The Caveman & the Highest Bidder

Anderson Cooper had barely said "Thank you and good luck" before I received a request to comment on the Republican debate. The slugfest was broadcast live from the Reagan Library on CNN Wednesday evening. Much of the feedback focused on a perception of unfairness – well founded if you go by face time – toward Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. Indeed, both candidates had to remind the moderator of their presence. Congressman Paul was told patronizingly that he would get his chance to speak and Governor Huckabee received a promise of a "shower of questions" that barely amounted to a tinkle.

If you’re a Huckabee or Paul supporter, the big news of the evening is that while they were not given much time to speak, both proved to be frustrated adults at a playground sand-kicking contest. Neither Romney nor McCain won on points. In fact, neither of them had any real points to make. Too much of the dialogue can be summed up in the "is not...is so" snit between these two examples of why relying on conventional wisdom and establishment talk show hosts is not the smartest way to choose a leader. I found myself wondering if it really matters whether Mitt Romney meant "timetables and milestones" or something different that goes by the same name. I concluded that both the Governor and the Senator were so fully engaged in their disdain for one another that their disdain for you and I came into sharp focus.

What none of the commentators touched on in the post-game wrapup was the undercurrent of McCain's inevitability and Romney's entitlement. If the overt bias toward "front runner" status was frustrating for conservatives watching this debate, the potential of a McCain or Romney presidency on the basis of inevitability or entitlement is downright disturbing. I closed my eyes and reflected on the implications either of these "front-runners" getting the nomination posed.

What McCain's supporters tout as his ability to “reach across the aisle” amounts to an inability to confront difficult issues without simply caving to Democratic sensibilities. McCain's desire to be loved by liberals has often put him at odds with conservative thinkers. Case in point: McCain-Feingold, the speech-control bill supposedly intended to get a handle on the out of control spending in political campaigns. He never spared a breath to remind us that there is too much money in politics and it can be corrupting. His cave to Democratic sensibilities didn't take into account the ability of spoiled rich kids being able to self-fund the purchase of the Oval Office like some kind of leveraged buyout.

As if complying with the law of unintended consequences, McCain-Feingold replaced much of the soft money with unaccountable and often "invisible” 527 groups that can claim support for one candidate while doing the dirty work of another. In this election, Common Sense Issues, Inc. is a perfect example of what McCain's cave to Democratic sensibilities brought us. The head of the group set up the organization as a "Supports Huckabee" third party group, and yet he never personally donated to Huckabee's campaign. Token donations from some known Huckabee supporters formed enough evidence to circumstantially associate Huckabee's campaign with the group. The only donation the group's leader made was $250 to Fred Thompson. The push polling stopped when Thompson left the race, but the damage was already done to Huckabee's effort. Score one for McCain-Feingold.

McCain-Feingold is one of many examples of his "reaching across the aisle". In addition to the McCain Feingold "Repeal the First Amendment Act", he gave us the McCain-Kennedy "Grant Amnesty to Illegals and Then Call Them Citizens Act". Did I mention the McCain-Lieberman "Global Warming is Real and the Only Way to Fix It Is Suppress Economic Progress Act"? It seems all we need to do to get McCain to cave in to liberal interests is buy a hyphen. No doubt there are vehicle bills in the Senate pre-marked as the "McCain-Insert-Democrat-Name-Here Act".

I woke up from my reverie and realized that while it is truly frightening to have this kind of caveman at the helm, it is even more frightening to have a spoiled rich kid succeed in buying the Oval Office. McCain can only do so much damage to the Republic with his liberal alliances. To allow a self-funded and self-important wind-up doll to succeed in buying high office would finally destroy any notion that anyone can aspire to become president. We would have to rewrite all of our second-grade civics lessons... Imagine what that would cost. In a strange way, it seems like the nominating process has descended into some kind of surreal reality show -- Survivor Washington or American Idolatry. I don't think either is anything close to what the Founders intended. However, if they could have anticipated eBay, they probably would have found Mitt Romney's effort to be the highest bidder for an eBay presidency just as disgusting.

This is all the more reason we need to listen to the frustrated adults on the playground. The Caveman and the Highest Bidder are too frightening for this Constitutional Conservative to comprehend.