It’s Out in the Open: Huckabee and McCain Colluding to Deny Romney Victory

I see a report that Paul’s people also defected to Huckabee in exchange for three of the national delegates. See here. The defection(s) must have been incomplete in both McCain’s and Paul’s camp, but clearly it was enough.

So much for an honorable campaign that McCain pledged.

A quick update from Colorado … the Denver Post is reporting there’s some confusion about the caucuses. Some people apparently believed there is a primary here. The full article can be found here: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_8175601. With the media, for the last two weeks, saying the state would play a crucial role in Super Tuesday, I suppose some believed a primary was to take place.

A similar scenario took place eight years ago when George W. Bush had a solid lead going into the GOP caucus. After the night was over, McCain finished closer than expected. Gives rise to wonder whether history is repeating itself with Romney holding a solid lead this time around.

So keep pulling for the Varmit hunter I guess. Anyone who has flip-flopped this much and pandered and spent his way thus far to only win 1/3 of the amount of votes as McCain certainly deserves your support. “

Steve, the “rifts” on the right aren’t as deep as you think. MSNBC’s got an analyst, Chuck Todd, who put it perfectly well after NH, “The Republicans will unite around a ham sandwich if Sen Clinton wins the nomination.” I don’t deny at all that there are deep differences between the far right and McCain, but the differences are not only exaggerated in depth, but ignored in importance:

Hillary nomination=no lack of party unity.

Far right conservatives hate her as much as far left liberals do Bush.

Re: “Steve, the “rifts” on the right aren’t as deep as you think. ”

I agree with your point about Republican Party unity. I attribute the “rifts” to be media talking points to fill a 24-hour news cycle with fluff rather than real facts and information, which requires research and checking.

No Republican, right up to James Dobson himself, will fail to vote for the Republican nominee, regardless of who the Republicans nominate, or the Democrats nominate. Unlike the network airheads (we’re talking about Chris Mathews now), I do not see any Republicans voting for Obama if he is the enominee any more than they would vote for Senator Clinton.

I wasn’t dwelling on the reason, just the fact that I do not expect any Republicans, no matter what they say now, to vote any way other than Republican in November. It is also very unlikely that any Democrats will vote for Republicans either for that matter. The battle will be for the independents.

There were significant numbers of Democrats who did cross party lines in the 1980’s to vote for Ronald Reagan, but that is not going to happen this year.

I used James Dobson as my poster child for a Republican who declares he would never vote for McCain now who I promise will vote for him in November (assuming he gains the nomination) for two reasons:
1. He is the latest example of a Republican leader who has declared he will never vote for McCain.
2. I used Dr. Dobson’s name specifically because of the power he has within the party and the sensitivity among some Republicans about the power of the Religious Right over them.

Certainly the Democratic party has its own set of foibles, so there is no purity there. But if one can’t tweak the nose of one’s friends, then of whom can one kid?

“The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
Winston Churchill

http://www.coolquotes.com/quotes/winston_churchill/3.html

There was no moment in these sixteen years when the three former allies, or even Britain and France with their associates in Europe, could not in the name of the League of Nations and under its moral and international shield have controlled by mere effort of the will of armed strength of Germany.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

It is difficult to find a parallel to the unwisdom of the British and the weakness of the French Governments, who none the less reflected the opinion of their Parliaments in this disastrous period. Nor can the United States escape the censure of history. Absorbed in their own affairs and all the abounding interests, activities, and accidents of a free community, they simply gaped at the vast changes which were taking place in Europe and imagined they were none of their concern.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

By the autumn of 1933 it was plain that neither by precept nor still less by example would the British effort for disarmament succeed. The pacifism of the Labour and Liberal Parties was not effected even by the grave event of the German withdrawl from the League of Nations. Both continued in the name of peace to urge British disarmament, and anyone who differed was called “warmonger” and “scaremonger.” It appeared that their feeling was endorsed by the people, who of course did not understand what was unfolding.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

Until the middle of 1934 control of the events was still largely in the hands of His Majesty’s Government without the risk of war. They could at any time, in concert with France and through the League of Nations, have brought an overwhelming power to bear upon the Hitler Movement, about which Germany was profoundly divided.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

Don’t believe that anyone in the world will hinder me in my decisions [to invade Austria and Czechoslovakia]! Italy? I am quite clear that they are with Mussolini: with Italy I am on the closest of terms. England? England will not lift a finger for Austria…And France? Well, two years ago when we marched into the Rhineland with a handful of battalions [breaking the 1991 Treaty of Versailles]-at that moment I risked a great deal. If France had marched then we should have been forced to withdraw….but for France it is too late!
-Adolph Hitler, 1938

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous states have fallen into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of NAZI rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight in the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air; we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender; and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the Old.
-Winston Churchill, Memoirs of the Second World War

I’ll apologize in advance for this double post (and then call it a night, I have to get up early tomorrow). But this has always been one of my favorites:

“Men occasionally stumble on the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
Winston Churchill