Month: January 2008

Dan notes a disagreement:

Sexual dissatisfaction and boredom are frequently cited by divorcing couples as a factors in their decision to split up. If we wish to stem the tide of divorce, Mr. Sullivan, we should not promote the idea that life presents us with an either/or choice between wedding bands and leather outfits in appallingly bad taste. We should make singles and couples, gay and straight, aware that they can have their commitments and their sexual adventures too.

I take the point. And I almost made it. My first draft for the post – if you can believe I actually make drafts of posts – had an extra sentence:

Of course, there’s no reason a leather queen shouldn’t get married either.

And that’s how I feel. So we agree – almost. Why did I delete the extra qualification? I guess what I was driving at in commenting on that image is that it represented some kind of collective cultural conflict, as much as a personal one. And while we’d like the conflict to be totally absent, it isn’t. It’s not either/or. But it isn’t totally both/and either, is it? There is something about the most overt sexuality that isn’t easily integrated into marriage in our culture. Maybe we need to adjust that, as Dan suggests. And maybe it isn’t quite that easy, as my deletion implies.

The Dish’s take on McCain’s victory here. And Romney’s defeat here.

Adam Frucci is conflicted:

I honestly can’t figure out how I feel about this: is it the greatest achievement of mankind thus far, or is it an abomination of foodstuffs that deserves to be hucked back into the gaping maw of whatever food processing plant it was spewed from? I just don’t know what to think anymore. Would you eat a cheeseburger in a can?

If I were hungry enough.

Alan Keyes is putting down a firewall:

Although Keyes will make excursions outside Texas as needed, and will continue his nationwide radio blitz to counter the media’s virtual blackout of his campaign, he plans to camp out in Texas until its primary on March 4. As most pundits agree, if Super Tuesday fails to produce a "presumptive" Republican nominee, Texas becomes all the more important as the last big prize of the primaries. For all intents and purposes, the headquarters of the Keyes campaign has moved to Texas.

(Hat tip: Wonkette.)

"I have no doubt McCain will never win the talk show primary, but he has won New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida. Unless something very odd occurs (even more odd than what we’ve seen so far) he will be the nominee. Yes, first there is denial, then anger, next bargaining and depression but finally, acceptance," – Jennifer Rubin, Commentary.

"The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we’re going to have a lot more wars," – Pat Buchanan on McCain’s message for the fall.

The small man in search of a balcony just fell off the first one he found.

K-Lo is almost resigned:

What if Fred had endorsed? What if Jeb had? Ah well.

Drum marvels:

Amazingly, it’s now quite possible that the Republican Party will pick a candidate before the Democrats will. I sure didn’t see that coming.

Will conservatives get on board? Daniel Casse says they will – if it’s Clinton. Not so much if it’s Obama:

If Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, they will argue, persuasively, that Romney may have been a better GOP nominee. Against Obama, McCain is the old man versus the young man, the old way versus the new. Romney, at least, can make a much stronger argument against Obama’s soft-headed economics.

But if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, then we really do have one of the great national contests on our hand — and the McCain haters will have no choice but to get on board.

Translation: only a run against the Clintons can rally the GOP now. Still, this was cruel:

I still believe in Mitt’s dream. But man, that was one really dejected group of people standing behind him. They couldn’t even manage to seem excited as Mitt talked aimlessly about all the conservative claptrap he doesn’t really believe in.

Still, Michael Graham is bitter:

You think he supported amnesty six months ago? You think he was squishy on tax cuts and judicial nominees before? Wait until he has the power to anger every conservative in America, and feel good about it.

Every day, he dreams of a world filled with happy Democrats and insulted Republicans. And he is, thanks to Florida, the presidential nominee of the Republican party.

And on that note, I’m off to climb into a bottle of Bushmill’s. It’s going to be a LONG nine months.

But there’s always Hewitt:

The conservatives aren’t going to throw in the towel which means Romney has the chance to go from underdog to the last man standing opposite McCain next week.

Something has gone seriously wrong with the right when John McCain is not regarded as a conservative.
(Photo: Alex Wong/Getty.)

The exit polls show the critical distinction between Romney and McCain supporters. Romney’s are still pro-Bush. McCain’s aren’t. If you’re fighting a general election this fall, you’ll need those who disapprove of Bush’s record – not the kool-aid drinkers. McCain also won Hispanics by a big margin – another key advantage for November. For good measure, McCain won among those who put the economy as their major worry. He also won Catholics and liberal or moderate Republicans. Interestingly, though, Huckabee’s voters picked McCain second by a large margin. Romney doesn’t appeal to blue-collar Republicans. In fact, in a primary with far fewer independents, McCain drew even with Romney among Republicans.

With Giuliani’s endorsement now expected, this is surely McCain’s nomination. I expected Romney to win. Few foresaw a convincing McCain victory. But that’s what this is. The Republicans now have to decide whether to keep their front-runner, who is far and away their best hope in November, or junk him for ideological, anti-illegal immigrant purity. I’m betting they will stick with McCain, as they should.

One final point: a McCain nomination means one thing for sure. The era of legal, authorized torture in America is coming to a close. This is a critical moment. And it is more than fitting that a man who endured torture at the hands of America’s enemies should now be picked to restore American honor after the disgrace of Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld.

Obama goes after the Latino vote: