1. ...in FL, and it’s not all that close. As in SC, his support by the state party establishment--in this case (studies show) Crist and Martinez--made the difference. John wasn’t the maverick after all, and Mitt remained the outsider with money.
2. Giuliani, who did poorly, will and has no choice but to endorse McCain tomorrow. He wants to at least be on the winning side in NY, NJ, etc.
3. Even without any FL mo’ or Rudy’s help, McCain is leading in most of the Feb. 5 states, and in all the urban and urbane states with the winner-take-all policies.
4. Mitt might as well fight on (it’s only a week), but he’ll probably take common-sense spending limitations more seriously now. He has to hope John really screws up.
5. We’ll see if Huck will go down with guns blazing (and American flags flying) by doing what he can really to take McCain on in the campaign’s last real week.
A brutal night for Giuliani well-wishers.
It will be compounded tomorrow if he endorses McCain.
The prospect of my party nominating a man intensely disliked by most conservative talk-radio hosts is prodigiously disturbing. It's a recipe for disaster, not just defeat, which alone would be disastrous enough, but it's a recipe for a catastrophic disaster.
McCain is committed to only one thing -- John McCain. The conservative cause is already damn near dead; McCain will milk it best he can, then drive a stake through its heart.
McCain will not win the presidency. The MSM will turn on him like wolves as soon as we go into the general campaign. There'll be a Democrat president for the next eight years, with a Democrat majority Congress for all eight of those years. At least two, and perhaps four, Supreme Court justices will be appointed during that time, and none will be in the mold of Scalia, Roberts or Alito.
It is 1964 all over again.
And as for Huckabee, he's just running as a blocker for McCain. He's no longer running on his own, he's just running to ingratiate himself with McCain and the McCain campaign, hoping maybe that he'll be selected to balance the ticket. Ergo he's no longer running in good faith. It's a fraud.
Dan, all the angry and disgruntled conservatives who are unhappy with a McCain nomination should declare "We're not going to take it anymore" and vote third party. Problem for you is that the CP and LP candidates will almost certainly be a non-interventionists.
If Teddy Roosevelt couldn't make a 3d party viable, with all of his energy, name recognition, popularity and personal charisma, ----------------- who then in America could make such a party a truly viable alternative.
I'm naturally disappointed that the most qualified candidate for the nomination since General MacArthur was defeated this evening. But that doesn't mean I'm up for fantasy based politics.
The third party doesn't have to be "viable" if the point is to send a message. Won't you feel dirty going into the voting booth and casting a vote for McAmnesty?
Yes, I would feel dirty, but I'm from Pennsylvania, and we've had to make peace with Specter, otherwise see the seat go for the Democrats.
As for "message" sending, that should be done in the primaries. You want to send a message, you throw forward a guy like Pat Toomey to challenge fellas' like Specter in a Republican primary.
You have to be REAL CAUTIOUS about sending "messages" during a general. Don't you recall the Perot candidacy?