation of the 1^st Amendment that I suspect will be litigated after this election cycle.

-McCain-Kennedy: Amnesty legislation. The worst part is that if you go to McCain’s campaign website, he has done a total flip-flop on illegal immigration and it is now one of his key issues. He was the one calling those of us in favor of a secure/safe border backward redneck bigots (paraphrased).

-McCain-Lieberman: This proposes a cap on carbon emissions for individuals. This should be called the “Grind America’s Economy to a Screeching Halt and Send Her Back to the Stone Age Act.” In all seriousness, last I understood, it creates a government permitting agency that issues permits at a ridiculous cost so businesses can emit carbon above what the Feds say is acceptable.

-He opposed the tax cuts, voted against them, but is now for them. Sounds like the inverse of John F. Kerry (in McCain sceevy old man voice), “My friends, I was against the Bush tax cuts for the rich before I voted for them, my friends.”

-He’s said himself he’s clueless on the economy. Great timing for a candidate with no economic knowledge in light of the housing market correction and sub-prime debacle.

-In general, he’s known for his hot temper and inability to be civil. You know Clinton and Obama are holding this trump card. There are apparently all sorts of recordings of McCain dropping F-bombs and cursing people out in Senate committee meetings.

-Bill Bennett said yesterday morning that McCain is for same-sex marriage. I do not know if this is true, but I will look into it.

On the plus:

-He is pro-life.

-I want him to make good on his promise to follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell.

-If you screw with America on his watch, I am quite confident that McCain will bomb you faster than Dick Cheney can pepper one of his huntin’ buddies.

Other than that, that’s where I am on McCain. BLUF (Bottom Line Up-Front): I will vote for him 8 days a week and twice on Sunday over Hillary or Obama, but won’t be out waving the flag for him. This being said, there was nothing super about Tuesday for conservatives.

John McCain supporters jumped ship and unto the Huckabee bandwagon to make sure that Mitt Romney did not win the West Virginia convention.

Story here. (My personal favorite quote: “I thought [Romney] was saying yesterday, ‘No whining.’ So is it no whining or whining? He can’t even keep a straight answer on the ‘whining or no whining’ question.” — Mike Huckabee)

Mitt Romney is backing down from a statement he made recently regarding former GOP Presidential Candidate Bob Dole’s defense of Sen. John McCain.

Dole wrote a letter to Rush Limbaugh defending McCain, a fellow decorated veteran, as a “mainstream conservative” not deserving of a grassroots effort to torpedo his nomination.

Romney stated  that Dole is “probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me.”

McCain responded by slamming Romney, who in turn said he “thinks very highly” of Dole.

This post has little substance to it.  I’m writing to report gossip:

A Friend of mine who is covering the Romney campaign was telling me about how Romney was slamming McCain for not being conservative enough.  Well, someone in the back of the room apparently screamed “Oh shut up, you’re just desperate.”

Priceless.