Wyoming Vote Tracker

So, you’re not really happy that Sen. McCain is going to presumably be the nominee, thanks to the open primary states that screwed up the desires of the Republican base? There is a diverse group of Republicans out there that share your feelings.

I’ve talked with some that are very reluctantly, going to hold their nose while they fill in the oval for McCain because they would much rather have him than whoever the Dems pick (with help from Texas Republicans that are seeking revenge next Tuesday )

Then there are some in the totally undecided camp. They don’t like McCain, but they don’t like either Democrat and they sure don’t want to give indirect support to the Democrat by voting third party.

Still yet there are others like myself that wonder if the Republican exodus might be offset by an influx of Independents and moderate Democrats, and are giving serious contemplation to voting third party because the Independents and moderate Democrats are going to save us from the likes of another President Clinton or President Obama.

On top of that, even if our protest vote is not offset, at least a Republican won’t get the blame for a bad Supreme Court Justice, congressional Republicans can take a stand when they disagree with the President, neither Sen. Clinton nor Sen. Obama could commit to having the troops out of Iraq by the end of their hypothetical first term as President, so let the Democrats relive the Carter years and give us the hope of seeing the 21st Century version of Ronald Reagan int he next election cycle!

And some of you thought I was shifting my position on the November election! HaHa!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Sen. McCain has some serious work to convince me that he honestly wants my vote and that he honestly believes he did more to harm the Republican party in the last eight years than help.

Yes, he  did his own rendition of “Read my lips, No New Taxes.” But he opposed cutting them when it was President Bush’s idea. Now he has the backing of President Bush’s father, who lost a second term on being not conservative enough when it came taxes. Enter, stage left, President Clinton.

Sen. McCain says he’ll nominate Constitutional Justices to the Supreme Court, but he criticized Justice Alito for “wearing his conservatism on his sleeve.” So does this mean that a President McCain would talk to the heirs of the gang of 14 and strongly urge them to disband, so as to allow the Constitutional process of judicial nominations to go forward?

Will Sen. McCain come out and admit like his former colleague from Tennessee did, that the campaign finance reform legislation was a mistake, maybe even go so far as to say that he would sign an executive order overriding it until the Supreme Court agreed to take the issue up again? It might not get me excited right away–after all, we’ve got a little over eight months to get even the slightest bit motivated for such a vote–but it could do some most interesting work on my voting decision. Key word being COULD.

Many are trying to make themselves feel good about the “high marks from the American Conservative Union.” Sure, if you look at his entire Senate career, he does reasonably well (though he is still a “lower tier” Republican by their ranking), but if you look at the last eight years, the ACU has issues with Sen. McCain. Granted, they have even more issues with the Democrat contenders, but alas, Sen. McCain has some ’splainin’ to do, to us, the base, about these last eight years. I suppose for him it’s good that he has so much time to do so.

Even Sen. Barrasso (R-WY) spoke positively about his Arizona colleague at the Park County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner, noting the difficulty that Sen. McCain has with his arms, but on a recent trip to Iraq, he easily lifted his arms “higher than he had ever seen” to hug his son. OK, so it wasn’t exactly a policy that the country’s junior Senator was praising, just noting that Sen. McCain loves his son. So, I’m not going to hold Sen. Barrasso’s remarks againt him.
I know, many of you out there are probably thinking, Wow; Scott’s really going ballistic on McCain! What’s gotten into him??? Actually, I just wanted to point out a couple of articles and then I got onto my “earn my vote soapbox.” So, coming back to my original points of interest:

• Will the dyed-in-the-wool McCain supporters tank the McCain campaign?
• Will Huckabee be a more gracious loser than McCain was in 2000?

Yes, this election cycle still promises to be interesting, even if the Presidential portion is in dire need of improvement.

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