The Other McCain

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

Tampa, Here I Come

Posted on | August 24, 2012 | 67 Comments

Driving to Tampa today, after a restless night haunted by the helpless feeling tbat we are doomed beyond all hope of redemption.

Todd Akin had the chance to do the right thing Tuesday, and selfishly refused. Now, with the encouragement and support of Mike Huckabee, Akin is digging deeper the grave in which the Democrat-Media Complex are planning to bury the Republican Party.

The problem is not merely that Claire McCaskill is cackling with glee — suddenly leading by 10 points in Missouri — over the Senate seat that Akin foolishly fumbled away. Rather, Akin will now become the most famous name at the Republican National Convention:

The Republicans’ convention messaging will be thrown off, Baker said, “If Joe Biden goes to Tampa and says, ‘Where’s Todd Akin?’”

Todd Akin has made himself the Willie Horton of 2012.

All the work every Republican has done this year, every dollar the Republican Party has raised, will be wasted because of one selfish fool.

This is what I see — the Neutral Objective Facts of the situation — and I can’t shake it. Friends have tried to console me. They’ve told me that my overwhelming sense of despair is irrational.

“Look at the polls!” they say. “Good news!”

OK, fine: I know nothing about politics. All my years of experience and observation count for nothing, and so my gut-hunch is not to be trusted.

Never mind. I’ll drive to Tampa with Ali Akbar. I will spend the next several days listening to Republicans describing their plans for victory, and I will try to recover some sense of hope.

Maybe something will happen to change the trajectory.

Maybe Todd Akin will make the mistake of attending the convention in Tampa and accidentally bump into Mitt Romney, who will then attempt to strangle Akin with his bare hands. Mitt will be booked into the Hillsborough County Jail, while the convention will be thrown into confusion. The delegates will make Paul Ryan their presidential nominee, with Marco Rubio as his running mate. This shocking turn of events will create a surge of momentum the GOP will ride to victory Nov. 6.

OK, that probably won’t happen, but it could happen — and it’s a scenario at least as realistic as Todd Akin getting elected to the Senate.

Don’t try to talk me out of a dark mood like this. That just makes it worse, increasing my sense of emotional isolation.

There’s only one known cure: Hit the freaking tip jar.

 





Category: Doomed Beyond All Hope of Redemption, Election 2012, Fear and Loathing at the Republican National Convention

Comments

67 Responses to “Tampa, Here I Come”

  1. Tennwriter
    August 25th, 2012 @ 12:53 am

    So?

    I want honorable people who are actually conservative. Now it would be nice if they didn’t spout off about crazy ideas in public on occasion, but I don’t think its that harmful if they do.

    You really don’t want to get me talking about my ‘crazy’ theories.

    Reagan thought that with SDI he was staving off Amrageddon. Sounds crazy, but considering the man was an intuitive genius, I’m not willing to bet he was wrong.

  2. Tennwriter
    August 25th, 2012 @ 12:55 am

    AKA…not going to accept a moderate punk just because he speaks in well modulated tones and has a poll tested to perfection suit and tie ensemble.

  3. Finrod Felagund
    August 25th, 2012 @ 2:20 am

    Get a freaking clue. The person that helped Obama was Todd Akin, and every Republican that isn’t an Internet amateur or a social conservative realizes this and wants him to drop out and be replaced with a candidate that has a chance of winning that’s better than a whelk’s chance in a supernova.

  4. Adjoran
    August 25th, 2012 @ 5:47 am

    Yeah, it’s just nonsense. In 2010 we pitched winnable seats with morons like Christine O’Donnell, Buck, Angle,Maese, and Joe Miller, and still had a stellar year. The idea that one stupid remark by one stupid Senate candidate will affect more than his campaign is ridiculous.

    Who said leadership is “keeping your head while those about you are losing theirs”? It is frankly embarrassing to see the gnashing of teeth and the renting of garments among those who should have better sense.

    And let us never forget that Huckabee wasn’t a candidate this cycle, and the people who voted Akin were mostly the sweater-vest-wearing Santorum ninnies like Stacy himself. So he can cry me a freaking river.

  5. Adjoran
    August 25th, 2012 @ 5:49 am

    On the bright side, we would throw him one heckuva wake!

  6. Adjoran
    August 25th, 2012 @ 5:52 am

    Spot on! I can’t recall a post of yours with which I agreed more wholeheartedly.

    What happened? Did you take up drinking? Good move!

  7. Adjoran
    August 25th, 2012 @ 6:04 am

    Yes, it is all Akin’s fault and no one else’s. But there is a big difference between wishing and working to get him to drop out and crying like a little sissy that his gaffe automatically sinks every Republican everywhere.

    Elections rarely turn on the news cycles eleven weeks out. The idiot might still win, not because he is a good candidate, but because he is NOT Claire McCaskill.

  8. Red
    August 25th, 2012 @ 11:03 am

    Right on!

  9. Red
    August 25th, 2012 @ 11:04 am

    Newsflash: Dipshits run for office. Now back to our regular program.

  10. Shawn Gillogly
    August 25th, 2012 @ 4:55 pm

    I don’t want an idiot just because he agrees with me on abortion either. Akin is an idiot who was safely ensconced in a safe seat. But his ambition took him into an arena he was eminently unqualified for.

    This is why every state should have run-off elections. 36% in an Open Primary with significant Libby crossover is NOT an endorsement from the state’s GOP electorate.

  11. Tennwriter
    August 25th, 2012 @ 6:24 pm

    Kipling in ‘If’….If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, then you will be a man my son, and all the world will be yours….

    That’s the general gist of the poem anyhoo.

  12. Tennwriter
    August 25th, 2012 @ 6:27 pm

    Given a choice between a Conservative Idiot, and a Moderate Punk, I’ll take the Idiot.

    Obviously, its best to have someone with the whole package, but its an imperfect world, and we take what we can get.

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