Topsy Turvey Time

Dear K,

Just a note. Another big day tomorrow. My great hope is that Romney will finally, fully, and indisputably be knocked out of the race. To my mind that's happened already, but the conservative intelligentsia (most of them) still cling to the hope that that the voter will come to his senses finally and appreciate their vast insight and vote for the only true blue conservative who can persevere the jobs of the conservative intelligentsia.

I presume he'll lose in Michigan. If the home state boy loses perhaps it will finally be evident to even an intellectual that nobody likes him. --It's possible he could come in third behind Huckabee. --Nevada, where only Romney has campaigned, could be another loss. Since it's considered a given for Romney it's not considered an important win; it would be considered an important loss.

Hillary will win Michigan --she's the only one on the ballot-- but there could be a strong vote for "Uncommitted", which would be an embarrassment; and Obama is picking up in Nevada, and could win.

This is an extraordinary season, I can't keep up with all that's happening. The last few days the Democrat party seems to be fracturing over matters of race. Actually, they're fracturing over the question of power. A great many Democrats hate Hillary. Now that she's seen as vulnerable a lot are speaking up. There is no principle or philosophy involved here, it's just this question: Will the Party be the fiefdom of Bill and Hill, or of Kerry and Kennedy?

Among conservatives by far the most intellectually interesting guy is Huckabee. He's the only one trying to put together a new, post-Reagan coalition. So the powers that be hate him, this is why he's portrayed as a dunce. He's actually very smart, and most importantly, not ossified; his mind does think. My own response to the conservative pundits is that 90% of those I used to read I read no more, other than to mock them.

Conservatives are in an ideological breakup, Democrats are only having an in-house fight for power.

(McCain, by-the-way, is respected about as much as Paris Hilton; with both their only interest is to be in front of the cameras.)

So it's a very fractured season. Tomorrow, if Obama, McCain, an Huckabee do well, a lot of people are going to be in a tizzy.


See you, --Mouse

PS
(Blog post only)
Is there more I should have written? On the Republican side the only variable I'm considering is "viability", who will people vote for as a leader. I ignore voting blocks, I ignore issues. Those are all givens at this point anyway, certainly in the case of McCain and Romney. Their positions are known as well as they're ever going to be known, and no voter demographics are going to change overnight. I'm not trying to predict numbers, only movement. The only real question I see is: Has Romney wiped out? Ordinarily his emotional appeal to his home state, and his promise --as a businessman-- to take special care to bring Michigan back to economic health, would have force... but does anybody believe him now? If he's not believed he's done.

Huckabee could still appeal on issues. His "economic populism" is something new. If he can explain it in the short time he'll be instate campaigning, it could resonate. But I don't know if he can explain it. It seems to be a different cast of philosophy, a concern for the worker's bottom line as well as for that of the corporation. To my mind this could lead to intelligent policy that could be broadly supported, it doesn't seem to me that it's necessary that labor should resent management --but the specifics are cloudy. I would say anything that gets rid of economic theory as worship would be a plus. Once theory is just theory it becomes a tool, it can be utilized alongside other concepts, and other concepts can be respected. It's the rigidity of the economic conservatives that's fracturing the party.

As to the Dems...? Who cares? I certainly see this from the outside. It's a cat fight. Can Hillary hatred win? That's the only "issue" I'm able to recognize. Who in the world would vote for such an unloved woman? It seems to me her only apeal is the presumption she has power, and that presumption is quaking.

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The Real McCain Record
Obstacles in the way of conservative support.

Mark Levin has an excellent article listing the many cosy-up-to-liberals positions McCain has taken. The reason McCain can so well work with liberals is because he very much is one, at least in terms of loving to be loved. McCain, legislatively, is a fool. Levin is right in every criticism. But he gets foolish in his last paragraph:

My fingers are crossed that at the next debate, either Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney will find a way to address McCain’s record. (Mike Huckabee won’t, as he is apparently in the tank for him.)

The parenthetical statement is the statement of a dope. Of course Huckabee won't attack McCain, he needs McCain to defeat Mitt. And neither Mitt nor Fred can effectively attack the MaC because they're both seen as clowns and wipeouts. Mark should recognize that this is an election that Reagan conservatives have lost, and he ought to have enough insight to blame himself, as it's he and those like him that pushed forward flipflop Mitt and full-flop Fred.