Big Love

Mitt Romney gave John McCain a Valentine's Day endorsement giving the Arizona Senator almost enough delegates to secure the republican nomination. Just a few weeks ago Romney called McCain "wrong" and "dishonest" and said that McCain is "virtually indistinguishable" from Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. He frequently ridiculed McCain as unknowledge about the economy. So what calculations caused Romney to change his mind?

Romney continued his fearmongering about the global war on jihad and McCain is likely to follow this same tactic of scaring voters into supporting the republican nominee. (McCain even went so far this week as to pander to the pro-waterboarding folks in his party, almost reversing his principled opposition to torture.)

But the cause for Romney's change is that he is running for president in 2012. He still might get a VP nod from McCain which would bolster his 2012 run. Or he is simply trying to score points with the GOP establishment by coming in line with presumptive nominee. Romney does not want to violate Reagan's 11th commandment and if he stands in the way of McCain he might as well be supporting the global jihad. But he, like many self-described conservatives, expect and secretly hope that McCain will lose. They believe that an Obama Administration will pave the way for Romney in 2012 in the same way that Jimmy Carter paved the way for Reagan in 1980. So it was easy for Romney to reverse his previous assessment of McCain and kick-off his 2012 campaign.

Obama v. McCain

It'll be Obama v. McCain for President of the United States. Huckabee will put up a fight but republicans are going to settle for McCain. Obama will get the momentum necessary to win even Ohio and Pennsylvania. So there you; my predictions. :-)

An Inconvenient Truth

When asked whether he would watch "An Inconvenient Truth" President Bush said he had no intention to do so because there was a "fundamental debate" about whether global warming was "manmade or natural." It was a willfully ignorant statement in contradiction of scientific consensus. Now the White says, "President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem." The White House revisionism is a reaction to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which said that there is a 90 percent certainty that greenhouse gases are heating up the planet.

We should have started years ago working to stabilize carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere, but it is certainly progress to have the Administration's head out of the sand. The difficulty is now with climate-change legislation. Only toothless bills have much of a chance getting past a republican filibuster in the Senate. The best bill right now is sponsored by McCain, Lieberman, and Obama. It has no chance of passing, but Congress should embrace truly meaningful action and force a White House to veto or a Senate filibuster as a way to raise public awareness for 2008 elections.