I've already said it. I trust McCain, and listening to him debate Romney at the Reagan Library, I still like him, despite Hugh Hewitt's shameless commentary. Hugh is still eating the 'conservative base' dog food. What he doesn't seem to recognize is that this is going to be a general election. The only candidate who has proven that he can work both sides of the aisle and succeed despite the conservative base is John McCain.
But I am listening to McCain have brain farts and it's annoying. I like the way he operates in that he's clearly not one to deal with a lot of hypothetical promises and his rhetoric shows that, whereas Romney gets cheeky when crossed and starts pointing out facts which lie in accord with stereotypical notions which fall onto his side. McCain has a much more reasonable leadership approach, whereas Romney is trying to prove that he's the proper inheritor of the conservative legacy. That makes Romney more brittle because he has to live down his flips. If McCain weren't so impatient, he could break Romney. Instead it's going to be a long slog.
McCain really incensed Hewitt by talking to the Global Warming trope. He emphasized American inventiveness and nuclear energy. Romney suggested that cap & trade will send domestic energy intensive businesses overseas. Huh? What? McCain should have really slammed him on that one. Are you going to let GM move to China? is what he should have said. Anyway, all this global warming crap will blow over, but green marketing is here to stay. McCain is wise not to dismiss the green economy. The real bottom line, it seems to me, is not a domestic cap and trade policy, but a global one. It's not clear to me yet that McCain is taking his regulatory cues from overseas.
Speaking of cues. I tried to find out who has actually endorsed Romney and could find nothing on his site. McCain has got some heavy hitters, including most of the moderate Republicans I've always liked, chief among them, the smartest man in the Reagan Administration, George P. Schultz. You may recall that Schultz ran Bechtel. I find it difficult to imagine that he would fall for any baloney about climate change. Now you should know, in case you don't, that Schultz is buddies with Warren Buffett and Arnold Schwartzeneggar. Arnold is scheduled to endorse McCain.
Also, you should know that Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm are both on board with McCain. I don't need to tell anybody that Jack Kemp was one of the first Republicans that I liked, and still do. And he's one of the centrist Republicans that got spit on by cranks like DeLay. Kemp's also on the board of Oracle. I didn't know that. Also Tom Ridge is a major figure on the McCain team. Now the Tom Ridge story, as you know, is very interesting. He was Colin Powell's choice to be SecDef. Then that wanker Gary Bauer spoiled it and we ended up with Rumsfeld. So after 9/11, Ridge got the consolation prize of running Homeland Security when it first started. Now he's in a prime spot.
So it's going to be very clear here that my gang of moderate conservatives is lining up behind McCain and the ideologues who are desperately seeking a reincarnation of Ronald Reagan are going to throw their weight behind Romney. What Huckabee is doing in there, I don't know.
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