Dear Super Tuesday

Finally, you're here!  As I sit up tonight, anxiously awaiting your arrival, I have a few things to ask of you.

This year- the biggest Super Tuesday ever (even though I've heard at least three different counts of how many states are going to vote)- your day will count nearly as much as the general election in November.

Although you really don't have any control over this, please keep the main stream media from spinning your results in a manner favorable to John McCain and Hillary Clinton.  On that note, please provide results favorable to Mitt Romney.

My latter request isn't all that far fetched, given the Governor's continuing climb in the polls; in most cases leaving just a narrow gap between him and Sen. McCain.  Now that the conservative base is fired up- perhaps Mitt Romney will be propelled to victory.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I hope that all of the candidates (except for Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee) have enough sense to continue their primary efforts.  Roughly half of the country should not be able to decide the presidential nominees for the rest of us (some of us live in states like NC who don't get to vote until May 6th).

Sincerely,

Nick

The real flip floppers

Throughout the Republican presidential nominating contest thus far, much attention has been given to Mitt Romney and his drastically changing views on several issues.  While it is only fair to examine a candidate's record, it is not fair to mold sound bytes from an unsuccessful campaign that took place over a decade ago and use them as the basis for your claims of flip flopping.

What galls me, however, is the lack of attention that is being paid to the flip flopping being done by Mr. Romney's opponents: John McCain and Mike Huckabee.  Not only have both of them hanged their positions on issues from stances that they have taken recently, but they have also taken offense to anyone who questions their record.

For instance, Mike Huckabee has sought to align himself with some fiscal conservatives by becoming a leader in the Fair Tax movement.  But if we look to his record as Governor of Arkansas we see that a Fair Tax would have only stunted the amount of money he could have collected- each dime being needed more and more every time he wanted to raise spending.  Go to a Huckabee rally, however, and you find crowds of Fair Tax supporters adamantly supporting Mr. Huckabee-- all seemingly oblivious to their new found candidate's past as a fiscal liberal.

In what has got to be one of the largest flip flops ever, Mr. McCain is now releasing ads touting himself as a "true conservative".  If John McCain is a true conservative, then I must be as Libertarian as Ron Paul.   One need not look any further than a meeting between Mr. McCain and a room full of lawyers early in his campaign in which he called Samuel Alito too conservative.  Or, if you agree with his assessment of Justice Alito, you can look to his legislative efforts in the Senate: McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Leiberman, McCain-Kennedy-Edwards.  Each of these bills championed causes that were opposed by "true conservatives", such as campaign finance reform, amnesty for illegal immigrants, radical environmental reforms, and a patient's bill of rights that favors trial lawyers.  While one need not disagree with all of those positions to be a "true conservative", one cannot take each of those positions and still claim to be a champion of the conservative movement.

My real issue with Sen. McCain, however, is his inability to take criticism.  In New Hampshire, Mitt Romney launched a series of ads telling viewers about the two candidates' records.  Of course, much of the record that was uncovered in the ads were the same things that I mentioned above, and did not do very much to paint McCain as a conservative.  Rather than defend himself and his record, Mr. McCain attacked Mr. Romney for "attacking" him.  Only in presidential politics can one person call the strategy of bringing their record to light an attack-- and then get away with attacking the other person for it.  But the McCain camp's attacks do not stop with Romney's campaign tactics.  We have now recently seen an effort on the party of Sen. McCain to make Mr. Romney appear in favor of a war i Iraq.  If ever there was a time to cry foul, it would be on Mr. McCain for his outright fabrication of the truth.

If voters want someone who can stick to their positions and not change their public comments as called for by the electorate, they will support Mitt Romney (or Ron Paul if they're middle-aged and still living with their mothers).  And maybe at some point the main stream media will get a clue.

This year's real constituency

Last night I was visiting with a friend at a retirement home in my hometown of Fayetteville.  This lady is absolutely wonderful and I enjoy having discussions with her (our discussion last night went on for nearly two and a half hours!).  For the first time since I've had the pleasure of knowing her our conversation turned to politics.

"I don't even care who about I'm going to vote for yet," she said.  "They all sound the same to me."

Although I may not agree with her, many Americans do and I certainly understand her point.  To the average citizen, who doesn't spend their day on realclearpolitics.com or at least peruse Carl Cameron's vlog on the Fox News website once in a while, this election may seem to have become stagnant.  As each side narrows their fields down to two clear front runners (sorry Ron and Mike), the race becomes less of an adventure and more of a battle where two candidates fight to see who can repeat the same rhetoric more often.  On the Democratic side we even have the two candidates fawning over each other as though they're long lost relatives.

While that certainly cannot be said for the GOP race, we certainly beginning to see the same old lines over and over again.  Yes, John, we know you think Mitt "wants to withdraw our troops from Iraq."  We also know that you're a veteran and that you think such a status entitles you to never be questioned on any part of your record ever.  And you, Mr. Romney.  We realize that you can "bring together the conservative coalition."  Yes- we got that you spent a lifetime working in "the real economy" (isn't that a clever phrase?) and we know you have a picture perfect family.

Even the messages of change are beginning to grow stagnant.  Although Obama may have laid claim to it first, it was quickly snatched up by Huckabee, Clinton (of course someone who IS washington can change it) and, most recently, Romney (I tend to put my trust in the latter).

Before candidates can begin to fight for voters in November, they're going to have to get their attention.

John McCain's greatest enemy...

is himself.  That's my take following tonight's debate at the Reagan Library.

There is no question that McCain is certainly the candidate to beat following his win in Florida (as much as it pains me to say it).  And tonight his attitude was certainly that of the cocky high school quarterback asking out the captain of the cheerleading team.  Of course, who could blame him: three major primary victories, the endorsement of Rudy Giuliani, the expected endorsement of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his long-standing lead in the national polls.  At the same time, the maverick isn't in the clear yet.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the competition between he and Mitt Romney is still close enough for an upset finish on Tuesday... an overly confident Senator from Arizona would only play to Mitt's advantage.

In addition to his cocky demeanor, McCain has also taken to outright lying about Romney's record on the war in Iraq.  If he wasn't criticizing the Governor from Massachusetts for his alleged support of a troop withdrawal, he was criticizing him for his negative attacks.  Oh the irony.  So much for straight talk, huh?

While we're on the subject of the debate, allow me to point out that Mike Huckabee has already taken his spot as the third wheel.  During tonight's debate he reminded Anderson Cooper several times that there was a third person in the race (unfortunately, there is a fourth too... poor Ron Paul).  Has Mr. Edwards already taken my advice and called Mr. Huckabee's campaign?

Every political commentator in the country said that Mr. Romney would have to pull some pretty big punches in order to come off as successful in tonight's debate.  While I'm not quite sure Mitt lived up to his end of the deal, Mr. McCain did the dirty work for him.

Goodbye John

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later.  Finally, this morning, John Edwards withdrew from the presidential race.

I'm not sure I really blame him for staying in as long as he did.  In fact, I half expected him to stay in longer and use his delegates to broker a deal in his favor at the convention late this summer.  But after hearing the news of a spot already being reserved for him in the Obama administration as Attorney General I guess staying in the race isn't really necessary after all.  Whether he was staying in the race to gain power at the convention or not, I believe that he served a purpose.

After the debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Myrtle Beach last week I had a chance to do a one-on-one interview with Edwards's senior advisor Joe Trippi.  Not surprisingly, his overall message seemed to echo what his candidate tried to remind everyone of throughout that night's debate: that there were three people left in the race- and the third person wasn't staying in just for the fun of it. 

I feel as though John Edwards hung around as long as he could to be a constant reminder that the presidential race wasn't about race or gender or slum lords or executive boards but, rather, about substantive issues.  Whether you agree with Mr. Edwards or not (I, of course, do not) you have to applaud him for not being so willing to lay down for the Clinton-Obama steamroller that seems to have run over this year's presidential race.

His departure, however, was certainly inevitable.  Now, lets hope that his people call Ron Paul's people and maybe even manage to convince Mike Huckabee's people that their campaign is become more and more of an exercise in futility too.

Dear South Carolina

Thank you.  

Over the past week you have brought out the true colors of the Democratic party.  Without you, the world would still be left thinking that Barack Obama just wants to hope, Hillary Clinton just wants to better America (as she chokes up with emotion conveniently a few days before the New Hampshire primary) and John Edwards just wants to help poor people.

Alright... John Edwards does just wants to help poor people, but the other two have began to shed their campaign messages of hope and happiness and have started to go at one another.  Of course, as a Republican I couldn't be happier.

The real culprit behind all of this is Hillary Clinton (or maybe her husband- I can't remember who's running).  Faced with an almost certain loss in South Carolina, the team devised a strategy to polarize the state's electorate to the point where nobody could expect a win from anyone but Obama, who gains a favorable advantage from being Black.  Their strategy for losing South Carolina is kind of like Mitt Romney's- only less laid back and meaner.  Rather than just accept a loss, they've created a reason for it.  "We're not Black," they're chiming.  Even as Bill walks the streets of Black neighborhoods, he knows that the stunt is a futile effort at coming off as gaining favor within the Palmetto state's Black community.

I was at Zion Baptist Church- one of the state's oldest Black Churches- in Columbia, South Carolina for the NAACP's MLK Gospel Service last Sunday covering the election.  A planned appearance by John Edwards is actually what brought me to the church.  As I walked around the pews looking for someone who would let me interview them, I asked one lady if she was an Edwards supporter.  "I used to be," she said, "because he was for helping the poor.  But then Barack Obama started doing well and I just have no choice but to vote for him."

Everyone who has a shred of a clue knows that Barack will carry the heavily minority state.  Bill and Hillary have just decided to exemplify that fact.

No matter, though.  Please continue ripping your party apart on the lines of who-supports-who while the Republicans quietly duke it out in Florida and then go onto Super Tuesday.  Maybe by the summer whoever gets the nomination will have alienated one portion of the party so badly that a Republican victory is but assured (even if, by a freak accident, Ron Paul were to get the nomination).