Three Thoughts

~ This morning there was a 2-hour delay for all the schools in the tri-county area because of frigid temperatures. It warmed up to a balmy 11 degrees by mid-afternoon and will increase to a forecasted 34 by tomorrow. But where the past few days have been clear, the next few days have snow and ice in store for the area — perhaps as much as five-plus inches. So that just means more time needing to be allotted to the shoveling of sidewalks and de-iceing of car windows. The snow just isn’t as much fun as it used to be before it was legal to operate heavy machinery.

~ The coworker who, for all intents and purposes, stood me up Friday night texted my cell phone last night at 10:59p.m. to tell me she wouldn’t be at work today. Apparently she got herself into a car accident last night on her way home. She hit a patch of ice on the road, spun her vehicle around several times and crashed into a guardrail. She busted up her front bumper and broke both headlights. At the hospital, she was treated for whiplash. Perhaps next time someone thinks of making me angry, they’ll heed this cautionary tale of the power of my mind.

~ Lately I’ve been trying to contemplate the sheer abhorrence the Right seems to have for Sen. John McCain. At first it was a little entertaining, watching blow-hards like Rush Limbaugh, James Dobson and Sean Hannity get red-faced discussing McCain’s possible Republican presidential nomination. Then the entertainment factor went into hyperdrive recently the day Mitt Romney suspended his campaign. I tuned into Hannity on the radio that afternoon while I was driving around to do errands just to see if he’d break down and cry. I didn’t hear anything in the ten or so minutes of the show I was able to stomach, unfortunately. He was taking phone calls from listeners who were traumatized and trying to find the silver lining. One caller believed that prayer would give back the House and Senate to the GOP so they could keep tabs on the McCain White House.

But while I can easily get my kicks with such silliness, this spectacle begs the question: What’s the big deal? Sen. McCain isn’t a die-hard conservative. But so what? President Bush remains popular with the conservative base while the rest of the country’s perception of him continues to sour. Why? The president offered up Harriet Miers. He signed into law without a single veto several voluminous Congressional budgets, written by his own fiscally irresponsible party, with unparalleled largesse in wasteful spending. He pushed for amenesty for illegal immigrants, stuck by Donald Rumsfeld when conservatives clambered for his resignation, half-heartedly supported a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, failed to pass comprehensive Social Security reform and threatened to veto any legislation that would’ve blocked the deal allowing Dubai Ports World’s purchase of (P&O), which operated major U.S. port facilities in major U.S. cities.

Who are these purists, who continue to support the president, to judge John McCain?

What’s often overlooked is the fact that McCain ended up supporting the president’s tax-cuts and now pledges to make them permanent. He no longer supports the path to citizenship and has taken the stance that securing the borders should be the number one priority. He’s changed his positions from a moderate to a more conservative pol. And the Right continues to be suspicious.

But they give Mitt Romney a free ride. The former governor once boasted that he’d be better for gays than Teddy Kennedy. He espoused that the right to choose is a fundamental right that shouldn’t be tampered with. He’s since changed his positions, and Hannity and Limbaugh raise him up. When Romney announced the suspension of his campaign, there were audible sighs of disappointment from the crowd of conservatives who gathered to hear him speak. When McCain took to the stage, he was booed. How exactly are these men different?

Romney’s always been a douche. He’s slick and oily, and I don’t trust him at all. McCain’s no knight in shining armor, but Romney is no better. He’s a panderer who would say anything and spend any amount to get what he wants.

Maybe I can’t see the nuances of the difference because I already made up my mind I won’t vote for McCain and wouldn’t have for Romney. Maybe there’s some deep-rooted hatred of McCain that goes back farther than I’m seeing and is only now coming to full fruition. Maybe any time I hear Ann Coulter threaten to support Hillary Clinton if McCain’s the Republican nominee, I have to step back and wonder what’s going on. What exactly is going on?