The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Fear and Loathing (and, Yes, Sweet Vengeance) On the Road to Feb. 1, 2012

Posted on | October 17, 2011 | 19 Comments

 Today’s the day I fly off to Las Vegas to cover Tuesday’s crucial Republican presidential debate. It’s a long flight from Dulles to LAX, then a four-hour layover before I catch the plane to Vegas. I’ll be crashing in Barbara Espinosa‘s suite at the Sands, while Smitty and Wombat — both of them got their media credentials for the debate — will fly in Tuesday.

But while I’ll be in Vegas the next four days to cover the debate and the Western Republican Leadership Conference, it’s important to remember that this isn’t about Vegas. This is about getting my revenge on those [insert obscene epithets] in the Florida GOP leadership who screwed up the campaign schedule, ruined Christmas and wrecked my life by moving their primary to Jan. 31.

And we know why they did it, don’t we?

Nothing motivates grassroots resentment quite as much as when people see a cabal of political insiders trying to rig things for their own advantage, and hell hath no fury like a blogger with a maniacal determination to even the score with those RINO-hugging bastards. So when a Florida reader sent me an e-mail about those ugly rumors of a Romney/Rubio alliance (officially denied, I must remind you), I wrote back to explain a bit more about the situation:

The key point, as a couple different sources have told me, is that the GOP Establishment wants a nominee early — they hated Michael Steele for pushing the reforms that imposed the wall protecting the first four events, and forbade winner-take-all events in March.
Steele wanted to create a more level playing field and to prevent the kind of early knockout that John McCain scored in 2008. By contrast, the conventional wisdom of the GOP Establishment is that getting a winner early is essential to taking on an incumbent president. Of course, that kind of campaign would favor the big-money guys with national “name ID.” And it’s quite possible — not likely, but still quite possible — that their scheming and manipulation will backfire. Cain’s sudden surge has boosted his name ID at a key point in the campaign, with Perry in meltdown mode just about the time average people (as opposed to political junkies like us) are starting to pay attention to the Republican race. And as I explained Saturday at The American Spectator, the Cain campaign has gotten a money surge that might snowball to “Romney-esque” proportions
So if the insiders thought they were rigging up an early knockout for Romney, but instead it works out to help Cain — and cripples Romney, by depriving him of the aura of “inevitability” — then by the morning of February 1, once the votes are tallied in the Florida primary, the insiders are gonna have some ‘splaining to do. However it works out, I plan to be there in Florida that morning to cover the denouement.
Thanks again for writing, and I hope you’ll keep reading. This one’s gonna be a wild ride. And I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Robert Stacy McCain

You see, the insiders thought they had it all worked out. Nothing could stop them from anointing Mitt Romney as the “presumptive nominee” with a knockout victory in the Florida primary. But there was just one little problem with their plan: They pissed off the wrong blogger.

So all those conniving swindlers have got a comeuppance due, and when the sun rises over Tallahassee on the morning of February 1, 2012, I’ll be there to laugh at the wreckage of their sneaky scheme.

Hit the freaking tip jar!





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Category: Election 2012, Fear and Smitty in Vegas, Florida, Mitt Romney, Shoe Leather Fund, Vicious Backstabbing Crapweasels

Comments

19 Responses to “Fear and Loathing (and, Yes, Sweet Vengeance) On the Road to Feb. 1, 2012”

  1. Joe
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:13 pm

    So if the insiders thought they were rigging up an early knockout for Romney, but instead it works out to help Cain — and cripples Romney, by depriving him of the aura of “inevitability” — then by the morning of February 1, once the votes are tallied in the Florida primary, the insiders are gonna have some ‘splaining to do.

    I want to see Morning Joe cry. 

  2. Jamie Timon
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:16 pm

    I agree with Mr. Lester at the All American Blogger that Cain needs to stop fumbling on his foreign policy knowledge (http://www.allamericanblogger.com/18203/herman-cain-needs-to-stop-dodging-questions-by-saying-he-doesnt-have-all-the-info/). I’m really worried that his lack of knowledge while in the top tier of candidates is going to look bad to average voters. What do you all think?

  3. Joe
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:16 pm

    Takes one to know one!

  4. Richard Mcenroe
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:25 pm

    I want to see the veins on top of Karl Rove’s head.  I want his tantrum over Christine O’Donnell to look like the Pope blessing Vatican Square.

  5. Joe
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:39 pm

    Like this?

  6. DaveO
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:40 pm

    So long as Cain doesn’t bow and scrape and apologize for being associated with America, his Foreign Policy bona fides are better than the SCOAMF’s and Hillary’s combined.

  7. DaveO
    October 17th, 2011 @ 12:43 pm

    Where is the RNC coming up with the money to increase the Optempo of the primaries; and beyond trying to annoint Romney, is this strategem designed to also de-synchronize the TEA Party and Palin from controlling the down-ticket elections, which eclipse in importance any contest for the Presidency?

  8. Richard Mcenroe
    October 17th, 2011 @ 1:12 pm

    So whose policies on those debates were better?  “Afghanistan must save Afghanistan, Iraq must save Iraq”?

  9. Quartermaster
    October 17th, 2011 @ 1:17 pm

    The primary schedule is a result of teh GOP establishment trying to neutralize the TEA Party.  The blue bloods hated Reagan, adn they hate anyone that is even stained with conservatism. The GOp started as a leftist party, and still is a leftist party.

    Frankly, it would not surprise me if Rubio was part of the cabal to move the Fla primary. He wouldn’t be the first GOPer to turn on those that got them where they are.

  10. Jamie Timon
    October 17th, 2011 @ 1:35 pm

    somehow a close parenthesis got stuck on the link. to view the article, click here: http://www.allamericanblogger.com/18203/herman-cain-needs-to-stop-dodging-questions-by-saying-he-doesnt-have-all-the-info/

  11. Jeffrey Keenan
    October 17th, 2011 @ 3:03 pm

    Seems to me that Richard Nixon didn’t enter the 1968 campaign until … February of 1968. I guess that was just too late for him to possibly vie for the nomination, huh? 😉

    The “campaign season” is too frickin’ long, as it is. No more moving the primaries around! Sheesh!

  12. Anonymous
    October 17th, 2011 @ 3:13 pm

    An excellent question. Compressing the primary timetable would seem to aid an incumbent congressman or senator. Particularly if this was the insurgents first attempt.

  13. Adjoran
    October 17th, 2011 @ 4:01 pm

    Hot dog!  NEW conspirators to be denounced, and even better:  unnamed, shadowy “Republican insiders” lurking about, doing their evil deeds.

    But WHO are these dastardly mystery villains?  Could one be that neighbor who scowls and never speaks?  The woman at the grocery store who insists on using the Express Lane even though she has too many items?  Those guys in suits and ties at the bank?

    Guess we’ll just have to hang ’em all, to be sure, eh?

  14. Anonymous
    October 17th, 2011 @ 5:27 pm

    Most of the Guys in suits and ties have been replaced by women, at least in the local branches around where I live. Surely you’ll admit there must be a nefarious plot behind that.

  15. ThePaganTemple
    October 17th, 2011 @ 6:01 pm

    Only if you can make out the outlines of their nipples.

  16. Anonymous
    October 17th, 2011 @ 6:28 pm

    Not too late for him doesn’t not too late for any one this time. It really boils down to the filing deadlines.

  17. Nose_of_death
    October 17th, 2011 @ 6:34 pm

    Screw Iowa and New Hampshire.

    I’ve never voted in a Presidential primary before the issue had already been decided.
    Not to mention the terrible choices they’ve foisted off on the rest of us. McCain? Bush II? Dole? Bush I?
    Their ability to have an outsized say in who gets the nimination needs to be darned well revoked. Permanently.

  18. Charles
    October 17th, 2011 @ 7:03 pm

    Isn’t your real beef with New Hampshire, not Florida? And aren’t the states that vote in March, April, May, and June likely to forget what happened in December or even January?

    In other words, just boycott New Hampshire if they insist on voting in December. It’s not written in granite that you have to take the New Hampshire results seriously.

    For that matter, the Super Bowl is February 5, 2012. Why should any state that votes before that date be taken seriously? Just boycott the early results.

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