When Connie Chung asked Bobby Knight how he dealt with stress, the recently-retired coaching legend famously replied, “I think that if rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it.”
Hillary (or Obama, same thing) versus McCain now looks inevitable, but there will be no relaxing or enjoying going on here. Not when we’re talking about my country. I will continue to confront the disastrous ideas of American liberalism, whether they come from Clinton, Obama, McCain or anyone else. No way will I stand by as the American taxpayer is asked to bend over for increased government largesse or redistributive policies designed to take from those who achieve and give to those who do little to add to America’s prosperity.
It looks like we’ve lost the battle; now it’s time for war, a war of ideas. Over the next four years, we must do everything possible to make sure that the good people of this country never again face the “choice” between a liberal Democrat and a liberal Republican.
I wish I could just wash my hands of the whole process and sit this election out. Unfortunately, I decided a few years back that I would do everything in my power to make sure Hillary Clinton never becomes President. Since Hillary won her Senate seat, I’ve had this recurring nightmare that she would become President and her husband would become head of the United Nations, cementing the Clinton’s secret plan of world domination.
But John McCain? The same John McCain who will speak before CPAC (the conservative political action committee) tomorrow and attempt to show them that he really is a conservative? You’ve served in Congress for 25 years, McCain. If you were one of us, we would know it by now.
Jed Babbin wrote a decent article today. In it he writes:
One source told me last night that McCain is planning an all-out push at CPAC. At 3 pm tomorrow, McCain is scheduled to address the crowd expected to number over 6,000 activists… McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly. This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”
Very few of the 2008 CPAC crowd will see McCain as the successor to Reagan and Reagan’s principles. McCain has sacrificed conservatives’ fundamental beliefs throughout his Senate career. If McCain uses this introduction, the boos will be very loud.
Meanwhile, Fred Barnes wants conservatives to “grow up.” I respect Barnes, but the only thing McCain and the great Goldwater have in common is their home state of Arizona. Barnes writes:
McCain, probably alone among Republicans, can win this fall, but not without the full-blown support of conservatives. If he continues to reach out to them while running as a conservative, they need to heed Barry Goldwater’s advice in 1960. “Let’s grow up, conservatives,” he said. “If we want to take this party back, and I think we can, let’s get to work.”
That is weak, Barnes. John McCain has spent most of his career preventing conservatives from taking the party back. You know this to be true, yet you tell those of us who stand for principles before party to grow up. I say “grow a pair, Fred.”
I will probably decide to plug my nose and check John McCain’s name this fall, even though a very large part of me agreed with Rush Limbaugh yesterday when he asked, “If you think that the election of Obama, Hillary, or McCain is going to result in very bad things happening to the country, who would you rather get the blame for it?” I’m sure I’ll be breaking that decision down more as the election gets closer, but the important thing is what else we will do to make sure things are different four years from now.
