The Discerning Texan

I'm going to try and be concise here in my reasoning; this goes out to all true Conservatives voting:

• McCain is a Democrat wolf in Conservative Sheep's closing. He has voted with the Democrats on MANY key issues. Probably the most important thing that McCain would do other than continue the War until won (which all the candidates except favor are strong advocates also). Secondly, if McCain wins Florida he may gain enough momentum to render the other subsequent states almost irrelevant. McCain would LOSE to Obama and would probably lose to Hillary too because the anti-McCain Conservative base would likely not turn out well for him in the fall. Particularly troubling are:

1. His absolute disregard for the First Amendment in crafting and continuing to defend McCain/Feingold; his continued defense of that decision is a horrific precedent in being a NON-Constitutionalist. If he considers the intent of the Founders to be "living and breathing" here, how would he not believe the same applied to other important parts of our Constitution?
2. His support of the McCain/Kennedy that would have conferred instant amnesty on 20 million illegals with no background check.
3. His backstabbing of the Republican party in helping the Democrats to deny the right of the President to appoint judges to the Appeals Court. Some courts still have 5-6 vacancies because Bush's nominees have been DOA, and the Dems have basically said they will confirm no Bush appointments this year. Thanks a lot, John...
4. His statement that waterboarding is torture, and would never do it, even if a city was at stake is not putting his country first, period. As we know warterboarding has already saved thousands of American lives by preventing terrorist attacks when Khalid Shikh Mohammed was captured.
   
5. McCain's notorious temper and track record for destroying those who ever get in his way is exceeded only by the Clintons.
6. His statement recently--as reported by John Fund--that he "might draw the line" in appointing to the court another Alito, because Alito "wore his conservatism on his sleeve".
7. His vote against the Bush Tax Cuts and with most of the Democrats, even though the cuts did more to help a reeling economy than anything else in the past 10 years.
8. His complete support of Al Gore's Global Warming agenda.
   
9. His endorsement by the NEW YORK TIMES. Hello??
10. The fact that if he wins Florida he may be extremely difficult to stop after that, whereas if Mitt (by far his closest competitor) takes it, McCain is fighting an uphill battle
    

Meanwhile there are the other alternatives:

• Rudy--the second most Conservative candidate remaining on most issues--arguably Romney is the most Conservative across the board, but Romney is somewhat less strident and passionate than Rudy in articulating Conservative principles (other than Rudy's pro-choice stance, which would cost him with the evangelical vote). Still to overcome his differences with many conservatives that issue, Rudy has promised to nominate strict Constitutionalists to the court, which I happen to believe he would do despite his personal pro-choice beliefs. But here is the rub: Rudy's numbers are in the tank, and his chances of winning Florida are almost down to nil. His personal life is a big negative as is his using of NY State funds to provide protection for his girlfriends. I like Rudy, but have come to the inescapable conclusion that a vote for Rudy is truly a vote for McCain, because it takes votes from the only Conservative who has a real chance to derail his momentum in the states where Democrats and crossover independents voted for him heavily. So the bottom line: a vote for Rudy is really a vote for McCain, because it will mostly dilute votes that would otherwise have gone to Romney and given Romney a big chance to stop McCain's momentum--and the cheerleading for McCain from the pro-Democrat media like the New York Times.
• Huckabee is dropping like a rock. He is out of money, has been discredited by his arguably Democrat-like record in Arkansas, including making Arkansas a "sanctuary state". The Confederate flag statement didn't help either. His many tax raises as Governor are troubling. His prior open-borders policy is horrible. And the guy is clearly wearing whatever faith he does have on his sleeve and trying to make it an issue to woo the evangelists, to the exclusion of his decidedly NON-Conservative record as Governor. Huckabee has NO CHANCE to win. And I stick by my contention that he is merely still in the race in order to dilute Rudy and Mitt votes and give McCain a better chance of winning. He wants to be McCain's VP. Those two would make a godawful ticket and a no-win situation for Republicans. Again a vote for Huckabee is really a vote for McCain.

This leaves Mitt Romney. His plusses are impressive:

• Deep deep pockets for the General, more than any other candidate left.
• A record of consistently going into bad situations and turning them around.
• A solid conservative record as Governor of Massachutes, a liberal state.
• A good command of all the issues and nuances--which will be a BIG plus in any debate.
• Charisma and good looks that would be a match for Obama's stage presence and easily overshadow Hillary's.
• A squeakly clean image where it is doubtful that any meaningful dirt could be found and used against him by the DNC slime machine.
  
• Solid record on everything important to Conservatism: Stopping Iran, Winning in Iraq and Afghanistan, Appointing Constitutionalst Judges, Extending the Bush Tax Cuts, including the repeal of the Marriage Penalty and Death Taxes. Keeping our economy strong and job creation a priority. And stopping Illegal Immigration. What's not to like in ANY of these things?
  

If Democrats want to elect, they will vote for a Democrat, not two Democrats wearing Republican's clothing. So why in the world would we want to make that the choice?

Floridians: don't let this happen. It is time we elect a real Republican to represent Republican principles in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan. The choice now is clear: McCain must be stopped before we hand victory to the Democrats. The way to mobilize conservatives and the base in the fall is to put someone as our nominee who shares their passion for conservatism and the principles of the founders. So tomorrow, when you go into that booth, and vote for those principles. Mitt may not have been your first choice; he wasn't mine. But today he represents the last best hope for our movement and for our nation.

Tomorrow when you go to the polls, show America, its enemies, and our detractors in the media and the Democrat Party that we are not going to follow their "script" for us. Stand up to the destruction of everything our party stands for. Cast your vote for Mitt Romney and tell these detractors that it is OUR party, not theirs.