McCain comes out number one, Romney number two and the person who spent, it seemed, the last ten months campaigning in Florida, Giuliani, is third.
Giuliani ran third, his best showing of the campaign but not nearly good enough for the one-time front-runner who decided to make his last stand in a state that is home to tens of thousands of transplanted New Yorkers.
Last stand? Giuliani didn’t even make a “first stand.” His campaign manager should be flipping burgers at Wendy’s by Wednesday of next week. How does “no campaign” = “a campaign”? What part of “let’s stay out of the public eye whilst campaigning for President” resembles anything close to a winning strategy?
Huckabee came out fourth, Ron Paul fifth.
McCain now has more delegates than Romney.
It is rumored that Giuliani may throw his support to McCain.
Thompson is gone, Giuliani is essentially gone, Huckabee is diminishing, Ron Paul is, well, Ron Paul. The future will be between Romney and McCain.
Wrap your brain around that one, boys and girls.
BZ
Yes, the Gov. of Taxechussettes, who gets a middling grade from the Cato Institute and the ‘maverick’ who gets that 82 lifetime from ACU, even though one has to go back to 1996 to find a year he scored higher than that… which means that his ‘conservative’ years were *before then*.
And when you actually look at the supposed *strengths* of each, they are not only not that strong, but each have inherent weaknesses, that are not good ones for the US on economic or military matters.
I would vote for the lackluster rich governor over the deceitful Senator. The Senator has lost me on military affairs, protecting the Nation, and actually abiding by his word given as part of Congress in 1986 to actually *fix* the immigration problem. His ties to BCCI via Keating (along with many others!) has meant that criminal banking got little overview during the 1980’s and 1990’s, which has put organized crime and terrorism on a ‘leg up’ in money laundering and procuring goods.
For me defense of the Nation starts right at the border, not right at the military. Mitt Romney seems to *get* that and it would be worth a flier on someone trying to stand up for that rather than someone whose career has demonstrated just the opposite…. over 22 years. There are problems in the records of all the front runners, but if one has to ‘be convinced’ the borders are worth keeping, then no amount of convincing will get me to vote for that individual.
I wonder who would be the biggest disaster for the country, McCain or Paul?
This is from today’s L.A. Times:
“John McCain now has a pathway to the Republican presidential nomination. The question is whether he can put his fractured party back together.
The Arizona senator, long the bane of the GOP establishment, showed in Florida that he could begin cobbling together a new Republican coalition — attracting enough support from all corners of the party base to give him a plurality in the biggest and most diverse state to vote so far in the 2008 campaign.
He took about a quarter of conservatives, secured nearly a third of evangelicals, dominated among his typical base of self-described moderates, and won easily among voters who care about authenticity, experience and electability.
In winning Florida, McCain threw off a major critique of his candidacy: He prevailed in an all-Republican primary that excluded the more moderate independents who had ensured McCain’s wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina.”
I hope conservatives will be able to pull together. I doubt Romney has much chance on Super Tuesday. McCain will probably wrap up.
Then we’ll need to unite, start healing the party, and get ready to defeat the Democrats in November.
I have wrapped my brain around it and because of the reality of it I can’t allow my brain to absorb it too much. It could lead to depression. :~)
So.. I will back Romney knowing McCain has it about locked in. He has the media, independants, Rhino’s and libs backing him. What more could a fake conservative ask for?
The GOP was hobling on 3 feet, now the elephant is down to 2. If McCain wins even crutches won’t help because the elephant won’t have legs to walk on.
We will have to totally re-vamp or as you said in one of your earlier posts develop a new party for conservatives.
The only people STUPID enough to support McCain are the ones that are as big a RINO as HE is…
New Republican coalition?? You may be right, he may be forming just that and I think that is a very sad statement of affairs, a NEW Republican coalition headed by McCain would be better called ‘Democrats in disguise’…
AJ: I would likewise draw that conclusion and vote for Romney in the end. And YES, the overall defense of this nation DOES start at the border and Romney seems to understand that.
Mark: I’d like to think that Paul would be inherently worse; I am not absolutely convinced.
DD: I’m still not sure about Super Tuesday. I really am hoping that those 22 states are not so automatically ignorant as to trot on with McCain. I could be horribly wrong.
Rivka: if McCain takes the GOP. . .well, I don’t have a lot of real answers yet.
BZ
TF: after November, perhaps its actually worth speaking of creating another party? The GOP simply seems to leaving US behind, not vice versa.
BZ
If Juan McCain gets the nomination it means conservatives are without a party. and the damage that will be done is considerable, look for treaties that subvert our constitution for a “north american union”, more attacks on free speech that make McCain-Feingold look like kiddie games, open door policies on our borders, more job losses via “free trade” that’s not free. that is some of what to expect with liberals (yeah, McCain IS a liberal) running both congress and executive.
The divisions between the parties are disappearing, which is pointing out a new set of lines coming to the forefront that will seek to gain power to government… it is sad that so many support the brave ideals without bothering to see where they end up.
There is no ‘center’ between the parties any more… that Cold War concept died with it, and has been twitching a bit, but is now, basically, done. With that we will have choices to make about our political and National future… or if we will have one at all. We were warned about this from early on… but we were, apparently, to smart to listen to wisdom.
So if the MSM gets its way it will be McCain vs Hillary.
What happens when McCain chooses Hillary for the VP slot (no pun intended) or Hillary picks McCain for her VP?
Other than, possibly, armed revolt.
WMD: I know one thing — the UN would love us, Europe would love us and Islamists would love us; and, oh yeah, Mexico would love us.
BZ
McCain=Abstain
I’ll be ok voting for Romney, or Huck (less happy with Huck) but I’ll vote R if it’s one of those guys.