This is pretty much how I see the endorsement

Romney to drop out today!

So says Time. Seems a bit premature to me, but then if he believes he can not win, why not give the party more time to heal and prepare for the November run?

Update: 1:15 PM Mitt Romney has dropped out of the race.

I disagree with Senator McCain on a number of issues, as you know. But I agree with him on doing whatever it takes to be successful in Iraq, on finding and executing Osama bin Laden, and on eliminating Al Qaeda and terror. If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror.

This is an interesting strategy, and essentially sets up the key issue for the next campaign to be the War on Terror. Up until now, the Democrats were comfortable that their supporters were against the War in Iraq, so they have been running on Universal Health Care and other Economic issues. Now, they will have to return to the debate. And the American people have not made up their mind yet.

The one good thing to say: I think we can say with confidence that Mitt Romney did NOT lose because of his Mormon faith. In the end, nearly everyone I knew who decided not to vote for him had a real different with his political positions or his character.

Romney wins Maine Caucuses

The choice of many Mod-Bloggers appears to have won the Pine Tree State rather handily. Of course, not many Republicans bothered to campaign there, not because of allergies to Lobster or New England wit, but because they focussed on the lucrative Super Tuesday states. Still, this win may produce some momentum going into next week.

The only big news is that Ron Paul supporters had been pushing Maine as "the one state that Ron Paul will definitely win." Too bad for America's OB-GYN.

Why I'm Voting For Romney

Well, I've done a complete 180-degree turn. Originally, I was leaning strongly towards McCain, as I outlined here. I've now decided to vote for Romney. Here's why.

My thought process for voting for McCain went something like this: I read a debate in which I really liked his answers, an online quiz had McCain as one of my top picks, and I found someone else I knew who felt, like me, surprised that they were leaning towards McCain. I figured I wasn't completely crazy and McCain was the one left after I discounted the other candidates. I got to the point where I was liking the things McCain was saying, so I didn't give as much weight to the issues I disagree with him on.

1. I realize that his stance on embryonic stem cell is not something I can endorse if there is another candidate that I agree with. My two big issue this election is government spending / the economy and national security. I also have a requirement that the candidate hold beliefs that will help the pro-life movement and will keep us in Iraq to finish the job. Personally, I believe that embryonic stem cell research is a waste of money and killing embryos for research is the same as killing babies for research. By supporting McCain, I'd be going against my big issue and one of my requirements.

2. McCain's stance on the environment is that we shouldn't drill in ANWR. This will hurt both our national security (dependence on foreign oil) and our economy (having the government spend money on alternative energy). To be fair, Romney also supports spending government money on alternative energy, but he is in favor of drilling in ANWR.

3. McCain's endorsements by Schwarzenegger and Giuliani gives him the support he needs to be a moderate president and push his more moderate agenda as opposed to his conservative positions.

4. The one McCain supporter I personally know is now pretty sure that s/he won't be voting for McCain either.

5. There are some conservatives who, given the choice of McCain or any Democratic candidate would either vote third party or stay home. We need the conservatives to beat whatever Democrat gets the nomination, especially Obama.

6. McCain has basically two choices for VP: Huckabee or Lieberman. I was having trouble feeling completely settled in my choice for McCain. I would have trouble voting for a McCain / Lieberman ticket. Even more conservatives would stay home or vote third party. Huckabee, while liked by social conservatives, is frowned upon by fiscal conservatives. Voting for a McCain / Huckabee ticket would be setting up a future Huckabee presidency. Consequently, we still lose a good chunk of the conservative vote.

7. A vote for anybody other than Romney at this point, gives McCain the nomination. That leaves me with a choice of Romney or McCain.

8. I've mentioned before that I don't trust Romney. I still don't trust him. I think he will do what is politically expedient. The difference is that if he gets the nomination and is elected, it will be because of conservatives. To quote Clear and Present Danger(?), "He wants what every first-term president wants, a second term." Romney will know that he was put in the White House by conservatives and that to get a second term, he will need to keep the support of the conservatives. Otherwise, there will be a number of candidates waiting in the wings to go against him. After four years of "being a conservative", my guess is that he would want to keep his legacy and not go down as "the president that completely duped the Republican party in his second term." As I said, I still don't trust him, but I think his political expediency will be to our favor.

9. I finally took a look at Romney's positions (or looked at them after it had been a while.) Many of the positions I like by McCain are held by Romney. Romney also wants to bring decency back to America (a noble position, though I don't know how much the president can directly do about that). Given #7, it's a good chance that he'll follow these positions as closely as any other politician does.

I still think that McCain will do a decent job if elected president. If he gets the Republican nomination, I see myself voting for him in the general election, unless he starts leaning further left or picks Lieberman as his running mate. That being said, I will be voting for Romney given that I believe he will embrace the conservative platforms, even if only for political expediency.

McCain Wins Florida, Guiliani Prepares to Quit

Despite trends showing a jump in support for Mitt Romney, John McCain has been projected as the winner of Florida's primary. The big news here is not that McCain beat Romney, however, but that Mayor Rudolph Guiliani came in last. This after Guiliani had placed all of his hopes on winning Florida to provide momentum coming into Super Tuesday.

Now there are multiple reports that Guiliani will bail out on the race later this week... and endorse John McCain. Is this the end of the Republican race? Or just one more "Silver" medal for Romney?

Why I Should Vote For McCain

For about a month and a half now, I have been considering voting for McCain. Saying that sounds so completely foreign to me, that I have spent this time trying to both find reasons not to vote for McCain and reasons to vote for one of the other candidates. CRChair has both asked why he should vote for Huckabee and stated why he won't be voting for McCain. Here is my logic for why I should vote for McCain.

First, let's start with the field of candidates:

Rudy Giuliani - His decidedly pro-abortion stance and liberal views has knocked him out as a candidate in my mind.

Mitt Romney - I just don't trust him. He reminds me too much of Kerry. He'd probably do a great job if he would pick a side and stick to his guns, but I can't vote for him without knowing who he is.

Ron Paul - He has many online supporters and I'll probably be blasted for this, but he's crazy. When I hear his ideas, I think, "That would have been great information to have when we were making the wrong decision." Getting us back to the gold standard just won't work without a complete upheaval and revaluing of things. Personally, I don't want my house value to drop just so we can get back on a gold standard.

Alan Keyes - With less visibility than Duncan Hunter or Tom Tancredo, Keyes may be the only person who seriously thinks he's running... and even he may not think that. Besides, he's already lost to Obama once. Going up against Clinton would be even worse.

Fred Thompson - I like Fred Thompson. He's one of my top three picks. Unfortunately, he's rumored to be leaving the race. Even if he doesn't, he's not running like he wants to be president. Clinton would chew him up in the general election. I'd like to see him make a strong run or even be the VP on the ticket, but I don't see it as a winning ticket.

Mike Huckabee - He's a second of my top three picks. He's got support, especially among religious conservatives. Unfortunately, while he's socially conservative, he's fiscally liberal. Huckabee would be like having four or eight more years of GWB, but with less foreign policy experience than GWB currently has. I feel like I voted for the social conservative and got duped the first time GWB ran, so I'm hesitant to vote for the same thing again. I do like the idea of not having an income tax, but a national sales tax promotes saving, not spending. I don't know if our economy could handle less spending.

John McCain - That leaves John McCain. I hate to vote for someone because they're the last one left. After all, he could just be the last one I looked at and be worse than the other candidates.

First, I'll answer Matt's points.

Age: Yes, McCain is the oldest candidate, but then, so was Reagan when he ran. People are living longer and McCain will be younger than when Reagan left office. That being said, age isn't really that important. Health is. If McCain is healthy enough to be president for one term, then age shouldn't be a factor. After all, President Harrison died of pneumonia shortly after taking office. None of us are guaranteed life, that is why we have measures set up to take over the office if the president should fall sick or die.

Immigration: Yes, McCain has been soft on immigration, but he also realizes that we need to fix the problem of illegal immigration by securing our borders before we start kicking people out. Otherwise, we'll just have to kick them out again and again.

Fiscal Responsibility: This is actually one of the reasons I am voting for McCain. He is against pork spending and realizes that we need to be good stewards of our money. Yes, he did vote against the tax cuts, but that was because we needed to cut spending. Cutting spending means that someone is upset about not getting as much federal money. Tax cuts resonate well with constituents. McCain wanted to make sure that spending was cut rather than furthering the national debt and knew that without a tax cut, spending wouldn't be cut.

Pro-Life: Yet another reason that I am voting for McCain. The National Right To Life PAC has up a PDF with the candidates views here, but the do not appear to fully quote McCain. While McCain is OK with stem cell research on existing lines and in cases of in-vitro fertilization, he is not OK with creating new stem-cell lines. Would I like him to be against all stem cell research? Yes. Personally, I haven't seen evidence of neonatal stem cell research taking off. The advances seem to be in adult stem cell research. That being said, McCain does make the point "I would remind you that these stem cells are either going to be discarded or perpetually frozen. We need to do what we can to relieve human suffering. It's a tough issue. I support federal funding." I have an easier time agreeing with babies that will be discarded. I, admittedly, have a hard time agreeing with purposefully destroying babies that are in a frozen state. I'd much rather see them used for couples that desperately want to have a baby, can't, but would be willing to carry another's baby from their in-vitro attempt. You can see McCain's voting record and his National Right To Life report card.

McCain-Feingold: I agree with McCain that political votes should not be bought. Having contribution limits is one way to do this. The other part of the bill, the part that limits free speech is the bigger issue in my mind. This part should be overturned by the courts.

The McCain Surprise: McCain is a maverick, but he's a maverick that sticks to his guns. If we realize what it is we're voting for, I don't think there will be too many surprises. He also has a lifetime conservative rating of 83% from The American Conservative Union. In comparison, Fred Thompson has an 86% rating.

Is McCain a perfect candidate? Absolutely not. As I stated above, McCain-Feingold, while good intentioned, should not have passed as it restricts free speech. I'd like to see McCain not only be anti-abortion, but also be anti-stem cell research. I don't agree with him on his views on the environment.

I do think that he will vote conservatively when it comes to abortion and I do think he will help rein in the federal budget, which will in turn help cut taxes and bring about a turn in the economy. I also think he can win. He won conservative South Carolina. Rasmussen Reports gives him an over 50% chance of becoming the Republican nominee. At the end of December, they had him beating Clinton 49% to 43% (Google cache).

What worries me about McCain? First and foremost, in the past McCain has not been known as being the friend of the conservative. Why am I leaning towards McCain? What am I missing? Second, I fear that he will choose Joseph Lieberman as his running mate. Lieberman is more liberal than McCain which would trouble me. Hopefully McCain will choose a more conservative running mate who has the heart of the evangelical voters... perhaps a McCain-Huckabee ticket? This would bring in the evangelical voters while giving Huckabee the foreign policy experience he would need to make a run for president following McCain.

Will I vote for McCain? As far as I can tell, I think I should. He appears to fit my views more than the other candidates and he has a chance to win. That being said, why should I vote for your candidate instead?

Connecticut Primary Polls

For the first time this election cycle I was able to find an article with the current poll numbers for the presidential primaries in Connecticut. WTNH television is reporting that the current poll numbers are:

Republicans
1. McCain 35%
2. Guliani 16%
3. Romney 11%

Democrats
1. Clinton 41%
2. Obama 27%
3. Edwards 9%

Winners and Losers

The results are in!

• Romney won Nevada with 51%
• Clinton won Nevada with 51% (but Obama gets the same number of delegates)
• McCain wins South Carolina with 33%
• Fred Thompson is widely expected to announce his departure from the race today or tomorrow.

Next up, Florida.

Romney wins Wyoming Caucus

CRChair's favorite candidate racked up a win today in Wyoming. Mitt Romney has won at least 6 of the 12 delegates from the state leaving Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter each one delegate. The rest will be decided later tonight.

Romney Continues to Waver on Abortion

In reading this article at ABC News, two things stood out. One, ABC News is trying to put the screws to Romney. Two, Romney is trying to avoid losing any votes due to abortion views. In the article, Mitt Romney explains that he would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, leaving the choice of abortion up to the states. Previously, he stated that he supported the Republican pro-life platform. He responded to this dichotomy by saying that ultimately he wants to see the abortion banned, but that a national ban is not achievable at this time. Instead, he would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade. Which way will Romney end up choosing if elected president?

To view news about abortion on Mitt Romney's site, click here.

Republicans Take Center Stage

I watched about 1/3 to ½ of the Republican debate on MSNBC last night and recorded it for future viewing. This is my reaction to the parts that I saw.

Mitt Romney was the most presidential person on stage. He easily answered questions and moved the discussion to questions he wanted to answer without making it obvious. Rudy Giuliani seemed unprepared to answer the questions about abortion. You would have thought that he would have decided on how he wanted to explain his views by now knowing that this question would come up. He did alright other than that. John McCain didn’t seem Presidential to me. He is said to be great at speaking “off the cuff”, but all of his answers seemed too planned to play into his strengths. None of the next tier candidates did much to change my opinion of them. I would like to be able to say that Gov. Mike Huckabee did a great job, but he was just fine. I do think that the candidates that said that they support the Fair Tax (National Sales Tax) probably put themselves out of the race. Huckabee is one of the candidates who did this. This election will not be about changing the tax system (as much as some of us would like this to be a major issue.) This election is about Iraq, homeland security and national optimism. The major tax debate of this election cycle will be about making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent and extending the elimination of the “Death Tax” which goes to 0% in 2010 and back to 55% in 2011.