Beaten To The Punch

In wake of the news that Giuliani is planning on dropping out of the race after losing in Florida, I think we can all agree with Matt that today is a day all Americans can celebrate. I feel like it ought to be a new National Holiday. No-Rudy Day, or something.

So, thank you, Republicans of Florida, for sparing us all the sight of so many more 9/11 references, implicit and explicit, as the election approached. Thank you for sparing us all the increased medical bills from all the heart attacks and ulcers which would have been caused by the 'all terror, all the time' Giuliani Plan For America.

I'm not desperately in love with any of the 3 remaining Republican frontrunners, but I'm a hell of a lot less afraid of them than I was of Giuliani. McCain is a hawk, to be sure, and certainly lets his mouth and his opinions get ahead of his brain on too many occasions. But, at heart, he's a fairly honorable guy, and while he is as guilty of pandering as anyone, at least he's honest enough to admit it (see, for instance, what he has to say about the Confederate flag question in SC, or his 'message heard' answer as to why he is harder on the immigration question right now.)

Romney doesn't scare me at all. Of course, if he actually governs as the 'double Guantanamo' whacko of the primary, I might be worried. But, really, does anyone expect that person to survive into the general election, let alone into a first term?

Huckabee is certainly scary, mostly insofar as he is an entirely unfinished portrait with regards to issues other than those important to social conservatives. So, as with Bush, it depends a lot on who his advisors are, and if he ends up with Norm Podhoretz running his foreign policy, he could be Giuliani-level terrifying. But, at the moment, there's at least a possibility that he won't be that, unlike Rudy.

So, today, I say thanks to the good people of Florida who, even if they can't design a functional balloting system, at least had the good sense not to be hornswaggled by a madman.