Florida | MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

McCain wins Florida!

Awww, don’t worry, I won’t gloat. Much.*

MIAMI (AP) - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, gaining the upper hand in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination ahead of next week’s contests across 21 states and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.

I do wish he’d have run his campaign the traditional way, much like I wish Fred had. I wish he had done better in the race, even though he wasn’t my pick.

*Any gloating on my part is not and will not be directed at the other GOP candidates–it’s solely directed at those with McCain Derangement Syndrome, because it’s well-deserved.

Live Florida election chat

Not here, but at Rightwingsparkle’s blog. See ya there?

Fred Thompson to skip Florida debate (?)

So says Carl Cameron (via Ace), reporting from the campaign trail:

Fred Thompson sources say the actor and former Tenn senator may withdraw from the race. There are no plans to attend Thursday’s Florida debate.

Staffers have been on partial pay since the NH primary. The Senators plans are very fluid. As of 8:45 this evening, there are no plans for any announcement about whether he will stay in the race or not. The team is wrestling with very few options. The Senator is in Nashville visiting his mother (in her 90’s) who has been ill.

From THE FIRST DAY Fox News broke the story last March of his candidacy, Thompson has always had a vice presidential bid in mind. Today a top aide even mentioned the idea on Brian and the Judge on Fox News Radio.

Well, I can’t say I’m surprised. If that’s true, at least there’s one man who doesn’t insist on disrupting the debate despite having no chance of being elected. (*troll* RonPaul *troll*)

Cameron goes on:

Mike Huckabee, has also kept vice presidential options open by NOT strongly criticizing Giuliani or McCain. Huckabee is retooling his campaign to cherrypick some Super Tuesday states on Feb 5th (notably Ga and Alabama).

Oh, but some of y’all will be pissed that I’m voting for McCain. I suppose Huckabee is your choice? Have you seen the polling data? Didn’t think so.

And for the record: I’m not just supporting McCain just because of Huckabee–Fred’s disappointing South Carolina results just bumped McCain up. I have a lot of reasons for supporting him, which I will outline later. And yes, I fully expect I will get arguments. Just so you know, beating the same tired old negative drums only strengthens my resolve, so it would be wise not to bother attacking. (Negativity is one reason I’m not voting for Romney.)

I’m sorry that things didn’t work out for Fred Thompson. I’m also pretty bitter about it, because basically, conservatives on the internet never put their money where their mouth is. I donated, and ONE other person donated through the donation button I had on my site for months. ONE. How anyone expects a campaign to run without money, I don’t know.

I hate to say it, but I can’t help but wonder about the leadership ability of a man who has so much potential support, but fails to get his campaign off the ground. I’ve been on Fred’s bandwagon for a year now, waiting…waiting…waiting. It’s as if the only people working were the ones on the internet (Jon Henke and Sean Hackbarth), and nobody else. You can’t just announce and expect people to flock to you. Now think about how a Fred Thompson presidency would be. You think the Bush Administration has failed to “sell” the rightness of the war to the American people? How would Fred Thompson do it, if he can’t even sell his own candidacy? He may be the “perfect” conservative, but how does that matter if he can’t or won’t sell conservative issues to the American people? You tell me.

I’ve got a lot more to say along those lines with regard to John McCain, but it’ll have to wait until tomorrow. I wrote this at Red State last week, basically because there’s more discussion there and it’s civilized, respectful discussion. You can comment on it here if you don’t have a Red State account, but remember–you won’t win me over with disrespectful nonsense or hysteria.

I only ask that you listen with an open mind, because I was once anyone-but-McCain myself. No more–I am fully on board with John McCain now after doing a lot of analysis of all the candidates. He is the right man to lead us in these times.