A Few Thoughts

A few thoughts on Super Tuesday.

There is no question that Sen. John McCain is now the GOP front runner.

Gov. Mitt Romney won many of the same states Sen. Obama did, but for Barack the MSM gushes huge win.

As for the Huckster, I've said all I'm going to say about him last night.

Bless Mitt Romney and his family for giving us the good fight and standing up for conservatives on all three important fronts for our party, and for America. He offers a strong vision for the future, and may well be a player at the convention in St. Paul and beyond.

Tomorrow I'll be watching CPAC. We'll see if John McCain manages to give a conservative speech or if he's already peaked there too.

And if I were a superdelegate for the Dems, I'd really hate my life right now, because they will decide their nomination. Heh.

UPDATE: Illinois results overall, by county map, by county numbers.

UPDATE: Sun Times' local leftie columnist Mark Brown finds it hard to dislike McCain:

But if there's a long drawn-out race for the Democratic nomination, supporters of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are as likely to have worked up as healthy a distaste for the other one as they have for McCain.

Bob Novak "Surging McCain":

The overall results Tuesday showed that McCain had not sold himself to critical conservatives after his definitive victory in Florida.

UPDATE: Jed Babbin on what McCain can do:

First, he could throw away the Reagan video introduction. If he uses it at CPAC -- a house that Reagan built -- he could alienate a large portion of the conservatives he needs.

Second, he could say a lot more than he has so far on three key issues: Supreme Court appointments, the war and illegal immigration.

By January 2009, more than half of the Supreme Court justices will be over the age of 70. It’s likely that the next president will have four or five nominations, especially if he (or she) is a two-term president. After the reports of McCain’s dismissive remarks about the conservatism of Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito (reported last week by Bob Novak and John Fund) McCain must convince conservatives that the justices he would try to appoint would be of the same judicial temperament as Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito. McCain must say clearly and concisely that he would only appoint justices whose views are strict constructionist and that he would fight to get them through a Democrat-dominated Senate.

And the WSJ:

Mr. McCain has also adjusted his message in an attempt to appeal to conservatives. In a swing through three Southern states, he shifted gears to family values, abortion and military might. Sensing the skepticism of social conservatives, Mr. McCain went out of his way to ease their concerns. "I just want to reassure you again on my pro-life record for 24 years I have voted in favor in the rights of the unborn I have struggled for them around the world," he said Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. Mr. McCain has angered social conservatives by voting for federal funding of stem-cell research that involved destruction of human embryos and against a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

His performance at CPAC is critical for McCain to unite the GOP.

UPDATE: RCP Blog, "Whither the Anti-McCains?" To me, CPAC is key, as I would imagine for a lot of other conservatives who are a disproportionate number of those who volunteer, donate, and vote.

Have you ever known a passionate moderate?

I didn't think so. Last night I heard Laura Ingraham mention a possible McCain-Romney ticket, which would involve McCain burying his hatchet somewhere other than in Romney's person, but this kind of thing has happened before. AP has McCain telling his critics to "calm down", sounds a bit patronizing--that kind of line never works with me--though he did say critics had made their case against him "pretty eloquently":) So we shall see.