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thatcrazycajunIt's finally official: Arizona's Sen. John McCain now has won enough delegates to be granted the status of presumptive nominee in the race for the Republican Party's Presidential nomination. His sole remaining (serious) opponent, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, threw in the proverbial towel tonight and made a withdrawal speech to his voters and campaign workers urging them to unite behind the party's choice.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Clinton (NY) and Barack Obama (IL) are still locked in limbo as Ohio and Texas races are still considered "too close to call," while Vermont went for Obama and Rhode Island for Clinton.
On the one hand, having to face McCain, a seasoned campaigner on the political and military fields both, is enough to give any Democrat pause. McCain's tendency toward what some hard-liners in his own party deem "liberal" positions on some issues make him far more potentially attractive to so-called "swing" voters in the center than, say, a more ideologically pure candidate like Huckabee would have been. On the other hand, he's alienated more than enough of his party's crucial base voters to make him vulnerable...especially to either Clinton, who has both her own political savvy and her husband's to call on, or Obama, who has charisma to burn and has fired up his supporters with an almost messianic fervor (and I'm far from the first to use that word in describing the "Obama effect").
And it's got to be a bitter pill to swallow for those in the wingnut punditocracy like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, who have been busily painting McCain as the next worst thing to the Antichrist for months. (Coulter actually said she'd campaign for Hillary before she'd let McCain win the White House.) So what does El Rushbo do now? Tell his 20 million weekly listeners to stay home this Nov. 3rd out of sheer spite...and let my party take away the White House from his? I can't see that happening—especially not if there's a chance the even-more-loathed Clintons could be moving back into the place. I can see him saying something along the lines of a paraphrase of former SecDef Don Rumsfeld: "We go to election with the candidate we have, not the candidate we wish we had."
What a yummy schadenfreude/vindication cocktail for the man who lost so ignominiously to the Current Occupant eight years ago in his last bid for the brass ring to end all brass rings. And once again, the point needs to be made that the only thing keeping McCain's mitts off that ring will be us on the left getting our people to the polls in strength. The way things look now, no matter who wins the Dem race, turnout shouldn't be a problem.
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, Sens. Hillary Clinton (NY) and Barack Obama (IL) are still locked in limbo as Ohio and Texas races are still considered "too close to call," while Vermont went for Obama and Rhode Island for Clinton.
On the one hand, having to face McCain, a seasoned campaigner on the political and military fields both, is enough to give any Democrat pause. McCain's tendency toward what some hard-liners in his own party deem "liberal" positions on some issues make him far more potentially attractive to so-called "swing" voters in the center than, say, a more ideologically pure candidate like Huckabee would have been. On the other hand, he's alienated more than enough of his party's crucial base voters to make him vulnerable...especially to either Clinton, who has both her own political savvy and her husband's to call on, or Obama, who has charisma to burn and has fired up his supporters with an almost messianic fervor (and I'm far from the first to use that word in describing the "Obama effect").
And it's got to be a bitter pill to swallow for those in the wingnut punditocracy like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, who have been busily painting McCain as the next worst thing to the Antichrist for months. (Coulter actually said she'd campaign for Hillary before she'd let McCain win the White House.) So what does El Rushbo do now? Tell his 20 million weekly listeners to stay home this Nov. 3rd out of sheer spite...and let my party take away the White House from his? I can't see that happening—especially not if there's a chance the even-more-loathed Clintons could be moving back into the place. I can see him saying something along the lines of a paraphrase of former SecDef Don Rumsfeld: "We go to election with the candidate we have, not the candidate we wish we had."
What a yummy schadenfreude/vindication cocktail for the man who lost so ignominiously to the Current Occupant eight years ago in his last bid for the brass ring to end all brass rings. And once again, the point needs to be made that the only thing keeping McCain's mitts off that ring will be us on the left getting our people to the polls in strength. The way things look now, no matter who wins the Dem race, turnout shouldn't be a problem.
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If You REALLY Want to Have Fun
Date: 2008-03-05 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-07 01:24 am (UTC)Horrible Presidential Candidates!!!!!
Date: 2008-03-18 02:24 am (UTC)