McCanoodling

Love is in the air. This Valentine's Day saw a hallmark moment with Mitt Romney snuggling up to his former rival John McCain with a big, sloppy endorsement. Smack!

Will this new union gestate into a Republican White House nine months from now? It's surely too soon to tell.

Romney had simply suspended his campaign after Super Tuesday, but now he has officially released his delegates and pushed them over to McCain's side. Some say Romney is hoping to mend fences with the Republican Party so he can make another run for president.

That may be. He's certainly not going to get the vice presidential spot. McCain's going to need to make his own peace with the party after he gets the nomination, and he'll surely do so by picking a more conservative running mate than Romney. Or at least a more consistent one.

Romney has been accused of being a flip-flopper during the campaign (incidentally, a political insult I've hated since it was attached to former candidate John Kerry. Since when are we not allowed to change our minds? I have this sneaking suspicion our country might be better off if certain leaders could learn to say oops, sorry
and I changed my mind). So, I guess his most recent change of heart shouldn't surprise me. But I can't help myself...

Romney on McCain before:
He's disingenuous!
He's Nixon!
He's a dirty trickster!
He's a liar!
He's a liberal!

The silliest part of all this is when Romney endorsed McCain, he said "the character of [McCain] was apparent" throughout the campaign. Apparent to everyone but Mitt, apparently.

The king-unmaker continues...as does punditry

Continuing the tradition I pointed out last week, Sen. John McCain unmade the kingdom of Mitt this week. After a poor showing on Super Tuesday, Romney suspended his campaign. The news bolstered the media, who have been calling McCain the Republican frontrunner as of late. I'm sure the pundits are pleased about being right this time, after sounding the death knell for his campaign last summer.

National Public Radio's "political junkie" Ken Rudin went so far as to compare the Senator to Ed Muskie! Sure, there are a lot of parallels between the 1972 race and this one, but now McCain looks a lot more like McGovern than anyone else.

But that's all behind us. And among those looking to the future are the top two Democratic candidates. McCain was mentioned in both Clinton and Obama's speeches following primaries in Louisiana, Nebraska, Washington state and the U.S. Virgin Islands this Saturday.

However, just because the media and the Democrats say "front runner" doesn't make it so. Voters in two southern states seem to disagree; it was not a particularly good weekend for McCain.

David Espo wrote for Associated Press that "McCain flunked his first ballot test since becoming the Republican nominee-in-waiting, losing the Kansas caucuses on Saturday to Mike Huckabee." That's heavy criticism from the usually bland AP. McCain also lost Louisiana to the former minister and only squeaked out a win in Washington state.

Up next are Maryland, Washington D.C. and Virginia on Feb. 12.

McCain still has almost 500 delegates over Huckabee, though, so his nomination is all but assured. However, that doesn't mean that he (or Huckabee) is going to slow down, that the news media will put down its collective crystal ball or that I'm going to stop watching.

The McKing-unmaker

Now that Sen. John McCain has been anointed the Republican frontrunner by the media, everyone seems to be falling in line behind him. Giuliani dropped out and endorsed him, but with the former mayor's liberal leanings and lack of delegates, he's unlikely to be much of a king-maker. Same goes for the independent Republican Governator of California's McCain endorsement.

In fact, McCain himself is somewhat of a king-unmaker. His success is draining the life out of rumors of a presidential bid by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. It appears that McCain has filled the moderate Republican hole convincingly enough.

Either way, with the conventions looming, there is no doubt that McCain's surge is having an effect on general election projections.

A friend of mine is an active Obama supporter in Minneapolis and frequently indulges my inner political junkie via Gmail's chat function. He recently told me he's concerned about this turn of events.

"I hate Hillary. I hate Romney. I fear McCain," he typed.

McCain has been criticized for being too liberal by almost every right-winger who counts in this country. He is too centrist, they say.

Which is why my friend fears him, instead of hating him. McCain has the ability to draw independents that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee do not. In fact, Romney has been calling for Huckabee to drop out and stop splitting the right-wing vote. Huckabee counters that Romney should do the same, albeit less convincingly so.

The only threat to McCain's middle ground would be if Ron Paul decides to run as a Libertarian. Or whatever he is these days.

With all these left-leaning Republicans in the limelight, whither the hard-core right wing? If McCain is nominated, will they stay home? Watch Super Tuesday carefully, kiddies. It'll be the beginning of the beginning or the beginning of the end.