Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good

David Brooks voiced some of my own thoughts. I am still a Fred-head, but am now thinking of voting for McCain or Romney in the FL primary, simply because McCain could WIN against Hillary/Obama. As Brooks notes, he's everybody's second choice[except the die-hard dead-enders like Rush & the NRO Corner crowd]. I usually ride with their posse, but nowadays, I'm thinking of what monstrosity Hillary would appoint to the SCOTUS. Perhaps another ACLU leftist like Ginsberg? Or her girl friend Jamie Gorelick, who single-handedly gave Al Qaeda a free pass to destroy the WTC?
...a funny thing has happened this primary season. Conservative voters have not followed their conservative leaders. Conservative voters are much more diverse than the image you’d get from conservative officialdom.....The lesson is not that the conservative establishment is headed for the ash heap. The lesson is that the Republican Party, even in its shrunken state, is diverse. Regular Republican voters don’t seem to mind independent thinking. There’s room for moderates as well as orthodox conservatives. Limbaugh, Grover Norquist and James Dobson have influence, but they are not arbiters of conservative doctrine.

Brooks then quotes McCain's impressive victory speech in S.C.:
McCain defined a more inclusive conservatism: “We want government to do its job, not your job; to do it better and to do it with less of your money; to defend our nation’s security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is so dear to us; to respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; to enforce the rule of law that is the first defense of freedom; to keep the promises it makes to us and not make promises it will not keep.”

Purists will cavil that McCain's record on Amnesty and campaign contributions sully his record as even a Republican, let alone a conservative.

But I keep thinking about Hillary's SCOTUS appointments and remember the French maxim "le meilleur est l'ennemi du bien."

2 comments :

Audacious Epigone said...

McCain still hasn't one a single state among self-identified Republicans. While Democrats doubled their showing in Iowa, Republicans only increased their's by 9% (relative to 2000). In NH, Republican turnout dropped. Ditto South Carolina. Democratic turnout has been larger than either the '00 or '04 election cycles for all three of that party's votes.

If McCain gets the nomination, I expect more of the same. No way I could vote for him. He might well be the worst of the seven or eight remaining candidates on immigration as President. Certainly he's to the left of the majority of Democrats (and of course Republicans) in the House.

Although you are orders of magnitude more experienced in the game of life than I am, I implore you to throw in with Romney if you are giving up on Thompson (who appears to be calling it quits, anyhow)!

dave in boca said...

I ran out the door with a killer flu bug racing to the doc and forgot the
cardinal point that McCain isn't the favorite of Republicans. I am registering
Repub this week [when the flu goes] and will probably vote for Romney in the
primary---I was an Independent up until this election season. I just don't like
Huckabee & have lost my former affection for Rudy. Mitt was just down the road
in Coral Springs this afternoon & I may attend his rally if he comes nearby
again.
He is too stiff, and I'm afraid the press hates him---remember the MSM could
swing a few percentage points in November.