Politics Blog

“I will campaign for her if it’s McCain.”

I wouldn’t campaign for her. But I’d vote for her if there was no worthwhile or amusing third party candidate.

UPDATE: In further trans-party news, Edwards endorses McCain:

“I just didn’t feel there would be room in the race for two white males who favor leniency for illegal aliens, who opposed Bush’s tax cuts for the rich, who fight man-made global warming, who support limits on so-called free speech in political campaigns, who have worked to hinder approval of conservative judicial nominees, and who stand against the Bush administration’s desire to torture terror suspects with waterboarding.”

— W.C. Varones

Sean Hannity:

“I’ll tell you right now, and I’ve not announced this, but I will be voting for Mitt Romney in this campaign. It’s the first time I’ve stated it publicly. I’ll state it now.”

— PoliPundit

The video of my speech on January 22nd at the ‘Blogs for Life‘ conference, sponsored by the Family Research Council is now available. I want to thank those of you who watched it live for your kind words and for those that requested it and thanks for caring about “Cole’s Story.”

— ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

Just hours before Hillary and Barack’s one on one tinsel town debate, the California Latino community don’t know who Obama is:

Obama? We just don’t know him,” says Hortensia, a Mexican arts and crafts seller at a bustling market in East Los Angeles, the heart of this city’s Hispanic community.

With just days to go until California holds its crucial February 5 primary, Hortensia’s sentiments are a common refrain among Democrat-leaning Hispanics as they weigh the merits of front-runners Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But Obama’s attempts to wrest Latino support away from Clinton appear to have had little effect in California, where a recent Field poll gave the former first lady a 59 percent to 19 percent lead over Obama among Latinos.

Don’t know Obama, how about this. Obama is the MOST Liberal Senator in the US Senate. And while many Latinos are unsure, the one group that just love him are the undocumented illegal population:

Obama has gained support among some Latino leaders however, including the Mexican American Political Association’s president Nativo Lopez.

Lopez told AFP that his organization supported Obama because of the Illinois senator’s record as an advocate of social projects, opposition to the construction of a US-Mexico border wall and support for undocumented workers to be allowed to apply for driving licenses.

I can only imagine what the two candidates are going to “offer” tonight to garner support and votes.

— ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

Bob Novak confirms that McCain thought Alito was too conservative:

McCain, as the “straight talk” candidate, says things off the cuff that he sometimes cannot remember exactly later. Elements of the Republican Party’s right wing, uncomfortable with McCain as their prospective presidential nominee, brought the Alito comments to the surface long after the fact for two contrasting reasons. One was a desperate effort to keep McCain from winning in Florida. The other was to get the party’s potential nominee on record about key issues before he is nominated.

Those key issues do not include McCain’s firmly held nonconservative positions on campaign finance reform and global warming. Rather, conservatives among the second group want two assurances: first, that McCain would veto any tax increase passed by a Democratic Congress; second, that he would not emulate Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush in naming liberal Supreme Court justices such as John Paul Stevens and David Souter.

That was the background for conservative John Fund’s Wall Street Journal online column the day before Florida voted. Fund wrote that McCain “has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito because ‘he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.’ ” In a conference call with bloggers that day, McCain said, “I don’t recall a conversation where I would have said that.” He was “astonished” by the Alito quote, he said, and he repeatedly says at town meetings, “We’re going to have justices like Roberts and Alito.”

I found what McCain could not remember: a private, informal chat with conservative Republican lawyers shortly after he announced his candidacy in April 2007. I talked to two lawyers who were present whom I have known for years and who have never misled me. One is neutral in the presidential race, and the other recently endorsed Mitt Romney. Both said they were not Fund’s source, and neither knew I was talking to the other. They gave me nearly identical accounts, as follows:

“Wouldn’t it be great if you get a chance to name somebody like Roberts and Alito?” one lawyer commented. McCain replied, “Well, certainly Roberts.” Jaws were described as dropping. My sources cannot remember exactly what McCain said next, but their recollection is that he described Alito as too conservative.

– PoliPundit

With the prospect of a John McCain nomination becoming more and more likely, Conservatives talk-radio hosts seem to be accepting that fact, or are they?

Some conservatives are making a last-ditch attempt to block Senator McCain’s path to the Republican presidential nomination, but there are indications that they may have trouble building a broad and well-funded anti-McCain coalition.

A popular talk radio host who has vocally opposed Mr. McCain in recent weeks, Rush Limbaugh, sounded resigned yesterday to the prospect that the Arizona senator will be the Republican nominee. “It looks like McCain’s pretty far down the line now to having wrapped this up,” Mr. Limbaugh said on his program.

This article was written before last nights debate, where Romney had a great night. McCain’s supporters are saying Conservatives are on board with McCain, based on his performance in Florida, but Rush is saying not so fast, my friend:

Mr. Limbaugh argued that Mr. McCain’s win in Florida Tuesday came from liberals, moderates, and independents — and not his conservative listeners. However, he also said he had laid out the case against Mr. McCain, but, “You still made up your minds yesterday.”

Another talk show host and prominent McCain critic, Hugh Hewitt, held out hope that Mr. Romney could muster enough support to beat the Arizona senator. Mr. Hewitt ran out scenarios on his Web log showing that the former Massachusetts governor could remain viable in the delegate race even after Super Tuesday next week.

Club for Growth not to happy with a McCain nomination either:

A leader of an anti-tax group which already ran ads criticizing Mr. Huckabee, the Club for Growth, said a response to Mr. McCain’s win likely would be debated at a club board meeting today. “He’s not very popular among our members,” the club’s executive director, David Keating, said. The Arizona senator’s votes against tax cuts and his crusade to tighten campaign finance laws raised the club’s ire, he said, though Mr. McCain gets credit for efforts to restrain spending and cut pork barrel projects.

Tuesday will certainly settle a lot of this, but it seems a lot of conservatives are not happy with a McCain nomination, while the Clinton’s are ecstatic at the prospect. That should certainly tell you something.

– ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

Great article about how Judi Nathan Giuliani’s past and some of her actions during the campaign contributed to the collapse of Rudy’s candidacy:

She brought enough political baggage to fill a Louis Vuitton trunk.

Indeed, part of Rudy Giuliani’s presidential flameout can be traced back to his Judi - the woman he fell for in a cigar bar in 1999 while he was the married mayor with a wife and two young children at home.

“She was a major part of the reason for Giuliani’s collapse,” said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Rudy wanted to head up the ‘family values’ party, and Judi didn’t fit that label. Even worse, Giuliani was estranged from his children. Their refusal to campaign for him spoke volumes to voters.”

It appears that it wasn’t just any one thing, and there were plenty to choose from:

Among the low notes that brought national embarrassment to the one-time GOP frontrunner: her use of taxpayer-funded NYPD detectives as personal valets and chauffeurs while she was the mayor’s mistress; revelations of a secret past marriage; and interrupting Giuliani’s speech to the National Rifle Association with a cutesy cell phone call to say hi.

Rudy’s campaign and the reason for it’s collapse will be talked about for quite some time. But perhaps it was nothing more than a well known candidate last year having high numbers, dropping off when some of the other candidates became more known. It is no surprise that the Florida finish equals his finish in almost every other state; 12-15% appeared to be his norm.

— ‘The Commish’ A.J. Sparxx

Rush says it best (video included.)

— PoliPundit

1. They say God put Republicans on earth to cut taxes. But John McCain was one of only two Republicans to vote against the Bush tax cuts.

2. McCain was the biggest supporter, and co-sponsor, of McCain-Feingold, the greatest assault on free speech in at least three decades.

3. McCain backs all kinds of anti-gun legislation.

4. McCain attempted to give terrorists at Gitmo various “rights.”

5. McCain supports various intrusive government regulations to stop “global warming.”

6. McCain insulted various Christian leaders during the 2000 campaign.

7. McCain called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth “dishonest and dishonorable” because they dared question what John Kerry had done in Vietnam.

8. McCain championed, sponsored, and repeatedly attempted to ram through a bill to amnesty 20 million illegal aliens, and import tens of millions of poor, low-skilled, under-educated, non-English-speaking Third Worlders.

If Mitt Romney is a “full-spectrum conservative,” McCain is a full-spectrum anti-conservative.

If McCain is selected as the Republican party’s nominee, I will not be able to vote for him, any more than I could vote for Hillary Clinton. I will leave my vote blank at the top of the ticket, or find a third party candidate to support.

— PoliPundit

I’m going to do my damnedest to make sure McCain does not get the nomination. Then we’ll see.

— PoliPundit