Category: The Dish

A reader writes:

I was surprised that you so easily bought into the notion that McCain would "do the right thing" on torture.  McCain has an election to win and needs the support of the Christianist pro-torture crowd.  And if he wins, I assume that many of the appointees (and outright hires) who enabled or encouraged torture would remain in place as the price McCain must pay for the nomination and the support of the base in the election.  I can never support a Republican in 2008 for the simple reason that I think a change of party — whether led by Hillary or Obama — is necessary to clean the Bush disciples out of the executive branch, starting with Monica Goodling’s Regent University Law School classmates.

Another adds:

You are not the only one who is heartbroken. It is hard to believe that on an issue about which he seemed to feel such conviction, McCain bended so swiftly when bullied by the unforgiving right wing of his party. He’s got the nomination sewn up, and yet he is still so intimidated that he offers up this tribute to Bush, his new BFF in these primary skirmishes.

I think it will be McCain who, in the end, is the most heartbroken of all. How will he look back on this moment, when he realizes that he was not strong enough to stand by his principles? That his hunger for power overwhelmed him at last? He is not on a road to victory. He is on a road to self-betrayal and despair.

Yep, it’s Valentine’s Day.

Jon Chait sees a new strategy for the GOP nominee: try to keep his most formidable opponent from gaining strength.

"This demonstrates not only a gross ruthlessness on the part of Clinton’s campaign, but an astonishingly cavalier attitude towards the preservation of the progressive coalition. To be willing to blithely rip it to shreds in order to wrest a nomination that’s not been fairly earned is not only low, but a demonstration of deeply pernicious priorities — namely, it’s an explicit statement that the campaign puts its own political success above the health of the party and the pursuit of progressive goals, and one can’t but help assume that’s exactly the attitude they would take towards governance, too," – Ezra Klein. More scales, more eyes.

It also appears Romney will ask his delegates to back McCain. Looking at the delegate numbers, it seems like that should put McCain near the tipping point. Will Huckabee drop out?

Rejoice and feel the good vibrations.

Yep, he wants the war:

Bill Clinton said today that the delegates won by his wife in the penalized state of Florida should count towards the final score leading into the convention. In making his case, the former prez said "the Republicans set the date" in Florida and that "we had nothing to do with it."

St. John’s, Newfoundland, 7.04 am.

The way the system is set up does not play to their alleged advantages among Hispanic voters:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is looking to Latino voters in Texas to help her wrest the nomination from Barack Obama, but Texas’ complicated delegate apportioning system doesn’t necessarily favor Hispanic regions of the state.

Of the state’s 228 Democratic presidential delegates, 126 will be awarded based on voting in the March 4 primary. But most of the remaining 102 are allocated in a caucus system leading up to the state convention in June, making Texas the only state with a twin primary-caucus system.

Those delegates are allotted by a candidate’s performance in each of the state’s 31 state senate districts. Each district gets delegates based on Democratic turnout in past elections.

So some urban districts in Houston, Dallas and Austin with higher Democratic turnout in the 2004 and 2006 general elections could give their winning candidate more delegates than some predominantly Hispanic districts in the Rio Grande Valley and El Paso.