Florida Thoughts By: Mark W Adams

At least McCain didn't sleepwalk through his speech tonight.

I forgot about the FEC thing, McCain being hamstrung by spending limits since agreeing to federal matching funds. With Rudy's endorsement of McCain tomorrow, John should wrap up the northeast (all but Mass.) next Tuesday with winner-take-all NY, NJ being huge prizes

Romney and McCain probably will split California fairly even, and that's the best Romney will do on Tsunami Tuesday. Illinois favored either 9iu11ni or McCain right along, and there are few other good prospects for Romney's path to the nomination in any of the 2/5 States outside of Massachusetts. This means he'd have to run the table in Ohio, PA, Indiana and Texas, after Tsunami Tuesday, and Romney is running no better than third in Ohio, TX and PA (no decent data for IN).

[See Real Clear Politics and Wiki for polling date]

Actually, Huckabee looks better in some of the big midwest states, including MO, and of course Ark and OK which go on 2/5, and the South, (Tenn & Georgia) belong to Huck (Alabama is a tie between Huck and McCain). As long as Huck stays in (and probably has already cut his deal with McCain) Mitt has no real path to the White House anymore.

Together, McCain and Huckabee can keep Romney from the nomination and Huckabee complements McCain as a running mate down the road. Neither one of them have seen a wacky idea they didn't think deserved a fair hearing and wouldn't say, "Hey, let's give that a shot."

Eliminate the IRS? Why not? A Republican introducing a public works project ... to build a space elevator for nuclear waste disposal? Sure. Bo..., bom...bombing Iran to show South Korea (and France) who's boss? Sounds like a plan. Nuking Hanoi just for old time's sake, something you always wanted to try? Priceless. Replacing the Bill of Rights with the Ten Commandments. Ha--tcha, cha cha! Joe Lieberman as Secretary of State? Hells yess. Occupying Iraq until the Sun runs out of fuel? No problemo.

Looney Tunes, both of them. A perfect match.

Romney's done, Limbaugh and Hannity and their gang will go ballistic and give McCain zero free air, especially since 9iu11ni is stealing Reagan's legacy and going to hand it to McCain right at the Reagan Library -- hallowed ground these two apostate Rino's are going to desecrate. In '96, the Right-wing noise machine compensated for the absence of a well financed campaign by Bob Dole (and didn't really have it's act together). John McCain will go dark until August in Minnesota -- and have no help from the usual suspects.

Meanwhile, the Dems are set up to fight, bicker, (oh, and campaign of course) and even have a rules debate at the convention itself over what they should do with the assholes in FloriDUH who always find a way to screw up an election ever since 1860 when not a single Floridian GOPer cast his ballot for Abe Lincoln. In a world without writers, this will be go-to reality TV. The Dems have all the cash, and will get all the air-play.

BTW, in a beauty contest that doesn't count, again Hillary beats the GOP winner by big numbers, this time by over 20%. Funny when she doesn't cry or run unopposed, she doesn't do as well as tonight. Now that Bubba has gotten the word to chill (and if he doesn't, the Kennedy machine has more chits to cash in than the Clintons ever dreamed) I can't see Hillary being nearly as effective or entertaining as she was with the Big Dog off his leash.

That, and it's just smarmy for her to try and seat the Michigan and Florida delegates, especially the Michigan ones where the competition wasn't even on the ballot. If that's the kind of integrity she's representing, she's going to lose people who are on the fence. She's certainly not attracting any wavering Edwards people. In fact, the Kennedy endorsement is probably the most effective political endorsement I've ever witnessed, both in it's well orchestrated timing and delivery, and in it's actual influence on the election.

...Art Torres, chairman of the California Democratic Party, said Kennedy's endorsement could give union households, including those backing former North Carolina senator John Edwards, license to "shift their progressive leanings" over to Obama. And he said it could allow Obama to tap into the power the Kennedy name holds in Hispanic communities...

I'll leave the cat-fight to others, because realistically, that's not how one should pick between the extremely qualified and inspirational democratic field. I get that she needed something to recapture all the momentum that's been going Barack's way -- big time -- since the days before S.C. right through Barack's entrance into the House Chamber for the SOTU like a conquering young hero back from taming the Hun and all but ready to take the emperor's thrown.

I know this. With 22 States on the line Tuesday, it's going to be a hell of a week, and not for the GOP since they've picked their loser already. The Democrats will still be close enough that Texas and Ohio will matter in March, and Pennsylvania will matter in April and Indiana will matter in May, and ... hey? When does Puerto Rico vote?