The media “opinionators” are also entertainers who must gin up issues for ratings. And this is part of it.

The McCain opponents have only themselves to blame now. They are late to support Romney, having first chased after Guilliani then Thompson. Had they backed him early-on, he might have been the front runner now.

Terrye
The Tancredo thing with Romney bothered me also. Think it was a poor decision even though he knew it would never happen.
I agree about McCain’s first wife smear and also the slime about his capture. All that stuff is pure SLIME. What is it with some that they must take it to such extremes? I think that is what the Left thought was happening with Kerry. It was not. They were too young to have witnessed it with their own eyes.

I can’t remember ever being this torn over the choices. I keep repeating to myself that the #1 first goal is to win. Look at what our Congress and our Pundits did in 2006 to themselves. I personally think those that talk about staying home, etc are nuts.

Think I am more like the Anchoress in that Romney needed to make his case. Loved that she said you could not use the word McCain in doing so. I have watched him and he just never closes the deal. I am still undecided.

I will tell you something that really bugged me about Rush. Back in 2000 when McCain ran there were all sorts of attacks going out against him, one of them was actually directed at his wife. She had a history of a problem with pain killers or something. It was some time back. That was something that some on the right used to smear McCain. He had a weirdo wife.

But when Rush had the same problems to the extent that he actually had a brush with the law, well…that was different.

I found all that stuff a tad unnerving. Distasteful. Tacky. Going after the man’s wife? I don’t think so.

McCain has said he will make border security a priority. That is not a flip flop, he is just accepting the reality of what people want.

Romney went from supporting Bush to supporting Tancredo, that is a complete roll over.

As for California, we will know soon enough. But if it is not a winner takes all state, then no matter who wins or loses it the loss and/or the gain will be mitigated.

I read somewhere that the delegates are divided out of CA, with the winner getting a 11 delegate bonus.

excerpt:

For at least one candidate, though, California will not be the story. John McCain, once an afterthought, then the front-runner, is seeing his poll numbers in the Golden State sink again

The news may be worse than that. A tracking poll for C-SPAN and Reuters, taken by Zogby, shows distinct movement toward McCain’s chief opponent in California, Mitt Romney. After taking the lead yesterday, Romney is now up by eight points. A victory by such a small margin would only give Romney a few extra delegates — the state allocates most of their Republican delegates in a winner-take-all by Congressional District fashion.

In anticipation of such a result, McCain’s team has started downplaying expectations and California’s relative importance. “We’re going to do very well in the winner-take-all states in the Northeast,” spokesman Brian Rogers told Politics Nation today. “California is a toss-up that, at the end of the day, won’t be the big story [as long as] we pick up some delegates.”

Rogers promoted the importance of states like New York and New Jersey, which award delegates to the statewide winner and in which McCain is far ahead. In fact, if Romney wins a majority in each of California’s districts, he would win 170 convention delegates, twelve short of what McCain would win from victories in those two states and his home state of Arizona.

Even if a win in California left Romney at a disadvantage in the rest of the country, it would be a huge boost for a candidate who has looked, if not resigned to his fate, at least on the ropes and badly in need of a victory. A Golden State win could prove to the former Massachusetts governor that a one-on-one race against McCain really could turn to Romney’s advantage, and in the end, that could make for a renewed interest in a long-term crusade against the Arizona maverick.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2008/02/mccain_plays_down_ca.html

“I believe my party has gone astray. I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and in their philosophy.” – John McCain

http://dailypundit.com/?p=29500

Well, atleast he said he was wrong. Or, was it a flip flop? Don’t mean to make you feel any worse. It’s a bad election for all of us.

When I first read my first thought was “caught Hillary doing what?” and then my second thought was “nevermind, I really don’t want to know”.

I believe they stay committed to Rudy until Rudy releases them at the convention and a new rollcall is take.

Here are two putting McCain ahead in CA.

McClatchy

sfgate

Sometimes I wonder if people deliberately lie to polsters.

I do not see much momentum for Romney, he is just sort of stalling, but McCain has definitely moved forward.

I have no idea if Tuesday will settle things, it might.

If Rudy were to win some delegates in a state where it is not winner take or all, what happens to them?

Crosspatch is about where I sit in this thing except I still have a month to decide. I also do not particularly think in terms of liberal and conservative but like she said………World Government vs National Sovereignty. Yep, that’s where I live. So you would think I would be screaming with the Malkin crowd. Wrong. I am not in the same spot as AJ but that crowd makes you either for them or against them. They wipe out all compromises and solutions. Okay. I am against them.

President Bush has done a beautiful job of fighting my wars. My #1 was against the UN. Anyone remember the chants of the UN should be the Decider? The Supremes thinking that they should be a little more International in their decisions? This goes directly to World vs National Sovereignty. If they can’t get in one door, they keep coming in another………

I kept begging Hannity (before the war) to put every Senator on camera and ask the question about the war. Who should be the Decider? FOX has a tape of Carl Levin saying the UN. One tape. We needed tapes and proof and this before the war started. Just think how nice it would have been to have nailed these creeps.

Some lump Hannity in with the others. Wrong. I disagree with several of his opinions but he is NOT in the same place. He is not a hater. At least not on TV. He has very, very strong opinions but he is not a hater. I actually emailed him constantly before 2004 because he was such a McCain supporter. Say whatever, but I know what I watched when he was trying to decide about the VP slot. No one was saying a word about it when I was emailing Hannity.

I agree with Crosspatch about the personality also. I think age, health and the resentment at losing the 2000 took their toll. And I may vote for him in March. Yep.

Thank you, all you Conservatives that only worry about pork, corruption, purity and Mexicans. You sure produced great choices. But I will vote, unlike some of those spineless Wimps that talk about staying home. Some of those Conservative George W Bush bashers should consider themselves as CiC on election day. Yep. You get to be the Decider. I bet he faces the same tasty choices each day on a zillion issues. Enjoy.

a significant number of the ballots are
already in in Caly. I had to get my absentee ballot in by
the 29th, so did all the mail voters, so last minute changes are
less significant than they appear.

True. The state is trying to convert everyone to vote by mail. My “vote by mail” registration came months ago, I passed on it and am going to vote on election day this year but most of my friends have long voted … so look for Rudy and Hillary to do much better in the election than the polls are showing today.