Political wind

Election 2008, Political wind

Super Tuesday

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Super Tuesday vote and caucas results, from the Washington Times:

super-tuesday-results.jpg

Moderates fuel big McCain wins:

Sen. John McCain won a series of big-state victories and took a commanding lead in delegates in yesterday’s Super Tuesday contests, but his weakness among conservatives was exposed by a string of wins for Mike Huckabee in the South and Mitt Romney out West. Mr. Huckabee’s surprising Southern strength and Mr. Romney’s organizational skills in Mountain West caucuses denied Mr. McCain the chance to claim a mandate in the race, leaving him to salvage a message last night. “We won a number of important victories in the closest thing we’ve ever had to a national primary,” Mr. McCain said at his postelection party in Arizona.
…

But the results exposed Mr. McCain’s continuing problems with conservative voters. Exit polls showed that only in Connecticut did Mr. McCain actually win a plurality of self-identified conservative voters, barely topping Mr. Romney in the Northeastern state. In every other state, he trailed Mr. Huckabee, Mr. Romney or both. In Utah he was tied for second with Rep. Ron Paul, well behind Mr. Romney, among conservative voters. Even in his own home state of Arizona, Mr. McCain trailed badly among conservatives, with just 36 percent to Mr. Romney’s 47 percent. And in California, Mr. Romney won nearly half of conservative voters, with 48 percent, according to the MSNBC exit polls.

John McCain, Mitt Romney, Political wind

McCain would lose yet Romney would change Washington

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Whether the McCain campaign started the whisper campaign that “nobody likes Romney” is irrelevant; they were surely thrilled when the mainstream media ran with it. Yet the old guard will ensure that John McCain never reaches the Oval Office.

Mitt Romney would turn political Washington on its head, the doors to power would get slammed in the faces of perhaps thousands of long-entrenched deal makers and lobbyists.

That is why so many moderates Republicans, a few conservatives, and a stream of liberal pundits are jumping on John McCain’s bandwagon. McCain cannot win, they know it, and they will merely have to go on dealing with him as one of 100 Senators; the keys to the kingdom will remain in their hands.

With McCain as the GOP nominee, the old guard will feed the mainstream media just enough damaging information to keep him from moving up the street. It will be untraceable to the Obama or Clinton campaigns (for it will not come from them) and the media will lap it up.

Yet if John McCain flies off the handle and angrily goes after the old guard himself, the public will finally see what insiders have seen for more than two decades. The real John McCain is vindictive, condescending, confrontational, politically disloyal, and rude.

Swing voters will get turned off, the far-left would never vote for him, liberals already have Obama or Clinton, and conservative voters were already planning to stay home in November.

Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will become the next President of the United States yet the status quo will be maintained, either way. The old lions (picture a proud Grandpa Ted) will wheel Barack around the Washington Mall in a Presidential baby stroller and the Clintons come politically pre-packed, like just off a Wal Mart shelf.

If you really, truly want change in Washington, then vote for Mitt Romney in your primary and in November. It is time to show the old guard the door and ensure that they close it on their way out.