John McCain emerged from Florida the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination. The split in victories for Romney and McCain, and the slight margin of victory for both candidates, may make it seem as though the race is neck and neck. It's not. Romney's strengths include tenacity as a campaigner and an abundance of money. When the primary season allowed candidates to focus on one state, these attributes helped Romney. But next Tuesday doesn't allow for concentration on a specific state or retail politics. Delegates are up for grabs in twenty-plus states. Momentum and name recognition, two things McCain has over Romney, are king on Super Tuesday. Add the likely endorsement of Giuliani, and McCain's chances at securing the nomination seem much better than even.

WTF are people in general and Conservatives and/or Republicans thinking?!! I just don't get it.

I wish I had a candidate. For me the election should be all about terrorism. I WISH the election would be all about stopping the slaughter of little babies for the sake of convenience, but the country as a whole is not ready to elevate abortion to more than an important side issue.

Sadly, though, there is no strong a$$-kicking president ala Harrison Ford in Air Force One. Or better yet, Samuel L. Jackson screaming that "you will know my name is the LORD! when I lay my vengance upon you." That's the kind of intensity I'm looking for.

Because I still haven't forgotten September 11, I still have nightmares about it every so often, and I still want the blood of these people. And I wish I didn't feel this way, and I wish that it hadn't come to this, and I really wish there was a candidate that could get it all over with.

McCain is not it. He sounds like a candidate from McDonald's. Mass produced to appeal to the widest variety of people possible. Try our new McCain sandwich! It's...not so bad! And like all McDonalds food, it's ok going down, and passes for a meal, but it'll give you diarrhea in the end.

When are we going to get serious?

Apparently we're too busy thinking about who will make it on American Idol to be serious. People just don't seem to be paying attention and aren't engaged. We've had 16 years of weak leadership and have watched our country slowly disintegrate and it looks like we're still going to elevate another weak, inexperienced clown to the White House.

"...and it looks like we're still going to elevate another weak, inexperienced clown to the White House."

There's no way a Republican wins the White House this November. For my part, I'm hoping for Hillary. Four years of pure evil should give us a good president in 2012 (in much the same way that Carter's miserable presidency prepared the way for Reagan).

I would agree with that as McCain is just another Democrat. Only older and without the charm of the others in the race. My statement wasn't specific to party.

But I'm sick with this attitude that we need another f'ed up politician holding the levers of ultimate political power for us to straighten out the party and launch a better candidate four years from now.

How's that worked out for us so far? And even if we had another Reagan like candidate, could he get elected?

The country seems to moving left and we're heading for trouble.

Well, the only Democrat president since Carter has been Billy. And whatever Billy's shortcomings, he's George Washington next to Jimmy. Is there a Reagan (or someone better), I don't know. What I do know is that if the conservatives keep jumping on the bandwagon of liberal Republicans, there's no reason for the party to support a conservative. Could a Reagan (or someone better) get elected. Certainly. He just has to be the right candidate.

However, if the country is moving left, then it doesn't matter what conservatives do, so there's no wrong move. Right?

Even Reagan was not the perfect conservative. But he had strength, charm and wit and that propelled him into the White House where he governed with the same attributes that got him elected.

This go around, if you gauge the Republican candidates by their 'conservatism', most of the candidates are lacking (with maybe the exception of Paul). But, why oh why is a crusty old left leaning Senator with a checkered political past still in the driver’s seat with Republican primary voters? I understand that many of the current elections allow Independents and crossovers but how is this guy getting as many Republican voters to choose him?

This leads me to think that a lot of moderates and independents have registered as Republicans and are way soft on issues that Republicans and/or conservatives are supposed to care about.

It’s time for us to cut the crap and come together. Will it happen? I don’t think so as I think there are too many registered Republicans that are taking their ball and going home because, for example, they don’t think Romney is for real or who are still crying because their boy Paul can’t get elected or they think that McCain is owed something because of his service.

I just don't see why ALL of the commenters here are so upset by McCain beating Romney. McCain is the more conservative of the two; he is MUCH more authentically pro-life; he has more of a history of supporting tax cuts; he tends to mean what he says and say what he means; and he is interested in waging the Bush-style war on terrorism in the Middle East.

Now, I'm not in to the last of these at all, but I do care about the first four. Why should conservatives be crying for Romney? They should cry for themselves and for their country, but please not for that mannequin in a suit pretending to be Mr. Conservative.

I agree with much of what you say. I'm no Romney fan. But while McCain does have a pro-life voting record, McCain worries me when it comes to judges (e.g., his 'gang of fourteen' fiasco). His stances on taxes, emigration, and campaign finance are anything but conservative. And he's pro-war. If he's the nominee, I'll be staying home (of course, I'll also being staying home if it's Romney or Huckabee; so regardless, I'll be staying home).

I don't see how anyone can say there is a clear front runner yet. Only 197 delegates out of the 1,191 needed to win have been determined yet. McCain has 93 and Romney has 59. That's not a very big difference right now. We might know more after "Super Tuesday" but I think the race will still be up in the air when we vote here in Pennsylvania.

Oh, God! Not McCain!

I hope you're right Jason. By the way, thought you were great in Friday the 13th.

I don't know what McCain you're looking at uberfrau. But that smacks of the liberal view of crazy old John and of Romney.

I never understand the philosophy of staying home for an election, especially amongst informed voters. Unless you truly believe there are zero differences between the candidates, then you should always vote for the guy that would be most acceptable to you for whatever reasons that is. If McCain is the GOP nominee, and you don't like him, then go out and vote for the Dem!

I'm a Paul guy myself, (and of the rest, I support Romney) but if it comes down to McCain/Obama, I'm voting for Obama because I don't want McCain in the White House. I'd rather have the Dem party shift towards the Obama direction than the GOP to the McCain direction. If it comes to McCain vs. Hillary, then I'm voting for McCain because she would be even worse for the WH than McCain. Its an awful choice to have, but, one is still better, and always will be no matter what political philosophy you have.

Staying at home for an election always struck me as behaving like the 5 year old who, because he didn't get to play the game he wanted, grabbed his toys and went home.

Honestly, I don't understand why so many conservatives have such antipathy for John McCain. He is surely more conservative than Romney and Giuliani, and has an 83% rating from the ACU -- not that their ratings means much anymore. However, he should at least be acceptable to most conservatives.

I support Ron Paul, but he is not going to win the nomination, so I hope it does go to John McCain. Why? Well, Rush Limbaugh said that if John McCain were to win the nomination it would be the end of the Republican Party as we know it. I'm not exactly sure what he means by that, but it sounds good to me.

Exactly. Do we need any more proof or need to know much more about him to recognize who McCain is by yet another ringing endorsement by a liberal?

it's (GOP nomination) all over. Guiliani's 10% or so will go to McCain on super tuesday.

congrats FinBazza.

Here's your "Republican" frontrunner. Real Conservative!...

Democrats say McCain nearly abandoned GOP

By Bob Cusack
Posted: 03/28/07 07:39 PM [ET]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was close to leaving the Republican Party in 2001, weeks before then-Sen. Jim Jeffords (Vt.) famously announced his decision to become an Independent, according to former Democratic lawmakers who say they were involved in the discussions.

In interviews with The Hill this month, former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and ex-Rep. Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) said there were nearly two months of talks with the maverick lawmaker following an approach by John Weaver, McCain’s chief political strategist.

Democrats had contacted Jeffords and then-Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) in the early months of 2001 about switching parties, but in McCain’s case, they said, it was McCain’s top strategist who came to them.

Oh yeah, and in 2004 he suggested to Kerry that he would be interested in being his VP selection.

Now there's a Reagan Conservative for you!

Do we automatically believe the stories of partisan Democrats in the midst of a campaign? McCain campaigned hard for Bush in 2004. Because Kerry flouted the idea then doesn't mean McCain was interested. He never became a Democrat, and I don't remember serious rumours about him pondering such a move then. It's only when he's the Republican frontrunner, and beats the Democrats candidates in polls, that such stories come out.

Having said all that, there's enough in McCain's real public record--amnesty, anti-free speech campaign laws, promotion of dubious climate-change "science," promotion of the disastrous Iraq War, etc.--to set off alarm bells.

As long as some Dems are working against McCain to help curb his candidacy, I'm ok with that. As opposed to the love fest that's been happening between McCain and the Dems and vice versa so far. That's been scary.

Although it didn't get a lot of traction in 01' (cause nobody really cared) that story of him changing parties was out there. So, why would they lie then? I'll give you that the VP thing might be an exaggeration. But with his record as a 'Maverick', I wouldn't discount it as a complete untruth.