Jan 29 2008
FL Primary Results – Rudy Out, Huck Out, Romney On The Way Out?
McCain Wins!: OK Amnesty Hypochondriacs, your either with the GOP nominee or against him. Mark Levin was just livid tonight and I expect him to bolt the party being led by John McCain. McCain won in a GOP-only primary. Levin is going to be in good company with Laura, Michelle and Hannity who must face the fact Mr. Shamnesty is going to the GOP leader. He has the lead in NY and CA polls, and this win is only going to add momentum. As I said in an early post, the anger and insults coming from the far right on Miers, Dubai and Immigration Reform have produced this result. The voters said you insult us and our moderate views and we will give you McCain in return. Mitt went full bore on screaming “amnesty” and I can only say it backfired. And in CA and NY it will not get better. Romney is going to limp into Super Tuesday and get hammered by the McCain express. This is new GOP.
Early Impressions: Two things are becoming clear. First, Giuliani is on his way out after a dismal performance in Florida. But so is Romney on his way out. McCain looks to be heading for a win with 45% of the vote in and McCain continuing to expand his lead. And this will only give him momentum going into NY and CA – where he leads in the polls. And the big story in FL – Immigration. McCain is clobbering Romney with Hispanics – which is going to tell the story of this race. Romney jumped onto the Amnesty Hypochondriac bandwagon as is be getting romped for it. I have watched McCain’s lead go from 22,000 votes at 30% precincts reporting to 40,000 with 46% of precincts in. Romney’s hill to climb is getting steeper and I think he is in serious trouble.
While Rudy may be out of the top slot race, I think McCain would do well to pick Rudy as a great VP who can beat Dems in CA and NY. So we are back to the same calculus. A McCain-Giuliani ticket could beat anything the Dems can bring. And what I hope the dems bring is a bruised and beaten Hillary Clinton. She can still survive and become the best thing for the GOP (again).
I have never been a McCaniac – but you go to battle with the candidate you have, not the one you wish to have.
Update: Looks like my guess about a Rudy VP slot for McCain is not that far fetched – it seems rumors are Rudy will endorse McCain this week.
Wow, how much better is a Giuliani-McCain ticket?! The only way the New Republican Party is going to win this year is if Hillary gets the nomination and unites the party. Otherwise, I think Obama will be the first black president — which I think the time has come for.
McCain might be able to beat Hillary, but will not be able to beat Obama.
McCain’s ignorance about economics and lack of support of tax cuts makes a McCain presidency probably as bad for the economy as either a Hillary or Obama presidency.
McCain is weak on the 2nd Amendment and on liberty generally.
The ONLY reason to support McCain, and why I will hold my nose and vote for him is the war. But I surely won’t be enthusiastic.
The war is a very big reason to vote for McCain. Really there is nothing more important. If we don’t win and stay on the offensive we are in big trouble.
I don’t like McCain because of his discing the President on Gitmo, torture, taxes, and his attitude toward Rummy. Maybe he needs a good lesson on how hard it is to make the decisions sitting in the Oval Office. Surely the President doesn’t tell all the Generals that they are full of bull and with out blinking an eye demote them and go over their head. If you read Fred Barns writing on Bushes decision to change course, it was very complicated.
If McCain wins he has already made many enemies in congress in his own party that he will have to work with. He will have a big up hill battle and little help from many to make a difference as a President.
Having said that, I would vote for him because of the war. I hope he would adopt Bushes ” Freedom Agenda”. And I could close my computer for 4 years.
The war is a very big reason to vote for McCain. Really there is nothing more important. If we don’t win and stay on the offensive we are in big trouble.
I don’t like McCain because of his discing the President on Gitmo, torture, taxes, and his attitude toward Rummy. Maybe he needs a good lesson on how hard it is to make the decisions sitting in the Oval Office. Surely the President doesn’t tell all the Generals that they are full of bull and with out blinking an eye demote them and go over their head. If you read Fred Barns writing on Bushes decision to change course, it was very complicated.
If McCain wins he has already made many enemies in congress in his own party that he will have to work with. He will have a big up hill battle and little help from many to make a difference as a President.
Having said that, I would vote for him because of the war. I hope he would adopt Bushes ” Freedom Agenda”. And I could close my computer for 4 years.
I heard Mort Kondracke make the point that if Giulliani had not been in the race McCain would have trounced Romney.
Yes, it seems that the purists are not as omnipotent as they thought. They can complain all they want, but if they had not pissed so many people off they might be able to come up with a win. I hope turning on their own president was worth it.
I am not sure what will happen with Obama. He is charismatic and intelligent, that is for sure. But there is a lot of campaigning ahead and I think real life might catch up to the orator.
Kathie:
McCain disagreed with Bush, he did not diss him. On the two most important and controversial issues that Bush faced, immigration and the war, McCain stuck with him. That is more than can be said for a lot of Bush’s socalled base.
I remember at one debate McCain said that the president deserved praise for hanging in there and it dawned on me at the time that most of those guys standing up there made a point of ignoring Bush as much as possible.
How about a McCain/Dole ticket!!!
Yea!!!
McCain/Perot
Oh, my…
The Maverick Party!!!
AJ,
I’m having a really difficult time linking the article but at http://www.theanchoressonline.com there is a beautiful article titled ‘Bush rescues his own SS Agent” I think you will enjoy it as many others will because it documents what the author feels is a President who has been abandoned by the base that he did so much for.
It’s pretty long with lots of links, videos and quotes but it’s worth the trip.
Anti-immigration is a big winner, isn’t it?
I enjoy being right, don’t you?
SJR
The Pink Flamingo
Huck just said he is staying in till the end in case it’s a brokered convention
lot of speculation out there Rudy will endorse Mc at the Ca debate tomorrow
Major switching of registration for the primaries here according to CNN exit polls 3% of rep voters identified themselves as Dems 17% as independents who had switched for the primary only
41% of Mc voters identified as independents
RUMOR has it Mc put Crist on the short list for VP to get his endorsement
20% of voters on republican primary were temporary registration crossovers
Orange County (orlando) has 17 votes margin with Mitt ahead with 91% in
Huck holding on to a big conservative block is what is messing up this whole primary season
MerlinOS2,
So, do you see that as a positive for McCain in the general or just a vote during the primaries to insure that McCain gets the nomination because those Dems and Indys don’t think he can beat Hillary or Obama so they want his as the Rep. candidate?
Hard to say depending on if the are independents that will stick with Mc or if they are just playing monkey wrench stuff, but there were a lot of anybody but Mc votes tonight also so there you have to guess what will happen
So far by CNN I show a rough total both sides of 2 1/2 million with 77% in
We had a major property tax item on the ballot that drew a lot in today
Will be interesting later to see how many independent issue only ballots were cast compared to the old number of independent voters that were on the list.
The could change registration 30 days before the primary and will switch back up to 30 days before the general
Happens here all the time and lots of reports in the local papers about it again this election
So far in most of the primaries to date exit polls show about 40% of Mc support is from independents so we will see
But remember the full exit polls here did not take into account the absentee or early voters which were almost 1 million in total here
600 k for Mc 1 million against him by the rep side 80% in