Link to my blog and I might actually have to start posting on it again.  The news of my demise have been highly exaggerated.  I can only claim an attack of employment as my excuse.  But I digress.  Enjoy Hannah Montana!

In the world of political number crunching, Michael Barone is in a league completely unto himself.  The guy knows every precinct, caucus, and street corner from the Burroughs of New York to the barrios of Los Angeles and every point in between.  He can give you a county by county breakdown of every single presidential election since 1968 - without notes.

In short, Mr. Barone is not a well man.

Having said that, he’s done some serious number crunching and come up with John McCain’s actual margin of victory over Mitt in the primary race.  What’s McCain’s magic number?

3%.  Yep, that’s it.

As much as it pains me to repeatedly burst the Huck people’s bubble, Barone’s numbers show him lagging in every single contest - even Georgia and Missouri.

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

I’ll freely admit I’ve let this blog slip into a quasi-hybernative state since late February when Mitt basically cleared the field for John McCain’s presumptive nomination.  In retrospect, Mitt did McCain the biggest favor one candidate can do for a rival.  If you doubt that, take a look at the hammer and tong fest going on over at the Democratic side.  

Yes, I do have to admit that spectacle is rather entertaining.

Much has been made in the past month or so about the possibility of Mitt taking the #2 slot on a McCain ticket.  Last week’s joint visits to Salt Lake City and Denver reinforced this possibility.  McCain has made a list of about 20 people, but its anybody’s guess (educated and not) as to who is on it.   Never the less, Mitt keeps popping up in the Veep Conversation.

Well, evidently this has irritated some very sore Huckabee supporting losers.  They have managed to delude themselves into believing that, but for Mitt, Huck would now be the Republican nominee.  You may think my appraisal a bit rough, but I had just about all I could take from these jokers back in January and I’m simply unable to let their vitriol pass by unchallenged.  Mike Huckabee had and has no support outside of his very deep by narrow demographic sliver of evangelical “Christian” voters south of the Mason-Dixon line.  He had about as much chance of winning the Republican primary as Rosie O’Donnell has of capturing the Miss America title.  He had about as good a chance at winning the general election as he has of winning a prima ballerina spot in the New York City Ballet.

Those, dear reader, are facts.  They are not arguable.  No matter how thick the rose-colored glasses may be the glaring light of day is the same.

I have looked over the list of people claiming Mitt to be “utterly unacceptable” (MyManMitt’s Jason has the list and details about each one) and even though I’ve read almost everything written about Mitt over the past two years, I wouldn’t be able to pick these jokers out of a lineup – virtual or otherwise.  At first glance it seems this group of anti-Mormon thugs hiding behind a very thin political veil.

Maybe I’m a bit naïve, but I’m hoping McCain will choose the best qualified man or woman to be his VP.  He’s made no illusions about his lack of economic gravitas.  Of the people being mentioned in the Veepstakes, there is no one better qualified to take on heavy duty economic challenges than Mitt Romney.  For this group of obscure theologically challenged whiners to dredge up half-truths and media spin to demand he be disqualified is simply dishonorable and selfish.

You may view my comments as overly biased given my unwavering support for Mitt’s candidacy and the fact that I share his religion.  Well, I’m not alone in my reaction to the actions of this group of “Christian right” leaders.  Feel free to feel that way, but I am not, in fact, alone.

I point you to Evangelicals for Mitt’s Nancy French.  Read the whole thing and you might understand I have but one comment to add to her final analysis:

The “religious leaders” meeting at the Ritz Carlton and concluding that Huckabee should’ve been their man is the clearest picture of the need for a serious reformation of our movement. Instead of lamenting that they didn’t support the guy most qualified, they lamented not getting behind a high-taxing Governor who played identity politics and lost… a guy who’s soft on the border and softer on the criminals in his own Arkansas system… a guy whose two plans for foreign policy are “everybody, be nice,” and secondly, “be nice, everybody.”

 

In the south, there’s a saying about people who “run around like chickens with their heads cut off.” I would use this comparison for our religious leaders, except that chickens don’t voluntarily enter into a suicide pact based on flawed information.

 

We have, as a movement, lost our heads. (Emphasis Added)

Amen, Nancy.  Well said.

I had the pleasure of meeting “Captain” Ed Morrisey of Captain’s Quarters Blog at CPAC.  He’s a very likable guy and I’ve been reading his stuff for years now.  Today he has an excellent post-mortem on the Republican primary race and the roll that religion - and more importantly religious bigotry - played in it.

Much of the Mitt-O-Sphere is still grappling with the reality that - but for religion - this primary race would have been much different.  I summed up my opinions on this matter some time ago.

Ed expands on Dan Gilgoff’s commentary and likens it to being “hoisted by one’s own petard”.  I like to think I have a pretty good vocabulary, but I did in fact have to look up the word “petard” in order to fully understand Ed’s meaning.  In order that you might better understand the image, I hearken you back to one of the final scenes of that classic military thriller The Hunt For Red October.

The Soviet Alpha-class sub has fired a torpedo at the Red October after the Alpha’s commander ordered all safety devices removed from the weapon.  This meant that the torpedo went “active” the moment it left the tube.  After some high-speed maneuvering by the Red October and the USS Dallas, the Soviet torpedo ends up locking on to the Alpha.  Just before impact, the Alpha’s first officer looks at his captain and utters one of the movie’s most memorable lines:

You arrogant ass!  You’ve killed us!

That, dear reader is what it means to be hoisted over your own petard.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear.  Unless John McCain is arrogantly stupid enough to put Mike Huckabee on his ticket, he’ll get my vote.  The War and the Court is just too important to me to blow off the presidency for either four or eight years of Obama or Hillary.

In the event that either Obama or Hillary take office this coming January, there will be plenty of evidence that Evangelicals, their “leaders” and especially Mike “It’s All About Me” Huckabee will have hoisted themselves, the Republican Party, and America over their own petard.

Maybe George Will is right.  Perhaps America was more enlightened a century ago.

If there were any doubts about the true meaning of “suspended,” Mitt has made his intentions clear:

“I am honored today to give my full support,” the former Massachusetts governor said, standing alongside his former rival at his now-defunct campaign’s headquarters. “I’m asking my delegates to vote for Senator McCain at the convention.”

There are two thoughts that make this somewhat comforting:

First, Gov. Romney just poked Mike Huckabee in the eye, once again. That must have felt good.

Second, I like to think that Mitt threw up in the back of his mouth as he endorsed “Senator Squish” McCain. Kinda like that time in college when I realized I was using my roommate’s toothbrush.

You’re a better man than I, Governor.

Now that I’ve had some time to process the fact Mitt has now exited stage right in the 2008 Race for the Oval, I’m ready to look ahead to what awaits in the remaining months before the conventions and the general election this November.

I’ve seen the various reactions to Mitt’s “stepping aside” as pundits, bloggers, and everyday people make their feelings (good, bad, and indifferent) known. I must admit that I find troubling the number of people who declare steadfastly that, now that Mitt has taken himself off the field, there is no way they will ever support the candidacy of John McCain.

People, this is the way politics work. Sometimes your guy wins, many times he does not. Either way, once the squabbling and primary brass knuckle fights are over, there comes a time when you need to look at reality and get behind the candidate who comes nearest to your values.

I have made no bones about my disagreements with Senator McCain. I could go into great detail about where he and I differ on policy, strategy, and overall Republican-ness. I do not believe he’s the best qualified candidate for this nation’s highest office. The best candidate, in my mind, is Mitt Romney. Mitt stepped aside, so while McCain may in fact be a Maverick SOB, now he’s my Maverick SOB.

Some of you reading this are probably too young to remember the 1976 Republican primary contest. I was only five-years-old, so what I know about that contest I read from history. The long and the short of the story is that Ronald Reagan fought Gerald Ford tooth and nail, state by state, all the way to the Kansas City convention. Ford narrowly beat Reagan on the first ballot, and Reagan gave a speech endorsing Ford which in fact overshadowed Ford’s own address.

Reagan had a way of overshadowing everyone. But I digress.

There was no love lost between Reagan and Ford. The two had deep differences and Reagan could have just as easily left the stage and gone home. He didn’t. He put his heart and soul in to campaigning for Ford. When the convention dust had settled, Reagan knew Ford would have been better for American that Carter ever would be. He was right.

There are those within the Republican Party who believe four years of wandering in the wilderness dragging the two-ton anchor of a Hillary or Obama presidency would teach the Republican Party and American a lesson. They look back to 1976 and see the intervening Carter years as penance America paid for leaning too close to the left side of the political spectrum. They see Reagan’s 1976 loss as a “strategic defeat” which enabled the Reagan Revolution to start with a bang in 1980.

History always provides a 20/20 hindsight view which is unavailable until you’ve already been there. 2008 is not 1976. Let’s quickly review the Carter legacy – most of which we still have to deal with.

1. The High Water Mark of the Misery Index.
2. The hollowing out of the American military.
3. 444 Days and the rise of Islamic Extremists.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the electorate, we are still dealing with the after-effects of the Carter years some 30 years after he was driven from the White House by the Reagan landslide. I’m pretty safe in saying Reagan would have preferred to have beaten Carter before he had a chance to run America into the ground.

November is fast approaching. The United States cannot afford (literally) to place the reigns of power in the hands of a man or woman who will run the white flag up in Iraq and other fronts in the Global War on Terror. If either Obama or Hillary cut and run from this war, you can rest assured their successor will be forced to send many more of your sons and daughters to fight the same battles again – this time at a much higher cost which will be measured in blood.

While I may have my personal differences with John McCain, like Mitt I know that for him, surrender is not an option. That’s enough for me. If we lose this war, the domestic stuff won’t matter much. It’s hard to have a thriving economy when cities are on fire.

Mitt made the decision to stand aside based on the belief that both Hillary and Barack are unacceptable options to lead this great country in time of war. Take special note of this line from his speech:

If this were only about me, I would go on. But I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, I feel I must now stand aside, for our party and for our country. (Emphasis Added)

Simply put, dear reader, if you sit home to “teach this country a lesson” and thereby hand the White House keys to Hillary or Obama, you’re putting your pride above what’s best for this nation.

I know for a fact there’s no other titled (aside from that of husband and father) that Mitt would rather have than “Mr. President”. I saw him yesterday swallow his pride and ambition in order to do what he thinks is best for this great nation. This country means that much to him.

This isn’t about Mitt. This isn’t about you. This is about America. Mitt made that clear yesterday.

That’s good enough for me.

It’s time to close ranks and move forward.

UPDATE: Bear has video and still shots from Mitt’s CPAC address.

**********

Kenny Rogers put those famous words to music many years ago. Bob Seger more aptly advised that the trick was “never play the game too long”.

Mitt took to the CPAC stage tonight and put an end to his 2008 run for the Oval. I was sitting in the very back of the room during his speech – surrounded by fellow Mitt-backers. We listened to a few speeches which were more like book reports until about 1:30 when Laura Ingraham introduced Mitt.

If I ever run for elected office, I want Laura Ingraham to be my Press Secretary. But I digress.

With the possible exception of his Religion in American speech, Mitt gave the best speech of the campaign – all other candidates included. He hit all the high conservative notes. He spoke of America being the best ally Peace can or ever will know. He spoke of the importance of the family, and most importantly about the value of fathers in the home.

He warned about the dangers of dependency and how it can kill initiative and destroy the American culture and how it (dependency on government) must be fought like the poison it is.

Now, dear reader, I must admit that I had my suspicions about how this speech would end. Living in Virginia and being exposed to the mass media market the way I am, I did not see a single campaign ad for Mitt last night or the night before. I saw plenty for Obama and McCain – none for Hillary surprisingly. In the back of my mind I had prepared for the fact that this just might be the end.

Mitt spoke about his desire to fight this campaign all the way to the convention much like Reagan did in 1976. I felt he really wanted to do this – to fight to the last day and give it his very best shot. He said that today is different from 1976 in the fact that America today finds herself at war – a war which she cannot afford to lose or show weakness in the face of her enemies.

He said that while he and Senator McCain differ in many areas, there is one subject where there is no daylight between them. Both Mitt Romney and John McCain have the same desire to win the Global War on Terror. About that there is no negotiation.

That same desire is shared by neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama. They want to withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan, bring the troops home and triumphantly wave the white flag of surrender as the Islamofacists start a slaughter which will make the aftermath of Vietnam and Cambodia look like a walk in the park.

What Mitt Romney did today was in the best interest of the Republican Party and the United States of America. He has run a fine campaign and can be proud of his personal efforts, those of his wife and all the members of his family. His decision to step aside is one born of selflessness and will – in Mitt’s own words – allow a national campaign to begin.

Like Mitt, I hate to lose. Having said that, I hate the thought of waking up on November 5th to the sounds of President-elect Hillary or Obama.

That’s the view from my chair.

This thread is for your thoughts and reactions to Gov. Romney’s announcement that he will stand aside in the race for the GOP nomination.

B4M had a man on the ground at CPAC for Mitt’s speech today. Jon called confirming what had been widely circulated on the Internet, that Gov. Romney has suspended his campaign for the GOP nomination.

Governor Romney, you were the best the man for the job. Thank you for the time and effort you put into this campaign, as well as significant amounts of your own resources.

Something tells me, however, that we haven’t seen the last of Mitt.