After the first vote in the West Virginia caucus, Romney was just short of the majority he needed to take the delegates. Realizing what was happening, all McCain's supporters departed en mass and settled in Huckabee's camp. This sort of thing does not happen without some sort of deal. I don't know what kind of deal it is, but it stinks like...well a West Virginia hog farm.
Now, the Republican front-runner by a wide margin is John McCain. As Peggy Noonan, Reagan's speech writer and biographer, puts it: McCain is the Moe Greene of the Republican Party. Ms. Noonan had a pretty good analysis of the situation even before today:
But Mr. Huckabee seems very happy running, and perhaps happy thinking of his future as the Mitt slayer in the party of John.Wall Street Journal, February 1, 2008
Mr. McCain seems to me to have two immediate problems, both of which he might address. One is that he doesn't seem to much like conservatives, and never has. They can't help admire him, but they've disagreed with him on so many issues, and when they bring this up his demeanor tends to morph into the second problem: He radiates, he telegraphs, a certain indignation at being questioned by people who've never had to vote in Congress and make a deal. He's like Moe Greene in "The Godfather," when Michael Corleone tells him he's going to buy him out. "Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene. I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders." I've been on the firing line, punk. I am the voice of surviving conservatism.
This doesn't always go over so well. Mr. Giuliani seems to know Mr. McCain is Moe Greene. Mr. Huckabee probably thought "The Godfather" was kinda violent. Mr. Romney may be thinking to himself, But Michael Corleone won in the end, and had better suits.
Let's hope Michael...I mean Mitt...wins again. Otherwise, I will reregister as Libertarian.
1 comment:
I can't tell you how many times I've read or heard this opinion, which I share, to the point that I previously re-registered as a libertarian. Then I realized that in CA the republican primary is a closed one. So I had to re-re-register as a republican to participate in the primary. With this outcome it seems I'll be re-re-re-registering as a libertarian. But now I don't know what to do with my vote in November. I don't want it to be wasted, but I have such a difficult time supporting someone like John McCain. That said, he would still be a better alternative than either Senators' Clinton or Obama.
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