John McCain's mother Roberta is 95 years young and, amazingly, less cranky than her famous son. In an ill-advised interview with C-SPAN she said the Republican base has shown no support for him. When asked if she thinks he can get the nomination she said "I think holding their nose they're going to have to take him." She then went on to say "the country will be lucky if [we] get him."
Apparently the arrogant apple doesn't fall far from the arrogant tree.
This reminds me of another time in my political life. I live in Ohio. Until 2006 we had the worst governor of all time, Bob Taft (at one point he had a 6.5% approval rating [I'm not kidding]). In 2002 Taft ran against Tim Hagan who, worse than Taft the incompetent, was a Democrat. So I went into the voting booth and literally held my nose when I pushed the button to vote for Bob Taft.
Ever since I've wondered if I did the right thing. Was it right to cast a vote for a candidate I deplore in order to avoid the election of another candidate I find even more deplorable? With the benefit of hindsight I now know that four more years of Taft assured my poor state of a Democrat victory after he eventually left office. And it wasn't even close (60% to 37%).
But would it have been better if Taft lost in 2002? Sure we would have suffered through four years of Democrat rule, but we're stuck with that now. And we could be over it by now. And I would contend that Ken Blackwell would have had a much better shot at the governorship against an incumbent Hagan than he did after Taft effectively decimated the state GOP.
It is truly unfortunate that Blackwell, a rising star in the Republican party, was forced to hitch his wagon to the sinking ship of Bob Taft (if I may be permitted to haphazardly mix metaphors). I hope he can rise again.
But back to aging John McCain...
This is a primary for Christ's sake! No one holds his nose to vote in a primary!
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