Some people are seemingly mystified that conservative bloggers are thinking seriously about McCain now that Fred’s out. Others are suggesting the Republic doesn’t deserve to live at this point. I’m not counting myself in either of those camps.
It may make me alone among gun bloggers, but I’m here to suggest that John McCain isn’t bad enough to justify handing the election to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, henceforth to be called Obillery for convenience sake.
Take for instance, the American Conservative Union’s ratings of the candidates. McCain has a rating of 83. Hillary has a rating of 9. Obama has a rating of 8. What about on guns? I don’t think any of us have any doubt about Obillery will do in regards to guns. McCain has at least always opposed the assault weapons ban. Romney has said he’s in favor of a new one. Romney has said he supports Massachusetts’ fascist gun control laws. McCain’s voting record on guns overall is a mixed bag.
This isn’t anything to get excited about, and McCain is going to have to work hard to make peace with the base, including gun owners, if he wants to have a sure shot at beating Obillery in November. Without a doubt the campaign finance reform act is his biggest sin, and it’s hard to get over. I trust McCain on fiscal issues, foreign policy issues, and believe he’d put better candidates on the federal court than Obillery.
My only other choice at this point is Romney, and I don’t trust him on anything. I also don’t think Romney has any appeal with Independent voters, who you need to win this day in age. Where else do I go? Stay home? Don’t say Ron Paul. He has 6 delegates total so far. He’s not going to win the nomination, and even if he did win the nomination, he’s not going to win the election. Ron might hope to be the spoiler in an independent or third party run, and the GOP might even deserve that. But I think we all either need to start thinking who we can live with, or start getting used to saying “President Clinton” again, and enjoy our guns while we can still possess them.
It’s not that you are glum about 2008, it’s just that you are confused. The primaries are just getting started. McCain, Guiliani, and Huck are BROKE. See – life is getting better already!
We have a true grass-roots candidate to vote for that will be in for the long haul — Dr. Paul. His numbers are growing, as is his checkbook account. If you are concerned about your guns, Dr. Paul has that covered. If you want the government out of you life and bedroom, Paul is your man. Liberty and freedom? Say no more — Ron Paul is your ticket home…….
It takes more than money to win. It takes people voting for you. Ron Paul has plenty of money, but no one is voting for him. You guys aren’t going to turn it around from having 6 delegates. How badly do you Ronulans have to lose before you realize your candidate isn’t going anywhere?
Fred has 8 and saw the writing on the wall. He can’t take the nomination consistently pulling third and fourth place. Even if all Fred’s support goes to Ron Paul, he still loses. It’s over Ronulans, deal with it.
It’s not so much that I think “the Republic doesn’t deserve to live,” it’s that the Republic is already dead. What we have more closely approaches a direct democracy – one that’s discovered, as de Tocqueville warned, that can vote itself riches from the public treasury.
(See “earmark reform: lack thereof” as a contemporary example.)
The Constitution has been abandoned as too inconvenient by those who swear to uphold and defend it, even as they make pleasing mouth-noises about how they really aren’t unzipping and letting fly on that document, then wiping their asses with it.
And the majority of the electorate is too ignorant and apathetic to care. They want their entitlements.
It’s taken us over 70 years and 12 presidents to get us where we are. Some have been better than others (I’d put Ronald Reagan at one end and Jimmy Carter at the other on that spectrum. FDR holds the pivot point down only because he would be runner-up in both categories. Like it or not, he got the US into WWII at a point in time when the US could still save Europe. OTOH, like it or not he ushered in the New Deal. The rest fall between those extremes).
The election in 2008 won’t magically bring us back from the brink. Nor will it necessarily push us in to the chasm. But I’d rather take one small step back than one larger step forward.
A bright point, the government appears to be preparing to fund BAG day! That’s how we’re going to use it.
Sowing the seeds of their own downfall?
Heh…
Note, incidentally, I believe we hit nadir in Carter’s presidency (and very close to it at the end of Nixon’s) and have (slowly) been clawing our way out since 1980.
Word on the web is that after all the provisional Louisiana ballots (Republicans registering between Nov. 1 – 30, 2007) are counted, Ron Paul may come out with more than 50% of the vote.
This is huge! The bottom line in LA could mean 40 or so more delegates for Paul.
Paul’s support is growing despite no MSM coverage. He has got the money for the long-haul and his polls are rising.
So, cheer up! The neocons are on the run……