Florida's Mea Culpa

The Curmudgeon has been wondering the last couple of days how the Grumpy Old Man (a.k.a. John McCain) has become the leading candidate for the Republican Party. ( Not that the Curmudgeon doesn’t appreciate a certain amount of grumpiness in an old man. If fact the Curmudgeon would argue that once you reach a certain age grumpiness is the only reasonable view on life.)

But how did this Grumpy Old Man become the leading candidate? Most Republicans disagree with him on nearly all of the issues. They hate his amnesty for illegal aliens (McCain/Kennedy). The hate his campaign finance reforms (McCain/Feingold). They are almost apoplectic that he believes there could be man-made causes for global warming. He actually voted against tax cuts!! How can he be leading?

The one thing Republicans seem to agree with him on is the war. Of course, he is dead wrong in his enthusiasm to continue Bush’s War On Iraq. One in which the Grumpy Old Man expects we will be involved in for 100 years, but all the other Republican candidates are warmongers too. (Sorry, Ron Paul still doesn’t count.) Which makes me wonder something else:


(DISCLAIMER: The following is NOT politically correct. For those of you with tender sensibilities, it is suggested that you skip ahead a couple of paragraphs.)

Why is John McCain considered a natural for Commander-In-Chief? The Curmudgeon realizes that he was in the military, but it appears he wasn’t particularly good at it. He didn’t lead any successful wars (i.e. Colin Powell & Norman Schwarzkopf). He got captured and spent five and a half years as a prisoner of war. Although he apparently behaved in an heroic manner while a POW that does not really mean he would be a great military leader. Getting captured is not generally defined as successful.

The same pitch was made that George W. Bush would bring his business experience to the White House as the first president with an MBA. No one seemed to care that W. was not very good at business and managed to lose a great deal of money in the process. They didn’t call his oil company ArBUSTo for nothing. Sorry but I just don’t see the Grumpy Old Man as a naturally great military leader. Maybe he will do for the military what W. has done for the economy. Whoopie!


(Now back to the rant at hand. Don’t tell me if I hurt your sensibilities. You were fairly warned.)

The only explanation for the Grumpy Old Man to win in Florida, where only registered Republicans could vote in the primary, was that it was Florida’s attempt to apologize for 2000. It is mostly their fault that W became president and we are now stuck in a 100 year war on innocent people and a failing economy at home.

They are sorry and are trying to make it up to the rest of the country. If the Grumpy Old Man had won the Republican nomination in 2000 things would almost certainly be better today than they are. So even the Republicans in Florida feel so bad about what they did in 2000 that they voted for the anti-Bush in 2008.

Nice try Florida, but you are not forgiven.