Rudy's Monkey Wrench

No sooner did I comment at a family dinner that I believed there would be significant surprises in the 2008 presidential election when, a day later, Rudy Giuliani pulled out of the race and endorsed John McCain.

As an early supporter of Giuliani, this was a bit of a disappointment to me. I had considered him to be the best candidate out there. Actually, the only decent one.

However, his endorsement of McCain doesn’t sway me on him. Regardless of any rhetoric to the contrary, McCain’s attack on free speech (the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law), and his call for mandatory national service for all 18 year-olds firmly establishes his statist credentials.

While I have stated my clear opposition to Mitt Romney, primarily because of his socialistic Massachusetts healthcare scheme, I may have to re-think my stated refusal to vote for him. He is clearly the lessor of two evils (between he and McCain) in the Tuesday New Jersey primary. Right now, I plan to vote for Giuliani (who is still on the ballot) as a “protest” vote, but that may change.

If John McCain is the GOP nominee, I may seriously have to consider casting my first ever vote for a Democrat come November. This makes me want to puke. But, as we have seen with George W. Bush, having a liberal or moderate Republican masquerading as a conservative in the White House does tremendous harm by demoralizing and disarming the Right while emboldening the Left. Under Bush, the left’s agenda was advanced more than under Bill Clinton’s Administration.

A McCain presidency would be Bush times two. At least a Hillary (or Obama) presidency would (or maybe I should say could) unite the Right into a solid wall of opposition making it a lot harder for her to advance the worst aspects of her agenda. A good example of what I am talking about would be the 1993 failure of Hillarycare, when despite a Dem. Congress, Mrs. Clinton’s healthcare socialization scheme crashed and burned against a monolithic Republican wall of opposition. Under McCain, the Right would be split and weakened, as many Republicans would feel obliged to support “their” president. We saw this happen with W.

Unless something drastic happens, like McCain openly repudiating his worst prior positions or the Democrats nominating a reincarnated Mussolini or something, I cannot help to bring to power this wolf in sheep’s clothing.

Meanwhile, on the “surprise” front, New Jersey’s own Steve Forbes, a former GOP presidential contender whom I would vote for in a heart beat, recently raised the possibility of a third-party ticket of NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg with Al Gore (yes, THAT Al Gore) as his running mate.

Stay tuned for more surprises…and monkey wrenches.