What kind of people visit here? People who enjoy Clinton4McCain, JustSayNoDeal, ClintonDems, Swingcrats, McCainNow.com, and a whole host of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Hillary Supporters for McCain is a large and growing phenomenon.
Me, Myself, and I -- very much at home in Pennsylvania's Beaver County, which on April 22 voted for Hillary Clinton by a margin of 28,000 to 12,000.
The following is the start of a column that appears today (Thursday) on my national blogs: http://stevemaloneygop.blogspot.com/ and http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com/. If you're interested in an extremely candid take on the many red-hot congressional races in PA, you can find a column on said subject at: http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com/. Most of the people who visit these sites are either not know or little known. I think about you all a great deal and value your "company." The excerpt that follow is part of "The Conscience of a Conservative."
A liberal reader of mine from eastern PA (I live in western PA) wrote me a long, mostly autobiographical e-mail asking why I -- living in a supposedly semi-distressed area of Beaver County -- believed generally in conservative principles. He (?) also asked me if I voted for GWB and Rick Santorum (our former Republican Senator). I replied at length, focusing mainly on why I oppose Obama and support McCain. In case you've been wondering about similar things, here's my reply [go to one of the above sites if you want to read it].
The moment I liked best in the Democratic Primary occurred during the Pennsylvania Primary -- but it occurred in Crown Point, Indiana. It was when she hat a "shot-and-a-beer" at a bar full of . . . shot-and-beer drinkers. Yes, it was a classic political act, but -- like many Rust Belt residents -- I loved it. It's not an outrage for politicians to do political things.
Was anyone amazed when Barack Obama took a shot at a favorite Rust Belt sport: bowling? And was anyone surprised when he rolled a gutter ball? To most of us in Pennsylvania, he's a gutter-ball kind of guy. If Hillary had tried it, God would have smiled on her, and the result would have been a strike.
People who have disagreed with Mrs. Clinton politically for 20 years or so grew to respect her capacity to campaign in what was clearly a hopeless effort. She soldiered on when lesser being would have quit. Dennis Milller admiringly compared her to a Monty Python scene, saying, "If you lop off her arms and legs, she'll keep coming at you, using the muscles in her belly button."
Being a good President (or perhaps a good-anything) requires toughness. John McCain is tough, as proven by his surviving five miserable years in a Vietnamese prison camp. Hillary Clinton is tough (as John McCain recognized). Barack Obama? He's a classic wuss, a person capable of rationalizing nearly everything (including Rev. Wright).
As the Iraq War has faded as an issue -- mainly because the U.S. is winning -- we tend to forget the early days of the Democratic campaign. Sen. Clinton was under attack for not "apologizing" for her vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq. Senator John Edwards, "the Haircut Man," quickly apologized for his vote, although he never apologized for irritating us every four years.
Senator Clinton never apologized. Why? I believe it was because she didn't feel she had done anything she needed to regret. One of the reasons she lost the nomination was that Obama was relentlessly demagogic in his use of the War Issue against Mrs. Clinton.
At the end of the Democratic "primary season," I still disagreed with Hillary Clinton on many of the issues. But like so many members of what she once called "The vast right-wing conspiracy," I had developed a new-found respect for her. Barack Obama is not someone you want next to you in the proverbial foxhole. Hillary is welcome any time in my foxhole.
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