John McCain for President? Only If Rush Limbaugh Says So!

Where do I start? I should start with Rush Limbaugh's refusal to endorse anyone or the fact that 8 years ago McCain won exactly one primary (New Hampshire) and lost the whole thing and now he is a front runner and leads the delegate count. As a conservative republican I am finding myself in a strange position, I have no one to vote for. We have had three candidate casualties in the last few days. Last Friday Fred Thompson dropped out after entering the race late and seeming to lack enthusiasm and making some surprise finishes. Today as of this writing Rudy Guiliani and John Edwards have dropped out of the race ahead of next the influencial Super Tuesday vote next week. That leaves Senators Clinton and Obama on the democrat side and Governors Romney, Huckabee, Senator McCain and Congressman Ron Paul on the Republican side. February 5th should shake out the rest of the race with 29 states, mostly western, having caucuses or primaries.

So as those of us republicans in those 29 states head off to caucus next week I wonder what our republican base is thinking right now. Some would say that th republican base is fractured and that what is left of the Republican side of the race has to unite a party racked by 8 years of President Bush, the war on terror and the war in iraq. The president is so irrelevant now the candidates are distancing themselves from him and he is finding himself, unpopular and leading a party in disarray. On Tuesday night he delivered his constitutionally mandated State of the Union address. While it was broadcast widely as usual, only 24.6 million people watched the address. President Bush, exit stage right, Candidates enter stage left.

So where does Rush Limbaugh fit into all this? As he said in at th Warner Theatre in early 2007, he has tried and failed to carry the republican banner in the 2006 mid-term elections and failed miserably at least as far as manufacturing a victory. According to his own words on his show is realizes (or is admitting anyway) that he has the power through his listening audience to change and election for an entire party. With a single pronouncement he can make or break candidacies on the republican side. What is even worse is that this power is unchecked and uncontrolled, makes a profit, and is only regulated by what its listeners want to hear. I am not against profit, in fact I love profit, alot! What I don't like is that there is no one to answer Rush Limbaugh or cause debate. Rush Limbaugh speaks of the arena of ideas but it seems Rush Limbaugh is the Matadore and the bull is nowhere to be found. How unfortunate, we will wait with baited breath for the name.

Let's assess, we have the races shaking out almost 9-10 months before the general election, we have one radio talk show host that will determine an entire parties candidate and the situation between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama becoming nasty.

Its 2008 people, Mickey Mouse write-in anyone?