CPAC: Swallow Hard And Welcome McCain

Today's the day John McCain faces the conservatives head-on at CPAC -- perhaps the unfriendliest audience he's faced since he failed to leave a tip for the housekeeping staff at the Hanoi Hilton.

Rick Moran at Rightwing Nuthouse captures the spirit of the moment in his post offering up (allegedly) a pilfered copy of McCain's speech. It starts:

SPEECH FOR THE CONSERVATIVE RABBLE AT CPAC===

My fellow conservatives. (Duck)

You can keep up with events in real-time at here at Kithbridge, which has set up a feed of the latest blog posts.

Much as we'd like see it, you won't read in any blogs today about McCain entering from the back door and proceeding to the dais on his knees, praying for repentance with each painful shuffle forward. It's not going to happen -- because we live in a democracy.

McCain is flush from trouncing every competitor in sight. What does that tell us? Simply this: He is more popular than we are at this moment in the Republican party. Don't like it? Tough! We can worry about what that means for the 2008 election and the future of the party, but today's GOP looked at today's candidates and voted their feelings in real time.

CPAC, then, is not an event where McCain needs to come shuffling and begging before Conservatives. It's an event for Conservatives to figure out how they're going to get behind McCain, who today appears to be unstoppable in his quest for the nomination.

Let's remember 1964, when moderates led by Nelson Rockefeller and Romney the elder refused to support Barry Goldwater. The result was not just Goldwater's trouncing, but also the comeback of the Conservatives and their subsequent control of the party for the next 44 years.

We could lose control if we play the '64 moderates' game at this time. McCain's an 85% Conservative, and that should be good enough. It's certainly better than Obama (the most liberal Senator) or Hillary (the 16th most liberal). (source)

Art: BobMcCarthy.com