The Huckster Wins Kansas Caucus

Not that it's really significant since McCain is going to be the GOP nominee, but given the fact Sen. Sam Brownback, a former presidential candidate himself, endorsed and has been campaigning for McCain, I wonder what Huckabee's win in Kansas today says about Brownback's stature and influence there.

Not As Smart As Hitler

I'm struggling over whether I should consider Ann Coulter's latest controversial zing to be really over the top mean or the most witty thing I've heard or read in my life.

Coulter compared a potential alliance between disillusioned conservative Republicans and Sen. Hillary Clinton to the alliance between Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin during World War II, which was formed to defeat Hitler.

"I'm not comparing McCain to Hitler," she added. "Hitler had a coherent tax policy."

Tick, Tick, Tick...

Three of four people sitting in a windowless room for 2 hours are sick with a cold. I happened to be the one person who wasn't sick.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

If mom hadn't called me this afternoon, I would have totally forgotten today is Chinese New Year. Kind of funny/ironic that this is the Year of the Rat in light of it being a presidential election year and all.

Anyway, luck and prosperity to you all!

Romney Really Does Deliver Some Very Good Speeches

His campaign "departure" speech was one of them, which I heard live on the radio today. I especially liked the fact he used the USC fight motto, though I'm pretty sure that's not why he injected it.

Soon, the face of liberalism in America will have a new name. Whether it is Barack or Hillary, the result would be the same if they were to win the Presidency. The opponents of American culture would push the throttle, devising new justifications for judges to depart from the constitution. Economic neophytes would layer heavier and heavier burdens on employers and families, slowing our economy and opening the way for foreign competition to further erode our lead.

Even though we face an uphill fight, I know that many in this room are fully behind my campaign. You are with me all the way to the convention. Fight on, just like Ronald Reagan did in 1976. But there is an important difference from 1976: today… we are a nation at war.

And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child’s play. About this, I have no doubt.

The Only Way McCain Can Win Me Over

After years of skipping the CPAC convention, John McCain is scheduled to speak there today. For me, this is what McCain must say in order to persuade me to support him in the general election should he be the Republican nominee for President (which seems to be pretty certain at this point):

- He does not support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, and favors an outright ban of such research.
- His organization of the Gang of 14 and effective kowtowing to Senate Democrats on judicial nominations was wrong.
- The McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill was a mistake.
- The McCain-Feingold campaign reform bill, and his express support for the unconstitutional application of it against pro-life advocates, were a mistake.
- The McCain-Lieberman climate stewardship bill was a mistake.
- He favors oil drilling in ANWR.
- His opposition to the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 was a mistake, and the reasons he gave at the recent debate in Los Angeles for why he opposed them were a lie and he's sorry.
- His negative suggestion that Sam Alito was too conservative was a mistake, and that he falsely denied ever making such a suggestion.
- He apologizes for repeatedly lying about Mitt Romney supporting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.
- He takes back the comment he made to Tim Russert that Hillary Clinton would make a good President.
- He apologizes for seriously considering a run as John Kerry's running mate in 2004.
- He favors a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Ronulans and Hucksters Clash

Humorous side note to yesterday's Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses. The Ron Paul (Ron Paul! Ron Paul!) campaign is claiming on its website that it made a deal with Mike Huckabee at the West Virginia Republican convention whereby Paul, in exchange for his supporters helping Huckabee move past Romney and over the 50% threshold, would get 3 of the 18 West Virginia delegates that were up for grabs and which Huckabee eventually won. Problem is, the Huckabee campaign is denying there was such a deal.

USC Doesn't Rebuild. It Reloads.

In addition to being Ash Wednesday, which on the grand scale of things is infinitely more important, today was the National Letter of Intent signing day for college bound senior high school football players.

Although it had already obtained commitments from a number of highly recruited players, USC got somewhat of a pleasant surprise today when Nick Perry, a standout defensive end from Detroit, Michigan, announced he was going to 'SC rather than stay in his home state and play for either the Univ. of Michigan or Michigan State. All things considered, Nick made the right decision. Fight On!

Why I Voted for Romney

After a string of anti-McCain posts and thinking about Dale's quick hit complaint about people who only say "vote for Romney because he 'aint McCain", I felt a little compelled to write this. As I previously posted before the California primary, Romney is basically my candidate of choice by default. I had wanted to vote for Fred Thompson, but of course, his candidacy never gained any traction and he dropped out shortly after the South Carolina primary. My support for Thompson was based upon the belief that he was the most consistent conservative among the leading pack of candidates. Thompson's record as a Senator, I think, largely supports this belief.

Although he basically expressed the same positions as Thompson on issues like abortion and illegal immigration, it is because Romney doesn't really have the record to back them up that made him my fall back candidate. But since Thompson dropped out of the picture, and none of the other remaining legitimate candidates either expressed or possessed a record which supports the conservative positions held by Romney, I was, and am still willing, to give Romney the benefit of the doubt on his conservative conversion.

Update: I also found Romney's endorsement by National Review to be persuasive.

Pro-Aborts for McCain

The Maverick™ gets a curious endorsement by the Republicans for Choice PAC. Wonder if he'll do the right thing and decline it. Something to keep an eye on.

Confirmed: Huckabee is McCain's Beeoch

Mike Huckabee wins 18 delegates at the West Virginia Republican convention after striking a back room deal with front running John McCain. This deal had the intended effect of screwing Mitt Romney, who otherwise would have won. Good 'ol American politics? Maybe. But I better not hear Huckabee make any more idiotic football analogies which suggest that he's still running for President because he believes he has a real chance to win the Republican nomination.

Romney's Glimmer of Hope in the Golden State

It's pretty much of a given that John McCain will win the lion's share of Republican delegates in tonight's Super Tuesday primaries. However, recent polls show that Mitt Romney has been surging in California and might very well "win" the state's winner take all by congressional district primary. (For the Republican Party in California, there are 3 delegates assigned to each of the state's 53 congressional districts. Whoever wins the most congressional districts will receive a bonus number of delegates; 11, I believe).

If the polling trend proves accurate, and California ends up going for Romney, I think there's a better than average chance that Romney could overtake McCain in the next round of primaries in March. At the very least, Romney could ride his campaign all the way to the National Republican Convention.

Update: As of 10:30 p.m. PST it appears McCain has been declared the winner of the overall vote for the California Republican Primary. Even worse news if you're anti-McCain like me is that McCain is leading pretty big in all of the congressional districts that have started reporting.

McLame Lies

I just picked this up listening to Rush. So, in addition to lying about Romney supporting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq, and falsely denying he suggested Justice Sam Alito is too conservative, John McCain lied about why he opposed President Bush's proposed tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

In a presidential debate on Wednesday, McCain said he voted against the Bush tax cuts because he wanted to rein in spending.

"I disagreed when we had tax cuts without spending restraint," the Arizona senator said.

The explanation fits with his history of railing against wasteful federal spending. But it does not fit with McCain's comments when he opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

In 2001, McCain said the tax cuts favored the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In 2003, he said there should be no tax cuts until the Iraq war costs were known.

Bottom line, McCain sucks.

Trinity Law School Will Never Be ABA Accedited

It was already kind of a long shot that the law school I graduated from was ever going to pursue accreditation by the American Bar Association. Now it appears that this pursuit will never happen in light of the 75% bar passage requirement that the ABA is set to adopt as an accreditation standard. h/t Patterico's Pontifications blog

FYI - The bar pass rate for Trinity Law graduates over the past 7 to 8 years has been less than 20%. When you consider that the average pass rate for first time takers of the California Bar Exam is 70%, that's pretty awful. And it doesn't seem to be getting better.

Weird People In This World (Cont.)

It's not as weird as this, but the fact that someone got to this blog by doing a Google search for "tori spelling nazi camp" is up there.

Choosing What Is Foolish To Shame The Wise

Part of the first chapter of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians was read at Mass today, and it's something that I found to be both comforting and inspiring in my current employment situation.

[26]For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;
[27] but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,
[28] God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
[29] so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
[30] He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
[31] therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord."

The foregoing verses, I think, also provide a great pre-Lenten reflection on the virtue of humility.