Signs & Portents

Mitt is out, but the Right still doesn't trust McCain (and the Hard Right despises him), Democrats are still hugely outpolling and outvoting Republicans, once-reliable conservative voices are predicting a 1980-style "sea change" Blue Tide in November, and the Howler Monkeys are reduced to whistling past the graveyard in hoping Hillary gets the nomination.

From the Sunshine State

McCain wins (and may get Giuliani's mighty endorsement), but he's pretty much out of money, and the people who have the money don't like him. With Rudy! out, I'm curious to see how McCain does in a head-to-head to the Romney-bot (with Huckabee apparently no longer a factor). If Giuliani hadn't been on the ballot, how much of his 15% would've gone to McCain? The exit polls tend to indicate that McCain still has a significant problem with the GOP base (Scarborough dismissed his platform as "less jobs and more wars"). This would tend to hurt his ability to use the Karl Rove/Nathan Bedford Forrest ("Git thar fustest with the mostest men") strategy in November.

In other news, Dubya was lying during SOTU. Quick, fetch the smelling salts; I feel faint!

Mitt Romney: Hypocritical Bigoted Moron

Mitt won't appoint a Muslim to his Cabinet "...based on the numbers of American Muslims [as a percentage] in our population..."
So, let's see, first he's applying a religious test for office (please see Article VI, Section 3 of the Constitution); second, this is the same guy who claims (and I agree with him on this) that his Mormonism shouldn't be an issue; and third apparently there is now a religious quota system for Cabinet Secretaries. And Mitt's "explanation" only makes it worse. Nor is this his first indication of religious bigotry. Oh, the stupid, it hurts us!