Back in my Blog of January 23rd, I tried to work through the choice of the person of conservative bent whom I would favor with my vote during our primary elections. I had, at that point, devolved to Mitt Romney as 'my candidate'. Then, Mitt determined that he wouldn't make the cut and removed himself from the fray. He was statesmanlike, and, I believe, was placing party and country above self. That's part of what attracted me to him, and still is.
So now, I watch 'liquid snow' and have realized that I no longer have a decision to make. My three choices are Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and John McCain.
I realize I am offending some of the most rabid political backers alive today when I say that Ron Paul is still a loose cannon and that I cannot vote for him. (I saw a fixed wing airplane towing a Ron Paul banner yesterday over the Milwaukee area. That struck me as strange since there were no large outdoor gatherings to attract viewers.) There are some values that he espouses in the Libertarian mode that have appeal to me, but I simply do not believe that he is the right person with the right values to lead us today.
I believe that Mike Huckabee is also not right for our country today. He has no real chance and yet he persists in continuing to run because he is able to do it 'on the cheap' and because he either thinks he'll be a player in a 'brokered' nomination, has a shot at the 'Veep' slot or is simply creating name recognition for his follow-up race in four or eight years. He seems to me to be in the race for himself and not for the country. I do not yet see the 'statesman' who recognizes that he is, at best, a spoiler, and therefore removes himself from the race to help the party coalesce around the obvious candidate.
The 'obvious candidate' is John McCain as much as I wish it might be Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney. I cannot bring myself to vote for Hillary to try to somehow stem the Obama tide. Either of the candidates on the other ticket frighten me; it is simply a matter of degrees of frightfulness.
I still have misgivings about McCain, but he is the only choice for me on the critical issue of freedom. He will continue to be the tough fiscal conservative, and Lord knows we need that today. I would like a tougher stance on the issue of illegal immigrants already in the country, but that has to take a back seat to our country's safety. I would like for him to not have co-sponsored 'McCain Feingold', but he did. I would like a more controlled temper, but I'll have to presume that he'll have solid advisors with whom he'll take counsel before making major decisions.
How he will fare against Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama remains to be seen. I suspect that he might have a better chance against Hillary than Barack, but I'm not in the position to make that decision, so I'll just have to take my chances.
This has been a difficult decision-making process and I'm almost grateful that the final decision was made for me.
