By Scott Tibbs, February 8, 2008
With John McCain's victory on Super Tuesday and Mitt Romney's departure from the race for the Republican presidential nomination, there is a good chance that I will be voting for the Libertarian Party candidate on November 4. I can't believe McCain is going to be the Republican Party's nominee. His worst sin, obviously, is the unconstitutional and un-American "campaign finance reform" he pushed through Congress, a "reform" that actually goes to the extreme of regulating the content of political speech. His determination to give amnesty to millions of illegal aliens is not erased by his politically convenient conversion to an advocate for secure borders.
I am very unhappy with Mike Huckabee for playing spoiler and handing the nomination to that RINO, McCain. Had Super Tuesday been a one-on-one contest between Romney and McCain, Romney would have probably walked away the winner and had a clear path to the Republican nomination. Since it was clear that Huckabee was not going to be the Republican nominee for President, he should have dropped out when Rudy Giuliani dropped out instead of splitting the conservative vote. I have to wonder if Huckabee intentionally sabotaged Romney, which does severe damage to Huckabee's conservative credentials.
McCain will not win the general election in November. A Republican candidate cannot win unless he first shores up the conservative base, and McCain will not be able to rebuild the bridges he has burned over the years in nine short months. After President Hillary Clinton or President Barack Hussein Obama takes the oath of office next January, Huckabee's chances of becoming President in 2012 or 2016 are pretty much done. I do not think conservatives are going to forget how Huckabee gave us McCain, and by extension Clinton or Obama.
The New York Times editorial board's complaint that conservatives withholding support from John McCain is "not the way democracy is supposed to work" is as arrogant as it is ignorant. That is exactly the way democracy is supposed to work. Candidates who have significant philosophical differences from the party base cannot expect automatic support from the base. Political parties are supposed to be a gathering of people with common beliefs, not social clubs that only have the goal of political power.
The claim that opposition to McCain is based "on his willingness to actually talk to Democrats" is staggering in its dishonesty. McCain's views are anti-conservative on many fronts. These include his statement to the San Francisco Chronicle in 1999 opposing overturning Roe v. Wade, his open criticism of efforts to prevent government from recognizing homosexual marriage in 2004, his support for amnesty for 12 million illegal aliens, his opposition to tax cuts and his unforgivable support of an unconstitutional and un-American "campaign finance reform" law that actually regulates the content of political speech. McCain is a Republican in name only (RINO).
