It’s been a depressing couple of political days lately…week and a half, actually. I’ve always been realistic about how unrealistic the chances are of my 1st choice, Dr. Paul, ascending to the presidency. But now, after the unremarkable campaign of Fred Thompson has ended, Rudy Giuiliani’s Florida/Super Tuesday strategy has gone down in flames and Mike Huckabee has predictably proven to be a 1-hit wonder, I might be left to choose between my two least favorites: John McCain and Mitt Romney. Yuck!
McCain is, as he likes to proclaim, a “straight-shooter”. Problem is, many of his shots are in the wrong direction i.e. man-mad global warming, the evilness of the pharmaceutical industry, campaign-finance reform, etc. (I do believe he has sincerely seen the problem with the immigration bill he tried to ram through last summer) He voted against the tax cuts and has said nothing more than he sign major tax reform if it “hit his desk”. That’s code for “It ain’t my issue and I’m not gonna push it.” And, although both Reagan and W proved you can never be sure, given his aforementioned errant ways, I’m not sure he’d nominate the right people to the federal bench. The only two areas in which I’ve been a big fan of his are national security/foreign policy hawkishness and his stance against federal spending. And if it wasn’t for the fact that Jack Kemp, Phil Gramm and Tom Coburn and the like support him, it’d be easier instead to support…
Mitt Romney. I’m not thrilled about someone to whom labels such as “panderer” and “flip-flopper” can be legitimately affixed. He has just always seemed to slick, too…politician-y. And shouldn’t he have a plan to simplify the tax code? I mean, he’s supposed to be the business guy in this race. Paul, Thompson, Giuliani and Huckabee all have/had such plans. Why doesn’t he? He wants to “clean up Washington” (a phrase I tire of hearing less than only “change”). Isn’t the tax code the best place to start? Hell, couldn’t you stop there, too?!? Still, at least this year (say what you will), he stands on the right side of more issues, in my mind, than McCain does. Regardless, if either is elected and don’t hew closely enough to the party line (i.e. Papa Bush), they’ll both be one-termers. Of course, the same thing could probably be said with regard to hewing close to the party line in the campaign, and that doesn’t seem to be holding true.
Finally, I want to say a pleasant ‘Good-bye’ to Mayor Giuliani. He has been 1st, 2nd or 3rd on my list the whole campaign (even though Fred moved ahead of him briefly, he wasn’t in the race long enough for me to have as good a vibe). I trusted him on national security. He said all the right things with regard to reforming health insurance. He was always quick to address the fallacy in thinking that revenues can only be increased by raising taxes. He finally came out with a good idea for tax reform. It was looking for a while like his Florida/Super Tuesday strategy might just work. I personally think the tipping point came in the debate where he and Romney went at it over sanctuary cities. He seemed petty with the “sanctuary mansion” tack. Plus, that was also about the time it was alleged that his then-mistress may have been protected with taxpayer funds. That gave me a sour feeling (it was also about that time that Fred came out with his 2-rate, optional income-tax return). That’s when he dropped to 3rd on my list. But still, I would have more enthusiastically supported him than either McCain or Romney. I suppose it wasn’t mean to be.
Unless of course McCain taps him for V.P. That would make my day in that it would effectively smooth the path for a Rudy nomination after McCain’s time passes.
I guess there’s hope.
