Posted by
Steve on Friday, February 01, 2008 1:38:18 PM
The last 24 hours have really made a difference in my outlook on the Republican race. Yesterday, I was resigning myself to the thought that McCain would be the Republican nominee. With all the conservative leaders that have come out in support of Governor Romney in the last 24 hours, I have hope that we can pull it out.
John McCain is the candidate of the Republican establishment. He is the candidate that the old Republican blue bloods want to support. They are not conservatives, they are just pro-business. They controlled the party for many years during the 50’s thru the 70’s.
Mitt Romney is the candidate of the conservative Republican Party. The conservative Republican Party became the dominant group with the Reagan revolution in 1980 and was solidified in 1994 with the Contract with America. The blue bloods to not like the conservatives, they tolerate them like a poor relative.
The media would like a return to the blue blood Republicans controlling the Republican Party. That is when the Democrat Party ruled the roost. The Republicans were the minority party and knew their place. The conservative Republican Party thinks like it should be the dominant party and the Democrats do not like that. The media does not like the fact that their Democrat leaders are not in power when conservative Republicans are leading. So, the media and the Democrats both like the fact that John McCain is winning. That way they can defeat the conservative Republicans and get rid of the stain of conservatives.
In the last few days, more and more conservatives are coming out and supporting Mitt Romney. Today, Rick Santorum and Laura Ingraham announced on her show that they were for Romney. Yesterday, Mark Levin wrote that he is supporting Romney. Sean Hannity announced that he is supporting Romney. That is a pretty powerful lineup of talk show hosts that are supporting Romney.
I am not sure it is enough to make a difference. They only have to have an impact in three or four conservative states to turn the tide away from McCain toward Romney. Right now, McCain is poised to almost perform a knockout blow on Tuesday, Feb. 5. If three or four states turn against him, that would eliminate his lead and allow Romney to pull things out later this month and on March 4. There are three or four states where McCain and Romney are close, like Tennessee.
The fly in the ointment is Mike Huckabee. By him staying in, he makes it that much harder for Mitt Romney to win on Feb. 5. Voters that would vote for Mike Huckabee have to ask themselves if they really want John McCain as the nominee. If they do, then they should continue to support Mike Huckabee or they should vote for John McCain. If they do not want John McCain, they should vote for Mitt Romney. The big difference between the positions of Mike Huckabee is that Mitt Romney understands the danger we face with Islamo-Fascists and Mitt Romney understands the economy better. Their other positions are identical. John McCain is a long way from holding positions that are in any way similar to Mike Huckabee.
The other unknown is what will happen with the Rudy Giuliani voters? Rudy Giuliani endorsed John McCain for President. That should have an impact on where they will go. But, many of the Giuliani supporters were really conservatives that felt he was the one candidate that could win in November. That would mean they would tend to go for Romney.
My hope is that the endorsements of all these talk show hosts will have a positive impact on the campaign. I just hope that enough voters in enough states change their minds and vote for the real conservative candidate in the race. We need a conservative leading the Republican Party. That is our only hope of winning in November 2008. A conservative Republican against the most liberal Senator in Barack Obama would be really interesting.