It's Mitt

I like this photo of Mitt Romney, because he looks strong even as his stars are fading.

And fading appears to be the right word for Romney's' campaign. I just got done reviewing RCPs polling summaries for the Super Tuesday states and the numbers tell a story of a perfectly-timed surge by John McCain: There is only one state that shows Romney ahead -- California -- and that's a mixed result, with the polls split.

I'm not trying to pick the general election winner by my primary vote, however; I'm trying to pick who will do best as president and who best reflects my values. Over the last month, with the sputtering of Thompson and Giuliani, and last week's CNN debate, which was really a McCain and Romney show, Mitt has clearly stood out as the best man for the job.

Even though Mike Huckabee shares my beliefs, he doesn't share my values, and he was out of my running almost from the start, as was Giuliani, because we were off on both values and beliefs. Then Thompson failed to show up.

I tire of the "I'm like Reagan!" "No, I'm like Reagan" meme that's been going on. The answer there is simple enough: Ronald Reagan would not have taken Mitt Romney's answer on timetables and played dirty politics with it. In the CNN debate, McCain looked pathetic, ignoble and Clintonesque.

Put that disgusting performance together with the news that he may very well have been close to leaving the party in 2001, his buy-in to global warming hysteria, his long and tight alliances with many of the most liberal voices in Congress, and his legislative record, and he's not going to get my primary vote.

Romney has no legislative record to run from, and he can always excuse his gubernatorial record because it was Massachusetts, after all. So I judged him on temperament and found him superior; on experience, and found his blend of business, Olympic and gubernatorial experience more intriguing than McCain's run on the Hill; on the war, and found that I had tired of McCain's drumming that he called the surge right and had grown more confident that Romney can lead us forward; on the economy, and felt it wasn't even a close call; and on the potential for bipartisanship,the least of all my concerns, and gave that nod to McCain.

But if McCain wins on Tuesday and goes on to get the nomination, I will contribute to the campaign and campaign for him. Even a fool, but apparently not Ann Coulter, can see the differences between either of our front-runners and either of theirs.

The way I see it, McCain's got two days to do something hugely stupid, or Romney won't do well enough to secure the nomination. I'll vote for Romney nonetheless, and hope most of you will, too. Then, if Wednesday dawns with McCain all but crowned, our job is first to help McCain win the presidency, and then, with that accomplished, to work hard to corral him within the confines of the promises he made to win the nomination.

Oh, and also on Tuesday I'm voting against every one of California's initiatives. The term limit initiative extends terms (duh!) and I'm not going to vote to allow more slot machines in the state. We have to figure out how to balance our budget without breaking the backs of the gambling-addicted.

Casinos Buy NAACP Support

Mandatory disclaimer: Nobody pays me to be against gambling; I just am.

I am particularly against the four Indian casino measures on the Feb. California ballot (Prop. 94, 95, 96, 97), in which four fabulously wealthy tribes will permission to vastly increase the number of slot machines they operate in return for a pittance of the new revenue the slots will generate as a payoff to the state.

Here's the opposition site -- funded, of course, not by anyone I like, but primarily the sleazy Vegas casino operators.

Update: Here's a better opposition site that lays out 14 strong, funny and maddening reasons to vote against the propositions. End update.

On the pro side, the tribes are pulling out the stops, all the stops ... call it their "black ops" --

The president of the California NAACP has been paid more than $40,000 in consulting fees – and the organization itself has received $60,000 – from a coalition of Indian tribes at the same time the civil rights group has endorsed four ballot measures pushed by its tribal benefactors.

The payments to Alice Huffman, who has served as president of the state conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People since 1999, continue a three-year pattern in which Huffman's political firm has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by special interest groups.

Those same interests, including tobacco and pharmaceutical companies, have also donated tens of thousands of dollars directly to the state NAACP while receiving the organization's backing. (SacBee)

Huffman operates the NACCP out of the same office she runs her "political consulting" firm from. Now she might have spent hours on the phone with the reporter explaining exactly what she did for the tribes for her $40 K -- the meetings she held, the direct mail pieces she produced -- but there's nothing about it in the article ... probably because there was nothing to write about.

Huffman acknowledges that running a shakedown shop political consulting firm while running the Cal. NAACP has lead to many allegations of conflict of interest in the past, but:

She continues her consulting work because "campaigning and politics is my livelihood," she said. "That's how I make my money to buy my Gucci handbags and other things that enhance my standard of living."

And in that regard, she is cut from the same polyester as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton -- blacks who make a good, if immoral, living out of nothing more than being black.

Her support of the props, and the NAACP's support, are just one more good reason to vote against these propositions.

Note: There's also an interesting gambling-fired battle going on in Nevada, where Hillary is saying gambling is just terrific (whoring for the casino labor vote), and attacking Obama for his anti-gaming record in the Illinois statehouse, where his position was that gaming had a high "moral and social" cost that is devastating black communities. Read more in the LA Times.

Hillary, you are showing your true colors: chameleon ... no, more like ... Predator

Lookin' good, Hil. Whatever it takes, Ol Gal, eh?