And The Front-Runner Is....

....Well, y'see, the outcome of the Florida Republican Primary could be influenced by a few Mcmis-steps over the past couple of days.

In addition to John McCain's evidently successful smear of Mitt Romney as an anti-war agitator on Saturday, there's another indiscrete red flag about the judicial nomination thinking of a President McCain:

More recently, Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because "he wore his conservatism on his sleeve."

First of all, that's a distinction without a difference.  I don't recall any marked differences in the expressed judicial philosophy of Chief Justice Roberts or Justice Alito at their respective confirmation hearings.  Indeed, I've never heard or read of any such distinction between the two ever being mentioned, so I have little or no idea what McCain was talking about.

Second, what on Earth would be wrong with one's own nominee "wearing on his/her sleeve" their judicial philosophy, even if Justice Alito had gone out of his way to do so?  Is that something they should be ashamed of?  Is McCain ashamed of it?  Doesn't that suggest that he wouldn't be inclined to select constitutionalists to the federal bench, even if he was inclined to disturb inter-Branch "comity" with his "good friends" across the aisle?

Asked to clarify his Alito comment, McCain told Byron York the following:

I asked about the "wore his conservatism on his sleeve" line. "I'm proud of people who wear their conservatism on their sleeves, because they have to have a clear record of strict adherence to the Constitution," McCain told me. "Remember, in all my remarks, I've said, look, we're not going to take somebody's word for it. You have to have a clear record of adherence to the Constitution, a strict interpretation of the Constitution. I have said that time after time after time."

"And maybe as an aside, why would I say anything derogatory about somebody like that? What would be the point, after working so hard to get not only those two confirmed, but the Gang of 14 ­ which I know is controversial ­ but our record of getting those judges confirmed that the president nominated, I'm still proud of."

The Admiral thinks the first paragraph is "a better explanation" even if it doesn't really explain anything.  I consider it to be pure obfuscation.  What astounds me is the second graf, where "Sailor" makes the unfathomable blunder of bringing up the Gang of 14/memo of understanding debacle unsolicited.

Upon further review, though, perhaps that second graf is explanatory of McCain's earlier remark about Justice Alito, in a "freudian slip" sense.  For me it confirms what I already believe: that a McCain White House would populate Olympus and lower courts with David Souter clones and outright judicial imperialists, and take immense pleasure in the spluttering outrage of conservatives this serial shivving would trigger.  No Samuel Alitos (or John Roberts', either, really) need apply.

Concurrently, at a Florida campaign event on Sunday, Lord Queeg was asked point-blank about Juan Hernandez, his "Hispanic Outreach Director" as well as a George Soros-connected former Mexican cabinet officer and probable designate for Homeland Security Secretary in a McCain administration.

Lest this be mere heresay, here's Hernandez's border erasure extremism in his own words:

Now here is McCain's answer to Joan, the Florida woman who asked him about Mr. Hernandez:

Sounds like more of the same obfuscatory "trust me" BS.  That was also Joan's impression in an email to Double-M:

John McCain answered that he supported Juan Hernandez because he holds the same views as he (McCain) on other issues. He says that he determines his positions and Hernandez agrees with him, not the other way around. He appeared to be unaware of the specific positions of Hernandez that I related.

I would say I got a non-answer.

Because McCain didn't want to answer, because this particular bit of "straight talk" would have been politically lethal with his Florida GOP-only audience.

So.  On two issues of purportedly critical importance to Republican voters - reconstitutionalizing the courts and border security - John McCain is, to prissify it, "out of step" with his own party.  By several parsecs.  So he's got no chance today, and Mitt Romney will win going away, right?

Um, no.  Here is my final polling composite, based on a one-week look-back:

McCain 30.1%, Romney 29.4%, Giuliani 14.7%, Huckabee 13.1%

Annnnd a one-day look-back:

McCain 32.5%, Romney 31.5%, Giuliani 13.5%, Huckabee 12.8%

No matter which way you slice it, a Republican electorate that opposes bankrupting the country over global warming hysteria, favors tax cuts, wants the borders controlled, the courts de-imperialized, and free speech restored is, in Florida, about to narrowly award all its delegates to a man who gleefully disagrees with them on all of it.

Admiral Morrissey is picking Romney by three.  I can only hope that he sees a trend I'm missing, and not just engaging in Hewittesque wishful thinking.

UPDATE: McCain's margin of victory....?

UPDATE II: Been monitoring the Admiral's live blog of the Florida results.  Unfortunately, the numbers I cited above are not lying.

And thus, conservatives' last firewall - that McCain had never won a closed primary - is now officially breached.  With Florida's fifty-seven delegates, Sailor takes the overall delegate lead over Romney 97-74.  Combined with Rudy Giuliani's imminent endorsement of the Sith Master, the latter has all the momentum going into Super-Duper Tuesday. 

John McCain is the undeniable front-runner, and almost certainly the 2008 Republican presidential nominee. 

The Republican Party as we have known it for a generation - the party of Reagan, the party of Gingrich, the party that, for a few bright, shining years was the ruling majority party in the United States of America - has, in the space of fifteen catastrophic months, returned to its pre-Goldwater rump entity irrelevance.  Because a McCain nomination will lead to an unparalleled disaster in November, as conservatives, mark my words, WILL stay home in droves.  And for the first time in my lifetime, I have been functionally disenfranchised before Groundhog's Day.

Nelson Rockefeller has finally gotten his revenge.

{sigh}

Well, there'll be plenty of time to mourn my party's unfathomable folly over the next nine months.  At least I can analyze the McCain-Rodham "race" free of the handicaps of a rooting interest (unless they can somehow BOTH lose) - if I can muster the will to give a damn, and suspend my disbelief that either outcome will be better than the other.

Or maybe I'll convert this site to a quilting blog or something....