I'm sort of surprised by John McCain's sluggish poll numbers. On paper he seems a natural for the Republican nomination since it's "his turn" and Republicans tend to have that yen for fairness and value loyalty. McCain, like Bob Dole, is a war veteran who graciously waited his turn. McCain, despite what some believe to be dirty tricks in South Carolina, supported Bush and played the good soldier. Perhaps the lesson of Bob Dole is not to support anybody out of loyalty or because they have a heroic past. McCain is also likely suffering because of his weakness on illegal immigration, which is about as red-hot an issue as there is.
Jonah Goldberg says don't be scared of Ron Paul. Instead, be afraid of Huckabee. I agree with how Huckabee represents that strain of enthusiasm reminiscent of Rod Dreher:
What’s troubling about The Man From Hope 2.0 is what he represents. Huckabee represents compassionate conservatism on steroids. A devout social conservative on issues such as abortion, school prayer, homosexuality and evolution, Huckabee’s a populist on economics, a fad-follower on the environment and an all-around do-gooder who believes that the biblical obligation to do “good works” extends to using government — and your tax dollars — to bring us closer to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.And here's a priceless bon mot from the "This Week" column in the latest National Review:
For example, Huckabee would support a nationwide ban on public smoking. Why? Because he’s on a health kick, thinks smoking is bad and believes the government should do the right thing.
“Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot. It may ease your grief somewhat to know that the cat was buried properly with a prayer & that I’ll be glad to get you another of your choice.” Only one person in the U.S., perhaps in the world, could have written those words. That person is Jimmy Carter, the words contained in a letter, recently come to light, that he wrote to his sister-in-law Sybil in 1990. Note the procedural punctiliousness in that word “properly”; the sanctimony in “lamentably”; most revealing of all, the veiled accusation and self-justification in “as usual.” Carter is not a wholly bad man; in some ways he is an admirable man. It is only that everything he does and says is marred and stained somehow by his irrepressible flaws of character. Though he was an awful president, Jimmy Carter remains a strange and fascinating study. There is a Ph.D. thesis to be written just on his dealings with small quadrupeds.
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