All Smiles

At Pajamas Media, right wing nut Rick Moran is disappointed:

"You don't survive five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp by folding your tent and giving up. Compared to that, facing down Rush Limbaugh, the army of talk show hosts and conservative internet pundits who trash him on a daily basis is a cakewalk.

"This is the admirable side of McCain. Unfortunately, this is not the side McCain prefers to present to conservatives or Republicans most of the time. This is why he may very well become the nominee of the Republican party but will not enjoy the enthusiastic support of many if not most of its activists."

At National Review's Corner, the debate left Mark Steyn shaking his head:

"I'm getting a bit tired of Senator McCain's anti-business shtick. The line about serving 'for patriotism, not for profit' is pathetic. America spends more on its military than the next 35-40 biggest military spenders on the planet combined: Where does he think the money for that comes from?

"As for his line about 'some greedy people on Wall Street who need to be punished', aside from being almost entirely irrelevant to the subject under discussion (the subprime 'crisis'), it reveals, I think, one of the most unpleasant aspects of McCain. For a so-called 'maverick', he's very comfortable with the application of Big Government power, and the assumption of Big Government virtue. Undoubtedly there are 'greedy people on Wall Street'. Why should he and his chums be the ones who decide whether they need to be 'punished'? If greed is to be punishable, why doesn't he start with a pilot program applied to, say, the United States Senate and report back to us in five years how that's going?"

This just in: Sean Hannity endorses Mitt Romney. Guess we won't be seeing McCain on that show. Imagine how Fox would react if Keith Olbermann or Chris Matthews endorsed Hillary or Obama.

Some on the right are coming around on McCain:

"Others, faced with the prospect of either a Democrat sitting in the White House or a Republican elected without them, are beginning to look at Mr. McCain's record in a new light," says the NYT.

" 'He has moved in the right direction strongly and forcefully on taxes,' said Grover Norquist, an antitax organizer who had been the informal leader of conservatives against a McCain nomination, adding that he had been talking to Mr. McCain's 'tax guys' for more than a year.

"Tony Perkins, a prominent Christian conservative who has often denounced Mr. McCain, is warming up to him, too."

Blogger Will Bunch scolds the editorial pages that have backed both Obama and McCain:

"Barack Obama was against invading Iraq in 2002 -- he called it a 'dumb war' -- and has sponsored legislation to begin withdrawing the troops that are there now. John McCain supported the war from Day One and called one recent non-binding resolution to withdraw troops 'a vote of no confidence' in the U.S. military. Obama has been an unwavering percent supporter of abortion rights his entire career, with an 100 percent rating from Planned Parenthood, while McCain has a 0 percent rating from NARAL and in February of last year called for overturning Roe v. Wade. McCain supports school vouchers, while Obama opposes them. Obama voted to reauthorize the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, while McCain voted against it.

"You want more? McCain is vehemently opposed to a universal health care plan, while Obama supports one . . .

"You shouldn't be going around expressing any kind of simultaneous support for both Obama (or Hillary Clinton, whose positions on many issues are similar) AND John McCain to get a crack at becoming the 44th president of the United States unless a) You truly believe that issues and the core political ideals that underlie them are virtually irrelevant, that the only thing that matters when you sit in the Oval Office is some objective definition of 'character' and a willingness to seek the mushy middle ground or b) you are a clinically diagnosed schizophrenic off your medication."

Want to see why Romney can keep going?

"Mitt Romney, the multimillionaire venture capitalist and former Massachusetts governor, reported last night that he plowed $18 million of his own money into his presidential campaign during the last three months of 2007, bringing the total sum spent from his fortune to $35.4 million," the Boston Globe says.

That's more than half his total haul of $54 million.

Quote of the Day

Edwards adviser Joe Trippi: "When the press wants to cover a two-person race, it's very tough for the third candidate. To break through in that situation, you have to get edgy, get harsher, be more strident - and we did and it would work for a few days and then the media would turn their heads the other way. What were we supposed to do, set ourselves on fire?"