For Romney

A female reader writes:

Keep Romney lifted in prayerful, appreciative thought today. As he is lifted up, his good qualities will shine forth, bringing others to him.

I normally wouldn’t post prayerful thoughts for the success of a candidate, but I do so now because Romney, a decent man, is the only thing standing between us and the hideous mess and catastrophe of a McCain ascendancy. McCain has been a traitor and saboteur of conservatism for his whole career. On the biggest issue facing the country, he is an anti-American and a total liar. The idea of making this man the Republican candidate is not only absurd beyond belief, it is obscene. * * *

I should also have said that McCain is a bully and a would-be tyrant who wants to impose his anti-American positions on the country without the people’s views being represented, as seen in his support for the McCain-Feingold Act and in his contemptuous remark about dispensing with debate on the amnesty bill last spring.

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Laura G. writes:

For myself, I am literally praying that Romney manages to pull us out of this swamp. It remains somewhat of a mystery to me how, when we had so many candidates each of whom was so good (even great), we have narrowed ourselves down to a precious one. Guiliani…I would have loved to vote for him. Thompson…even more so. Hunter…my personal favorite, although I did recognize his weaknesses in little name recognition or national experience. All washed out in our insane primary arrangement. Huckabee and Paul were never even on my list, although I do recognize that we could also have had to deal with Huck through some fluke of the primary process. This has been a terrifying few months, and there are still far too many to go.

Lord, Lord, spare us McCain, I implore You. Do not punish our nation for the sins of those of us who have allowed other fine candidates slip through our fingers. Have pity on Your poor, ignorant, sinning flock, and give Romney the strength to lead this nation in the path You have assigned us.

Stand strong. Nothing about any of this is funny.

Larry S. writes:

AMEN!!!

David L. writes:

I fully concur. The press loves liberals, and McShame is one of their own. You should read the posts at freerepublic and elsewhere in the conservative etherworld!

Sam Karnick writes:

I fully agree with your assessment of McCain and endorse your language here.

Sage McLaughlin writes:

To your endorsement of Romney over the despicable McCain, I can add only a resounding “hear, hear!”

I think I’ve identified out one of the really key intangibles that sets Romney apart from McCain, Obama, and Hillary. Of those four front-runners, he is the only one that does not have some score to settle, some personal grudge against conservative America. Hillary and McCain both have personal and political scores to settle, wrongs which they passionately wish to set right and which animate their desire to wield power over their enemies. Obama, of course, represents nothing less than a burning desire on the part of black America (and liberal America more broadly) to set white America straight. Even McCain believes the country owes him something, as his increasingly unseemly use of his military record reveals. The egomaniacal Senator from Arizona harbors tremendous bitterness over every political setback—or even criticism—he suffers, and will revenge himself on anyone he thinks has hindered his ascent.

Only Romney does not obviously hate the conservative American electorate, only he does not believe the Presidency is his by right, and only he does not have some personal or historic gripe against his country. For this reason among many others, only he is not an obvious enemy of the historic American society I love. Thus at this time only he qualifies for even passing consideration to receive my vote in November.

LA replies:

I’ve said that he’s the only acceptable one. But your way of putting it is more radical. My gosh it’s come to this! Vote for Romney—the only candidate who’s not an obvious enemy of America!

Howard Sutherland writes:

Well, here’s to Romney for the reasons you state. I would love to believe there is a traditionally minded conservative behind that hedge fund manager’s facade, but I don’t. Nevertheless, if we don’t know enough about what Romney really thinks, we know too much about what McCain thinks.

McCain is a curious psychological study. I have bored you before with my diagnosis: I think he was deranged by the torments he endured at the hands of the North Vietnamese and the chronic pain he probably still suffers as a result. I also think that having survived such an endurance test, something most of us cannot imagine, gives him a feeling of enormous moral superiority.

Is McCain a conscious enemy of America? I’m not sure, and in his own mind (remember I don’t he’s in his right mind) I’m sure McCain believes he is America’s greatest defender. He is hispanophilic and opposed to any pride in America’s own ethnic and historic heritage, but - unlike G.W. Bush - that’s not because he has some infatuation with Mexicans but because he has simply adopted the liberal paradigm. (Does anyone know when he did? I can’t imagine the Lt.Cdr. McCain who came home from Hanoi in 1973 had the views Senator McCain does.) Things he does, like picking Juan Hernandez to do “hispanic outreach,” have more to do with sticking it to those who dare disagree with him than they do with sucking up to Mexicans. I think his vituperation and sense of superiority over his critics comes primarily from surviving Hanoi.

In that respect McCain differs from other Vietnam POWs I flew with (granted, I don’t know McCain personally). All had problems as a result of being POWs, but as far as I could tell none felt any sense of entitlement because he had been a POW. Certainly the high-ranking POWs (Admirals Lawrence and Stockdale come to mind) never acted as though they were owed something because they had to spend time in the Hanoi Hilton. It was an occupational hazard. But I get a strong feeling McCain feels America owes him something, even the presidency, for his sufferings on our behalf.

What I can’t understand (and it helps me think he’s insane) is how McCain can square his naval service and all he endured to defend America with his current determination to make America indefensible, unmanageable and unrecognizable - even as he insists he is the only presidential candidate who is serious about defending America! HRS

Charles G. writes:

One of the main reasons I don’t support McCain is that I suspect he is damaged goods…literally. After seven years in a North Vietnamese prison where he was psychologically assaulted for longer than I care to think about, what is going on in his head? Is he a “Manchurian candidate”? Don’t laugh. He has never seemed quite sane to me. So never mind about his asinine liberalism. He’s crazy and should never have gotten so far up the political food chain in the first place. It would be the height of reckless folly to place such a person in the White House.

Clark Coleman writes:

The key to the GOP nominating process is for conservative voters to coalesce behind one candidate faster than liberal voters coalesce behind one candidate. The disaster looming for the GOP right now is that Huckabee apparently has no intention of dropping out, while Giuliani looks like a beaten man who might very well drop out. I find it hard to believe that Giuliani’s supporters won’t go to McCain more than Romney.

Then again, GOP voters seem so clueless in this campaign that it is hard to imagine what they are thinking or who their second choices are.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2008 03:12 PM | Send