A Second Hand Conjecture

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photo: Steve Kaiser

Have you ever taken a moment to read some of the many Huckabee blogs that have sprung up over the past months? They’re really quite strange. For instance, here is a snippet from a Blogs 4 Huckabee post on Ann Coulter’s infamous endorsement of Hillary Clinton:

If the Democrats win, the American people will flock to the Party of God. As it is, 8 years of moral, sensible government have made the American people complacent, and ripe for the lies and distortions of a deviant candidate like Hitlery.

As usual, Coulter’s one of the smarter analysts out there. (I do wish she’d strap her chest down, but otherwise I also find her a very moral, and very alluring, woman.) Where I tend to disagree with her is her failure to endorse Brownback. I’m not sure America can stand 4 years of Hitlery, even if it’s followed by another 2 decades of Republican dominance. We’re still languishing under a recession caused by Bill Clinton; do we really want a Hitlery recession added onto that? We’ll be in the Great Depression in no time if we keep letting Democrats rule us.
(Blogs 4 Huckabee)

Probably the most disturbing element of this is his using the term “Party of God” in a sincere and supportive way to describe the GOP. “Party of God” in Arabic is literally “Hezbollah.”

But where do you even proceed from there? Moral yet alluring? A recession caused by Bill Clinton in 2008, Ann Coulter as the smartest “analyst,” with her only fault being a failure to endorse Sam Brownback of all things? Yes, this is pretty much beyond criticism, and well into the realm of opinions which are simply too bizarre to seriously comment on.

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Nick Curran at Radar has put together a Top Ten Eighteen list of McCain’s enemies in the GOP. It’s kind of entertaining.

01. Ann Coulter
02. Rush Limbaugh
03. Jack Abramoff
04. John Cornyn
05. Tom DeLay
06. Matt Drudge
07. Rick Santorum
08. John Dowd
09. National Review
10. Grover Norquist
11. Michelle Malkin
12. David Bossie
13. Laura Ingraham
14. Sean Hannity
15. RedState
16. David Keene
17. Gun Owners of America
18. Thad Cochran

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Is the Iraq War hurting John McCain’s candidacy? By “hurting” I’m referring to his struggle to be the true conservative candidate who unites the party. Despite his clear lead in the primary race, McCain has not been able to capture the Christian right (who predominantly go for Huckabee), nor has he been able to win many races without the help of independent voters (strict conservatives breaking mostly for Romney). Indeed, Republicans don’t even seem terribly motivated this election season, as nearly double the number of Democratic voters went to the polls on Super Tuesday compared to Republicans (14.7 million vs. just 8.9 million). Meanwhile, the conservative and libertarian intelligensia (as well as yours truly) have been sniping at McCain from the right, including right-wing diva Ann Coulter who declared that she’ll vote for Hillary (yes, Hillary!) over John McCain. So, what’s going on here when even the hated Hillary Clinton can’t seem to force a consensus amongst the Republican Party to vote for the Maverick?

Amidst the internecine fighting on the right over the McCain “inevitability” train, something has been forgotten: there’s a discernible, even palpable, glimmer of hope on the Iraqi horizon. If Republican voters were as concerned about the Iraq War now as they were in 2004, then McCain would be winning hands down at this point. Since the only positive reason anyone can put forth to vote for McCain is his stance on the war in Iraq [Ed. -- OK, there's this too], it stands to reason that any diminution in the war’s importance as an election issue correlates to a decrease in support for McCain’s candidacy.

In other words, as Republican voters become less concerned about how the war will turn out, they place more importance on other issues — e.g. the economy, abortion, earmarks, values, etc. Because McCain is not perceived as being reliably conservative on all these other issues, he faces greater scrutiny from opinion-makers seeking to advance the small-government, conservative (or libertarian) agenda, and Republicans in general feel free to focus on issues that are closer to home for them personally. Much like Peg suggested as the reason for Rudy’s campaign fizzling out, McCain’s lackluster support amongst the Party base seems to be greatly affected by the decreased urgency and anxiety of the Iraq War, and worries about terrorism in general.

Taking this hypothesis to its logical conclusion, is it possible that Bush’s successes with respect to the GWOT, including the relative post-surge calm in Iraq, will be the undoing of a Republican presidency? Are we on the verge of the Republican Party faithful, who are not only “not in love” with McCain, but also threatening not to “fall in line”, blaming Bush for the loss of the White House? These are strange political times indeed.

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Eric Scheie and I have always had a similar opinion of Ann. Search our archives for more.

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Video of Ann Coulter endorsing Hillary Clinton and pledging to campaign for her. Perhaps a worse political catastrophe for Team Hillary than drivers licenses for illegals.

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Have I discussed what is really wrong with Ann Coulter? Why yes I have, but while not nearly as important it is important to mention, but she is also embarrassing:

Ann Coulter almost made it through her CPAC speech without looking like a complete buffoon. She wasn’t funny, she rarely is, but she’s an attention whore. Near the end of her speech she said she wouldnâ’t talk about John Edwards because ” you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot.’” She’s now on non-speaking terms with any gay and lesbian friends.

I’ll post the audio as soon as I can.

UPDATE: Here’s the audio clip.

Technorati Tags: Ann Coulter, stupidity

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