Of Mitt, John and Hillary

First, let me just say I'm going to miss Mitt. Who else will deliver unto us such overflowing vats of preposterous swill, such as that which he dispensed yesterday at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

"I must now stand aside, for our party and our country." Note the pathos.

"If I fight on in my campaign ... I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win." Note the selflessness.

"And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror." Note the absolute crap.

All of which in his final sendoff he rebundled in one pathos-laden, utterly selfless chunk of the purest crappola: "If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America."

The man is an embarrassment to professional demagoguery. He's always trying too hard. But it's that very quality that I'll miss. For rare is the plutocrat who will spend $35 million of his own money to make an over-eager fool of himself -- which Mrs. Mitt and all the little Mitts must have finally, desperately pointed out to him -- or, as reported by the New York Times, will lay out more than $650,000 on each and every delegate acquired.

By way of comparison, Huckabee spent only around $45,000 on each delegate, and McCain, $57,000. The record-holder, though? You may think it is, or should be, Ron Paul, coming in at about $4 million a delegate. But no, it was Rudy, coughing up $48 million -- for one. Fiscal conservatives, all.

And speaking of conservatives, that's a word that Mr. McCain used 17 times yesterday in his own CPAC address (transcript). Dwight Eisenhower may have thought he had problems in 1952, battling all those GOP neanderthals to his right, but his was a cakewalk compared to the contemporary spectacle.

But I'll give McCain credit. He didn't pander, despite the "conservative" repetition. And if anything, he used the word more as an outsider looking in, acknowledging that the conservative sandbox isn't really his, in sentiment or organization.

In his opening remarks he even seemed to revel in highlighting the alienation: "Many of you have disagreed strongly with some positions I have taken in recent years. I understand that. I might not agree with it, but I respect it for the principled position it is." The principled position it is, with the "it" just hanging there, seemingly divorced from McCain's philosophical core.

That's striking, actually, when you stop to consider that McCain's American Conservative Union rating is 82 percent. But the alienation is also a comment on the prehensile vagaries of ideological purity and extremism. To hear it from the fringe -- on both the right and the left -- its leaders are never pure enough, never extreme enough, never -- like itself -- saintly enough.

As was reflected in the words of St. Rush this week: "There is a greater desire on the part of members of our party to destroy certain elements of our party, than there is a unified party desire to defeat Democrats." Go for it.

McCain, however, is already in the happy position of not really wanting identification with the Limbaugh-CPAC crowd. There are far too many fish in the middle of the sea -- self-identified moderate Republicans, screaming independents and conservative Democrats -- to warrant the risk of a Goldwater-like flameout. McCain's minuscule worry over Limbaugh's contentment couldn't be located with an electron microscope. In fact, Limbaugh's discontent is a possible plus for the Arizona senator, who's intent on not repeating the extremist mistakes of his forerunner.

Yet party unity is always a plus, too. About that, there is no doubt. And there remains one way for McCain to have it all -- the purists, the independents, the RINOs, the whole middle-to-center-right-to-far-right thing -- without breaking an ideological sweat.

And that, of course, is for the Democrats to nominate Hillary -- the most offensive bugaboo known to Reactionary Man.

The independents would hold for McCain, as they always have, while the right-wing Robespierres would come home. They'd coalesce around their once-dubious guy as if they were battling the AntiChrist herself in the final Armageddon. And it's a battle they're eager for -- foretold, as they'd like to believe, in stone.

Mr. McCain is probably sending Hillary checks in this, her time of financial woe. For no one wants to see her succeed, for now, like John and his would-be friends.

Comments

[Dave]

Mitt made me sick yesterday at CPAC. I happy about one thing though. Since Mitt is so committed to victory in Iraq and the "War on terrah", he can now suit up his 5 sons for military duty as they are no longer "Serving their country" by helping him get elected.

[Chumley the Walrus]

Conditions are near perfect for an independant candidate to win the Presidency.

[NCBlueneck]

I almost feel bad for Mitt's spectacular flame-out (operative word here is almost). But I always found Mitt to be like a plastic onion. You peel back one layer and you reveal another layer of plastic. The man was like a cartoon game show host. He was about as "Presidential" as Wink Martindale.

[Jeffrey Zahn]

Forget the pundit-desired intra-party battle: start the campaign for the Presidency against the presumptive Republican nominee McCain right now!

We've seen Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton debating and campaigning against each other for nearly a year. They both acknowledge their policies differences are slight, but they both have enormous differences with the Republican candidates. Why not take this golden opportunity to show the voters in the remaining primary states how each candidate will campaign for the Presidency itself against the Republicans. This is a new way, a new data point, for Barack and Hillary to display any differences they might have, campaign style, without having to go after each other.

It helps the party by promoting a sense of unity instead of playing into the media chorus for a schism. It improves the Democratic message by yielding two simultaneous and powerful voices against the Republican machine. And it puts the Republican presumptive nominee in a more difficult position by having to battle not one candidate, but two.

Many have been trying to convince the Democrats that not having a nominee by now puts us at a disadvantage, but nothing could be further from the truth. The Democrats are actually an enviable position. Add to this the fact that John McCain needs to spend the next several weeks to months moving to the right to shore up his base, thus making him an even easier target for the Democratic candidates, and Democrats can comfortably realize they should all be thrilled they have two potent candidates still actively on their side.

[MYKIEL]

I agree completely with Jeffry. If McCain wraps this up this weekend, by Tuesday it will be old news. Then ALL the newstime will be devoted to the Dems. MacCain will be forced to attack BOTH of them to cover all bases splitting his little alotted time between the two. In the meanitime, during the debates (and if B.O. wasnt so misquided he would have agreed to all the free network airtime he could get.) they could have both used any oportunity they had to go after McCain. The last debate between Hillary and B.O. was the highest rated debate EVER on a cable station and was just shy of the ratings on ABC before that. It would actually be great for the party and the eventual nominee to keep it going until the convention. The media frenzy would be at a pitch and the nominee would have all that energy and attention going into the campaign against McCain.

One more thing. This supposed hatred of Hillary exists ONLY among the extreme right (that also hates McCain) the extreme left and the media. It does NOT exist in the real world. If you dont believe me, take a look at the primary results so far this year. In most cases, even with her splitting the votes with B.O. she got more than the winner of the Repugs and often came close to getting as much as ALL of them combined. Even when she lost to B.O. she beat the repug.
McCain got less than fifty percent of the REPUBLICAN vote in Arizona his lifelong home state. Hillary came within 20k votes of him. Hillary kicked ass in Arkansas and also the neighboring states of Oklahoma and Tennessee. The fact that Missouri was so close is more of a failing for B.O. than Hillary since southern Illinois and St. Louis are culturing connected. Not to mention that Hillary hasnt lived in ARkansas for sixteen years and she totally kicked Huckabees ass and they still love her in the surrounding states.
So keep up with the *everyone hates Hillary*...I have a friend (57) years old , female, who has been a life long republican. She voted for Hillary in the California primary. One reason was because of the constant pile on which is getting more and more irrational and unjustified and she is taking it as sexist attacks and its pissing her off (she owns her own business and knows what its like) So the more everyone attacks Hillary for undefined, nebulous reasons the more people who are undecided will go to her side because the more you do it the more it looks like outright sexism....
*why do right wing extremeists hate Hillary?* because she is a strong woman that they couldnt take down even after they threw everything that they had at her. It hasnt worked yet.
Now its actually having the backlash effect.
So keep it up..and be reminded that everytime you bash her one more pissed off woman somewhere is switching to Hillary.

One more point:
IF the primary contest between Hillary and B.O. were the general election Hillary would have won so far(without Florida and Michigan) 161 ELECTORAL votes to B.O.s 116. She would be leading 58% to 42% in vote count. If you include Florida and Michigan she would be winning 66% to 34% in electoral vote count. (205-116) Most of Hillarys are from states that the dems will likely win(Their combined votes easily surpassed the combined repugs) while many of B.O.'s come from states that they probably wont win(him and Hillarys combined did NOT equal or surpass the repugs) Winning big in New York, California, New Jersey and Arizona means a lot more than winning big in Illinois Mississippi, Alaska and Utah.