Bull Moose Strikes Back

Last month, I asked readers: “Would you, could you, vote McCain?” How about now? At the moment, I’m with Rush: “I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee.” - Michelle Malkin

I have to stop listening to the radio and reading political blogs for awhile. I just can’t take any more crazy talk about not supporting the Republican nominee in the general election if it is John McCain, which looks all but certain now.

Now, McCain has his flaws. In fact, it’d hard for me to understand how he was my first choice for president in 2000 unless I knew that he fell in love with his own media created image as a “Maverick Republican” (as opposed to a Goose Republican, I guess) over the last eight years and changed. But come on. No matter how iffy he is on tax policy, illegal immigration policy, or judges, he would be much better than Hillary or Obama on any of those. And on Iraq, the war on terror in general, and a lot of fiscal issues he’s very much in tune with the Republican base where Hillary or Obama are polar opposites of the base. It’s almost too bad the Democratic Congress hasn’t done anything. If they had I could ask Republican voters if sitting at home in ‘06 was a mistake they wanted to repeat. I’d wonder if it was part of a larger strategy, but I don’t think San Fran Nan and Pinky operate on that scale.

I hardly think turning over the country to a Democratic congress with no check other than a dyed-in-the-wool socialist like Hillary, or a left mystery like Obama is the move that Republicans want to make just because John McCain has been on the wrong side of some issues. I think Rush Limbaugh and his ilk are going to (or do) realize that and are going to look awfully silly in the late summer when they do a 180 and start singing John McCain’s praises.

If they don’t, I think it’ll be out of some bizarre belief that America could take such a beating for four years that it will prompt a true conservative hero to ride to our rescue in 2012, like Reagan did after four years of Carter. That’s taking an awfully big risk that history will repeat itself, especially when you consider that we haven’t even recovered fully, and likely never will, from FDR or LBJ, much less Carter.

There’s nothing wrong with supporting another candidate in the primaries, and pointing out John McCain’s flaws is fine. But conservative talking heads going out on a limb to declare they might not support a Republican candidate in the general election is just silly.

UPDATE: Bob at eCache thinks that falling in behind McCain against Hillary or Obama would make me a party stooge. (He didn’t quite put it that way, but I think that’s the thrust.) If that’s the price I have to pay to keep Hillary or Obama out of the Oval Office, I guess I’m a stooge.

UPDATE 2: I like this quote from an Althouse commenter on the subject: “The fit of pique that overcame the party’s better judgment in 1992 got us Justices Ginsburg and Breyer - seats that might otherwise have gone to Starr, Easterbrook, Kozinski, or any number of people who would have been preferable. People need to get a grip, focus on what matters, and confront the reality of McCain rather than a myth that is grossly disconnected from whatever his actual failings happen to be.”

UPDATE 3: John Hawkins has an article at Townhall.com that says the same thing about McCain. The emotional money quote: “May God forgive us if we condemn a million plus children a year to death by abortion because we’re angry at John McCain.”

The pragmatic money quote: “[W]hat’s our alternative? President Hillary Rodham Clinton or President Barack Obama, socialized medicine, losing the war in Iraq, allowing Al-Qaeda to run wild for 4 years, exploding deficits, huge tax increases, and a liberal leaning Supreme Court for the next decade. “

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