Richard Whalen

Yeah – I know Conservatives in the Republican Party are totally out of sorts with their frontrunner – Senator John McCain. And the moderates are in total confusion and who would blame them?

For example, when McCain was asked during a “Straight Talk” bus tour back in April 19, 2007 when he thought the U.S. military might send an air mail message to Tehran, McCain began his answer by singing and changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song to “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” reports the Georgetown Times. Then he added: “Iran is dedicated to the destruction of Israel…I totally support the President….”

More recently, McCain told a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire January 3, 2008, that “the United States military could stay in Iraq for ‘maybe a hundred years and that would be fine with me….as long as Americans are not being injured, harmed or killed." Such statements compelled Pat Buchanan to remark on the John McLaughlin Show (2/10/08) that a McCain victory would be Bush’s third term.

And what was McCain’s reward for such loyalty to Bush? President Bush sought on Friday to unify the Republican Party behind its presumptive nominee in an appearance before the annual Conservative Political Action Conference but did not mention McCain’s name! (He did call McCain. By name, a “true conservative” in a Sunday talk show interview.)

McCain’s position is a thankless one – to serve as the rear-guard of the conservative’s long advance, now coming to an end. McCain is the last man standing from the line that began with Goldwater in 1964; elected Nixon in 1968 and re-elected him in 1972; stumbled under Nixon’s self-betrayal during Watergate and finally gained historic traction and momentum in Reagan’s “Revolution” in 1980 and his re-election in 1984. The Bushes, no conservatives but careerists, destroyed almost all that preceded them.

Now, Mike Huckabee, celebrating his moment in the sun after his strong wins in Kansas and Louisiana on Saturday, February 9, has declared that: “They (the voters) spoke with one voice….and said I am the authentic conservative in this race.” (Huckabee would have to win 93 percent of the remaining delegates to realize his impossible dream.)

That said, the primary elections and caucuses to date have shown that the Democrats have a significant collective voting edge. Referring to voter turnout, Tim Russert on NBC’s Meet the Press said that, to date, the Democrats had received 19,251,817 votes to the Republicans’ 12,957,700. In narrowly balanced America, that approximate 6.3 million voter gap is crucial.

Ron Klain writing in the New York Times “ says the Democratic vote exceeded the Republican vote by more than 200,000 in Missouri, by almost 100,000 in Georgia and by more than 50,000 in Tennessee — all states that went Republican in the 2004 presidential election. And in what were once known as competitive states in American politics — California, New Jersey and Illinois — “fuggetaboutit.”

As the Conservative Republicans continue to whine and complain about what is pretty much a fait accompli, they refuse to acknowledge that the Bush II train wreck of a failed presidency has succeeded in producing a body of Republican voters who are indifferent and apathetic.

And so Conservatives, the Republican stay-at-homes will easily give the presidency to the passionate Democratic get-out-the-voters -- tipping the scales for either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama come November 2008.