It shouldn't. Unless the doting Clinton-media's elderly poster-boy continues to receive a "pass" on his less-than-conservative voting record for the last 30-something years.
Plus -- watching the Republican party initiate it's protocol of selecting the next candidate for POTUS is not sitting well with the grassroots .....
Conservatives are not buying the "heir apparent" mantle being draped around John McCain comb-over locks. And they have good reason.
McCain does not reflect the conservative interests of his party. Never has. Likely never will.
Here's Salon's take on the scuttle-butt:
On Wednesday, we brought
you some of the more apoplectic reactions from conservatives after Sen. John McCain's victory in
Florida's Republican primary. Well, the tenor of the debate on the right over
McCain's candidacy has by no means cooled over the past couple of days. If
anything, as we get to the key primaries of Super Tuesday, the anger over the
prospect of Republican presidential candidate John McCain has grown. Some
prominent conservatives are even threatening drastic action.
Take Ann Coulter. In
an appearance on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes" that's now been
widely remarked upon, she told the two hosts that if McCain was nominated, and
running against Sen. Hillary Clinton, she'd
vote for Clinton.
The brothers Limbaugh -- Rush and lesser-known sibling David -- have been
hitting McCain hard in recent days. On Rush's Web site, in a list of quotes from his Thursday broadcast he includes, among
others, "McCain's kind of like the Clintons in a sense: you tell the truth about
them and they think it's a personal attack" and "Lindsey Graham is certainly
close enough to John McCain to die of anal poisoning." (We hope there's some
sort of legitimate reference in that second one that we're just not getting, but
we doubt it.) Then David, in a column on Townhall.com Friday, wrote, McCain "is the
anti-conservative. He instinctively sides against conservatives and relishes
poking them in the eye.
"He enjoys cavorting and colluding with our political enemies and basks in
the fawning attention they give him. Adding insult to injury, he now pretends to
be the very thing he is not: an across-the-board Reagan conservative."
Then there's Michelle Malkin, last seen implying that perhaps there was
something amiss with the voting in Florida that led to McCain's win, who was set off again by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's
appearance with McCain Thursday. "So, Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed John
McCain. He extolled McCain for 'reach[ing] across the political aisle to get
things done' ...
"To which I say: When did it become the Republican Party's top priority to
'get things done?'" Malkin wrote.
She continued: "'Get things done' is mindless liberal code for passing
legislation and expanding government.
"And as McCain's ample legislative record demonstrates, 'reaching across
the political aisle' never entails pulling opponents to the right. It always
entails selling out the right.
"How about defending our side of the political aisle?"
In a column, Thomas Sowell went after McCain's prized reputation as
a "straight talker." "We have been hearing for years that Senator John McCain
gives 'straight talk' and his bus has been endlessly referred to as the
'Straight Talk Express.' But endless repetition does not make something true,"
Sowell wrote. "... When confronted with any of his misdeeds, Senator McCain
tends to fall back on his record as a war hero in Vietnam.
"Let's talk sense. Benedict Arnold was a war hero but that did not exempt
him from condemnation for his later betrayal."
Meanwhile, McCain's chief remaining rival on the Republican side, former
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt
Romney, is quickly racking up endorsements from influential conservatives.
Sean Hannity, previously a barely closeted supporter of Rudy Giuliani's, was one
of the first to jump. Hannity's fellow radio host Laura Ingraham endorsed Romney on her show Friday morning; joining her for
the broadcast was former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. Santorum, who has
been outspokenly anti-McCain, made his endorsement of Romney official on Ingraham's show.
In a conference call with conservative bloggers on Friday, Romney
acknowledged the support he's gotten, saying: "When Sean Hannity says he's voting for me, when Laura
Ingraham says she's endorsing me ... Rush has been going after McCain pretty
aggressively. Michael Reagan has been pretty aggressive. The world of
conservatism is pretty solidly behind my effort."
Hang in there, Mitt. We need you.
More at Perish the Thought, Over-the-Hill Oracles and Elderscapes.
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