Archive → February, 2008
Rice won’t run… or co-run
One of the best Republicans in the country still steadfastly refuses to consider running for elected office, even as someone else’s running mate. Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice, whose foreign policy expertise and broad appeal could help John McCain win back conservative report while also blunting the effect of a Hillary or Barack-fronted Democratic ticket, confirmed again this weekend she has no plans or higher poltical aspirations than to serve out her term as Secretary of State for George W. Bush and then return to the private sector.
“I have always said that the one thing that I have not seen myself doing is running for elected office,” Rice said at a news conference. “I didn’t even run for high school president. It’s sort of not in my genes.”
McCain, who is so old he needs to wear a medical id bracelet just to cross the street, could have his candidacy significantly bouyed by Rice’s inclusion on the ticket, has not confirmed whether he’s asked Rice or not, but it appears pointless. Of course, it is the fact that better-qualified candidates has sat on the sidelines this presidential year that has led to a weak, liberal Republican like McCain becoming the GOP nominee.
SNL’s return rates big
Tina Fey, Carrie Underwood, a long writer’s strike and the new presidential race all combined to make this past weekend’s Saturday Night Live broadcast the most-watch episode of the late night comedy jam the highest-rated in two years, pulling in a 6.1 rating.
Host Tina Fey, the former head writer of SNL, returned to keep the show’s political balance intact for a change, with an opening sketch that made fun of the news media’s tendency to fawn over Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular; the show also made fun of Mike Huckabee, who appeared in a Weekend Update cameo making fun of his own hopeless dark horse candidacy to upset John McCain’s all-but-certain GOP nomination.
While typically uneven from sketch to sketch, the show was fresh and funny more often than not and the entire cast deserves a free pair of golf shoes.
Mitt drops out
It was the wrong decision, for all the right reasons.
Mitt Romney is a conservative who cares about the present and the future of his party. He doesn’t want to see the GOP resort to a nasty nomination brawl and, after the campaign dirty tricks that helped rob him of West Virginia and possibly other states, Romney took a move out of the Ronald Reagan playbook and decided to drop out early, recognizing Sen. John McCain’s bulldog-like lead in the delegate race, and all the computer memory in the world won’t make it make sense; at least, not this year.
Romney could have had a chance had California fallen his way, but such was not the case. Like Reagan, he recognized the inevitability and that this was not his time. Just as Reagan bowed out early in 1976, allowing Gerald Ford to face off with Jimmy Carter, so too did Romney bow out to Sen. John McCain, who will have to face a difficult opponent in the fall in the person of either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
What this guarantees are a few certainties.
1. Whoever wins the White House will be a former U.S. Senator, not a former governor. This is troublesome, since executive experience at a state level usually makes for a far better presidency.
2. Whoever wins the White House, it will be a victory for liberalism … which may be the perfect antidote to America’s flirtation with the left. It worked well in 1994; after only two years of Democrats controlling everything, America rebelled, scared primarily by the shadow of HillaryCare, and put the GOP back in control of both houses of Congress, primarily thanks to Newt Gingrich’s vision and leadership. Whether it’s President Obama, President Rodham or President McCain, the libs will be in charge in 2009, unless voters overturn the Dem advantage in one or both houses of Congress.
3. Conservatives have no horse in this race, at the presidential level. However, instead of staying home, they should take this time to get involved at the grassroots level, unseat the liberal country-club Republicans who control the party, and lay the groundwork to take back the GOP for conservatives. (Real ones, not RINOs like McCain.)
Whether 2012 is about defeating President Rodham, President Obama, or even replacing President McCain in 2016, if conservatives don’t withdraw but lay grassroots groundwork for the future, the next GOP primary won’t have to be determined by crossover Democrats out to screw us over, let alone “Democrat in disguise” independents who regularly caucus with the GOP but ultimately vote Democratic.
By demonstrating party loyalty, Reagan withdrew from the 1976 race only to come back four years later and ride a conservative tidal wave, not only to his party’s nomination but into the White House and ultimately into history. Whether the conservative future is with him or another conservative, it’s clear Romney’s hope is that 2012 or 2016 will mark the beginning of a similar era; it may even ultimately be referred to as the Romney Revolution.
Romney takes Bloomington … and Minnesota!
Let it never be said that WonderfulPessimist.com is all blog and no action. I’m not just a bunch of fiber optic cables and high-speed Internet.
Yours truly is now the precinct chair of the GOP in my little neck of the woods in Minnesota. It’s a two-year chair term and I’ll do what I can to help conservatives be successful here. And I’ll be doing my part to help win the battle against the leftward drift of the party, typified by presidential candidate John McCain.
Already, there are encouraging signs that the precinct will see things the WonderfulPessimist.com way; Mitt Romney won our precinct straw poll over McCain, 37-20. No one else was close. I think Hucka-bust had 17. While Romney isn’t the ideal candidate, he’s the best chance the GOP has to avoid liberal drift within the party, and despite being a precinct chair, you can bet WonderfulPessimist.com will remain a Reagan conservative first and foremost, a Republican second, as far as politics goes.
That said, signs are not yet as encouraging as one might hope on the national front for Mitt; hopefully California will turn in his favor by the time all the votes are counted. In the meantime, remember the difference between this conservative blogger and the cloud of others; WonderfulPessimist.com actually gets involved and tries to make a difference!
