I realize I’ve been a ghost around here, but the day job blog has kinda been a marathon lately.
Anyway, I said long ago I wouldn’t endorse any primary candidate (I don’t think anyone is looking to me for guidance on how to vote) but that I would reveal who I voted for in the primary. Virginia’s primary was today, and I voted for…
…John McCain.
I realize Marshall is letting out a deep groan right now, and I see all of his flaws. [Er, McCain’s flaws, not Marshall’s.] Looking at the top five Republican candidates, I like Rudy Giuliani and admire his accomplishments in New York City, but know he would deeply divide the GOP. I think Mike Huckabee is a great communicator with a great future, but I don’t see him as a commander-in-chief. I would have voted for Fred Thompson if he were still in the race, but he departed a while ago, and I understand the concerns of how much his heart was in this. Finally, I think Mitt Romney would have made a fine president, but I suspect his Democratic opponent in a general election would have made mincemeat out of him, using his liberal-sounding campaign statements from 1994 and 2002.
I’ve got gripes with McCain on campaign finance reform, on immigration, on cap and trade. But he’s rock-solid on the war on terror; he may be remembered as the man who saved the Bush administration’s Iraq policy. (Bit by bit, I’m inching his way on interrogation techniques. Some methods may simply be more trouble than they’re worth.) Only Tom Coburn fights pork as tenaciously, and McCain remembers that conservatives are supposed to fight for cuts in spending as well as taxes. He’s got a pretty solid pro-life record, and I think he’ll appoint the right judges and justices — the ghost of Harriet Miers will hang over many Republican administrations…
If somebody out there is saying, “Jim, you’re settling,” I respond, “Well, yeah. Welcome to politics. In fact, welcome to life.” I can hold myself to the highest of standards, but if I hold politicians to that, I’ll always be disappointed. You rarely get somebody who agrees with you 10 out of 10 times. And some folks are acting like they’ve never had their preferred candidate lose a primary before. It happens. Sometimes the electorate prefers the war veteran with some non-conservative stands to the guys who check all the boxes. I’m not going to rage at Republican primary voters in this process; they’ve made their call. (And the terms, “liberal,” “not conservative” and “not as conservative as I would like” are being treated as synonyms in this process.)
As for the temptation to vote in the Democratic primary, I’m a right-leaning guy. I don’t mess in the other guy’s primaries, I don’t want him to mess in mine.
Related Posts
» Senator Allen Concedes
» Jim’s update from CNN Blog World
» Endorsements — Who Needs ‘Em?
» Recovery, one step at a time
» South Carolina (and Nevada) Prediction
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
February 12, 2008 - 10:36 am
Interesting. My #1 choice was Rudy. I ended up voting today for Hillary, as did several other Republicans I know. I’d rather she be the Democrat nominee; she’d probably be easier to defeat in November, as the favorable/ unfavorable ratings indicate. In addition, in case, God forbid, the Democrat candidate were to be elected President, at least Billary has a f***ing clue about being President, and how the world really is.
February 12, 2008 - 10:43 am
Jim:
I did as you did, only in Maryland. I almost voted for Fred Thompson, but decided to vote for the best guy still in the race. My take on McCain is similar to yours: lots of problems with the guy, but I don’t think he’s so awful from a conservative point of view.
February 12, 2008 - 10:50 am
Extremely disappointing Jim. Why vote for a liberal? I thought you were a conservative? If McCain is the nominee I will sit out the election in November, as will numerous other REAL conservatives.
February 12, 2008 - 10:58 am
It’s surprising how many times I’ve heard or read, “I would have voted for Fred Thompson…” I include myself among that number. Several of my friends are still thinking of voting for Fred if his name appears on the Texas ballot as a protest against McCain.
I wonder how far Fred would have gone if he had run a conventional campaign.
February 12, 2008 - 11:01 am
I’m a Fred Thompson supporter, but I too voted for Hillary in VA this morning. It made me queasy, but I had to do my part to derail the cult of Obama.
February 12, 2008 - 11:11 am
I TRIED to go mess with the other guy’s primary. I tried to vote for Hillary on the Dem side solely for strategic reasons. But when they asked me: “Republican or Democrat” I just couldn’t do it.
February 12, 2008 - 11:11 am
My preference was Fred Thompson, then Mitt Romney (though I took a long look at Rudy for awhile). I have never really liked or supported or thought I could support McCain or Huckabee. I voted today for McCain for the same reasons as Mr. Geraghty. He’s the best conservative with a chance for to win and it’s time to close ranks.
I crossed over and voted for Bill Bradley in the Pennsylvania Democratic primary in 2000. Bush had it all but wrapped up early and I considered Bradley at least the more honest liberal than Gore. I still feel dirty for having done it and feel it wasn’t worth crossing over to do it.
February 12, 2008 - 11:12 am
Jim,
Good for you. I can hardly listen to Laura Ingraham when I drive to work in the morning in Minneapolis.
I disagree with Steve who voted for Hillary. I do not think we should mess with the other side and vice versa. There is an old saying “be carefull what you pray for you may get it”
Today, Hillary looks like the weaker candidate. Who knows what the world will look like in the fall. If we can really educate the public what Obama stands for, he should be beatable.
February 12, 2008 - 11:26 am
Good choice. Supporting anyone else only hurts McCain and the GOP and delays the inevitable. I believe the party will heal naturally without this wild extreme stuff floating everywhere. I’m hoping that McCain will largely settle things today and put Huckabee in his place. I like Huck but he’s not ready for prime-time. Mac is.
February 12, 2008 - 12:09 pm
I’m like you, I can’t bring myself to vote in a Dem primary for the purpose of playing spoiler though I sure hope Hillary pulls this thing out. The thought of watching Obama on the same stage with McCain would likely be like what I was told Nixon looked like against Kennedy in 1960.
February 12, 2008 - 12:26 pm
I don’t have the ambiguity about meddling on the ‘Rat end of things; after all, one can argue (and indeed, I do argue) that they selected the Pubbie nominee.
Besides, I am not convinced that McCain learned the lesson of the Miers fiasco. I see him replacing essentially like with like, and given that, other than Scalia, the Justices most likely to retire in the next Presidential term are the liberals.
February 12, 2008 - 12:27 pm
How sad. Jim is voting for a Democrat in Republican clothing. How could any conservative vote for a candidate who wants to close Gitmo, sign up for Global Warming legislation and thinks an Alito type cannot be nominated for the Supreme Court??? Please, as most conservatives I am staying home in November.
February 12, 2008 - 12:29 pm
Jim, you wrote “I don’t mess in the other guy’s primaries, I don’t want him to mess in mine.” Normally, I’d agree with you. But today’s primary is different here in Virginia. I’m happy to mess with the Dems.
My wife and I, both McCain supporters (from way before we had to “settle”), voted for Hillary. We also strongly recommended to our friends to do the same.
Why? Damage control. If, may God forbid, the Dems win in November, better to have a liberal crook (Hillary) than a liberal fool (Obama).
We are at war. This is no time for OJT, and while we’d infinitely prefer John McCain to Hillary Clinton, our sense is that Obama would be a disaster waiting to happen.
Current polling shows Obama with an increasing lead over McCain, and while we may hope some of that is the Bradley effect, it’s always better to do something than just sit around and hope.
February 12, 2008 - 1:22 pm
I voted for Mike Huckabee in Virginia. Not much line around 11:30 AM in Northern Virginia where I voted. To get a red sticker for Republican you had to go to one person who had them.
I started with Tom Tancredo went to Fred when Tom left and then Romney and now Mike. I will vote 3rd party in November, as I often do. McCain would have to take the NumbersUSA pledge on no amnesty and agree to end chain migration and stop all H-1B’s and immigration from terrorist nations to get my support.
I also don’t support letting Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and UAE off for funding terrorism. We would have been better off keeping the Clinton sanctions on Pakistan and stopping all immigration after 9-11 and doing nothing else compared with Bush.
February 12, 2008 - 1:50 pm
didn’t even give Ron Paul a thought, eh…?
February 12, 2008 - 2:08 pm
I agree about not messing with another party’s primary just to be a spoiler. Doing this would also help Huckabee… and the thought of Huckabee taking VA makes me want to vomit.
February 12, 2008 - 2:23 pm
Jim….how about a piece on why “deadender” conservatives wouldn’t vote for Reagan necause he wouldn.t pass the litmus test they are now demanding of McCain…can you imagine McCain not only supporting but doing tv commercials for the Brady Bill or supporting and signing a very liberal abortion bill as Reagan did while Gov. not to mention his tax imcreases. Reagan signed a amnesty bill and called it that….eyc. etc.
February 12, 2008 - 11:45 pm
[…] Geraghty talks about his choice in the Virginia primary: If somebody out there is saying, “Jim, you’re settling,” I respond, “Well, yeah. Welcome […]
February 13, 2008 - 12:23 am
Jim,
I voted in Arlington today… for Hillary. I have three reasons:
1. I want the Dem primary to last as long as possible, so they run down their campaign chests and attack one another so Repubs don’t have to. Obama has the momentum so if Hillary took Virginia (the most likely of the three), it would ensure a long, bloody primary.
2. I think Hillary would be better in the general election for three reasons: a. She would be easier to beat because of her high negatives and Obama changes the game (as seen by the wrong polls), b. She would have shorter coattails (I can envision a scenario where Obama energizes the base, brings in lots of young first-time voters who vote a straight Dem ticket, bringing in a supermajority in the Senate and a huge House majority–Obama would have no need to compromise and the first hundred days would be like FDR revisited, c. even if Hillary wins, Republicans in Congress will be united in their opposition from day one with the support of much of America, therefore they could block much legislation. Obama, though, would be tougher because people would want him to be given a chance and Republicans couldn’t automatically attack him or his policies.
And my third reason is that I am preparing to print up t-shirts that say “Don’t Blame Me–I voted against Obama twice!” available for sale when the economy tanks, Iraq descends into civil war, jurists to the left of Ginsburg are nominated to the Supreme Court, etc, etc.
February 16, 2008 - 2:27 am
At least I had the chance to vote for Mitt Romney here in California. I think we conservatives are now engaging in Democrat-style ghettoizing politics. We are breaking up in groups when I can say I am a conservative, period. Name any given issue and I will take a conservative position. It is a total outlook on the world from real-life experiences. I do not think it does any good to break off into little ghettoes and whine. We expect that from socialist Democrats. McCain is no where near my choice because he is, dare I say it, Clintoian on his conservatism. Does not know much about econimics? He should sit down one day with Larry Kudlow. Does not do social issues? He needs to seek out some and talk about it. No, he is not a conservative. A moderate conservative at best. But, when he talks about not wanting to wear it on his sleeve, it is discouraging. I will vote for him in November because I do not sit out elections. But, he is not the kind of conservative I believe he should be.