Thursday, February 14, 2008

We Have Our Nominee...

...and his name is John McCain. Mitt Romney clinched it for him by swinging his delegates from their current, Romney-pledged state to McCain. This effectively ends the primary season for Republicans and if I were Huckabee, I'd move behind McCain too at this point. If two previously bitter adversaries can reconcile, I don't see why everyone else in the party shouldn't do the same.
Why would Romney do this? I think there are a couple of reasons. One is the ever-present hope of not sitting around for 4 years. If McCain gives him a cabinet slot (Treasury, anyone?) that's one way to keep him in the national eye for a while longer. I think another reason is the simmering Huck-Mormon feud that has been fed by both sides. While Romney and McCain may not like each other much, McCain didn't go around besmirching Romney's religion. The third aspect is the heretofore unprecedented Democratic contest. If the Republican party can coalesce behind a single candidate months before the Democrats do, and if that candidate can appeal to independent voters (which McCain can), and if the loudmouth right will swallow their pride and start pushing McCain, the Republicans stand a chance of winning this thing. It's not the greatest chance in the world, but it's certainly a better one than the Giants had a few weeks ago against the Patriots.

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