Ronald Reagan Quote of the Day!

"My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy."

- former President Ronald Reagan

John McCain Makes An Impression On CPAC

This is a good start for McCain if he's going to put a dent in the heart of the McCain Derangement Syndrome that has come to paralyze many on the far Right.

The dudes at PowerLine have more:

John McCain reached out to conservatives today in a well-received speech to CPAC. At least as telling as the content of the speech, though, is the fact that McCain didn't bother to show up for last year's CPAC convention.

As a good lawyer would, McCain addressed this snub at the outset of his speech, and did so with humor. The reports I've read indicate that he pulled it off. This, of course, is much easier to do when you've locked up the presidential nomination. Most folks are prepared to like a winner.

In reality, McCain is not as bad as some conservatives made him out to be when it looked like his nomination might be avoided, and he's not as good as other conservative will make him out to be now that his nomination is inevitable. Tthe bottom line is that McCain made the right move by reaching out to conservatives through this speech, and the conservative audience made the right move by reacting well to this overture.

This sort of grown-up behavior on both sides will be essential if the election of a leftist Democrat is to be avoided.

I say that McCain is doing so well with moderates and independents that if he picks the right VP (as in The Huckster), he'll only need about 50% of the Limbaugh-right to win the big prize over Billary, a little bit more if it's Barack he faces come November.

Mitt Romney "Suspends" His Campaign

This comes as a huge surprise to me, but I have no idea what it has to do with the war:

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign on Thursday, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for John McCain. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives.

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Romney's decision leaves McCain as the top man standing in the GOP race, with Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul far behind in the delegate hunt. It was a remarkable turnaround for McCain, who some seven months ago was barely viable, out of cash and losing staff. The four-term Arizona senator, denied his party's nomination in 2000, was poised to succeed George W. Bush as the GOP standard-bearer.

McCain and Romney spoke by phone after Romney's speech, though no endorsement was requested nor offered, according to a Republican official with knowledge of the conversation.

William Jelani Cobb Quote of the Day!

" . . . if Hillary Clinton receives the Democratic Party nomination, African Americans should consider voting for John McCain. But before you fix your lips to call me a sellout consider this: Carter G. Woodson once remarked that any race that consistently gives its vote to one political party is asking to be taken advantage of.

If politics is the art of advancing one's interests, the 2008 election, and the Clinton campaign in particular, indicate that the Democratic Party has become so cavalier with black folk that our interests are nearly invisible. In short, South Carolina (not to mention that LBJ did more than MLK comment) revealed that the Clintons operate on the presumption that they can alienate black voters and still rely upon our support in the general election."

- writer, author, professor and independent voter William Jelani Cobb

Mike Huckabee: The Conservative Alternative

How else can you explain what The Huckster was able to pull off on "Super Tuesday":

After his disappointing showing in South Carolina, Mike Huckabee was supposed to be a spent force. The former Arkansas governor's triumph in the Iowa caucuses would be relegated to the history books and deemed no more significant than Christian evangelist Pat Robertson's besting George H.W. Bush in the Hawkeye State two decades before.

But Huckabee stormed back into the race yesterday with wins not just in his home state of Arkansas but also in Alabama, Georgia and West Virginia. He was running strong in Tennessee and Missouri, as well, complicating the race for the Republican nomination all over again.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who had expected to emerge from Super Tuesday with the nomination virtually locked up, was left facing still more questions about his ability to win in deep red Republican states. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was left wondering why he could not win the conservative votes McCain was losing.

Romney doesn't need to look past the fact that conservatives know a pretender when they see one. I like Mitt, but his past is catching up to him. Once a pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-universal health care governor of Massachusetts, Mitt has undergone an extreme makeover and just like Rudy Giuliani before him, conservative voters aren't buying it. Huckabee's remarkable showing also displays the difference between right-wing extremists and real conservatives: while real conservatives vote on principle as well as protecting the moral fabric of this country, right-wing extremists are just devote loyalists most interested in fighting their left-wing counterparts. That said, if Huckabee keeps this up he deserves the vice-president slot, a move that could help John McCain in the South and Midwest. Congrats to the little guy with no money, major endorsements or insipid radio jocks in his corner.

Bill Kristol Quote of the Day!

"Conservatives . . . can choose to stand aside from history while having a temper tantrum. But they should consider that the American people might then choose not to invite them back into a position of responsibility for quite a while to come."

- Right-wing pundit William Kristol on conservative aversion to John McCain.

We Are The Champions!

A friendly lesson for all you kiddies out there: cheaters never prosper and GIANTS RULE!!!

Mitt Romney Hearts The Black People

Just surreal. You'd think it was an outtake from Bulworth.