Looking at my voting record over the past few years, it seems that my votes more often than not, determine who looses any given contest:

Let’s take a look:

1992: voted for Ross Perot because the man had a plan, and I wasn’t that crazy about any more of G.H.W.B.’s “thousand points of light” or “a new world order”. And Clinton blowing his horn on the Arsenio Hall Show didn’t do it for me as much as Perot’s flip charts. Man, Ross could do a flip chart show… but he lost, and also lost Bush’41 his incumbency to Clinton ‘42.

1996: No votes because I was overseas, and couldn’t get my hands on an absentee ballot for NY State in time for it to be counted. FWIW, I probably would have voted for Dole.

2000: I wanted to support Gary Bauer, but since NY was a late primary state, my ballot only had choices between two guys I generally disliked, and a third guy who the traction of greased eel. I voted for “Dubya” Bush over McCain, and again for the “nookyuler” Dubya again in the general. Ah, the joys of the GOP throwaway vote in deep, deep blue NY…

2002: I don’t recall how I voted in the midterms clearly, I think I supported the (R) ticket all the way down the list. Mostly local pols, although Sue Kelly (my CD representative in NY-19) also ran. 2002 was kind of a bad year for me, and politics wasn’t high on my mind at that time. On the other hand, I was high much of that year, so that might have had a clouding effect on my memory as well.

2004: Supported “Dubya” once again, because I had this notion that it was bad form to “change the war horse” during a nebulous, obfuscated and otherwise grinding war against a concept (although said concept was laden with very nasty results). I’ve never cared much for “concept wars” (such as LBJ’s “war on poverty”, Nancy Reagan’s “war on drugs”, the “war on illiteracy”, and most recently and enduring, the “global war on terrorism” or the GWOT) as these tend to be very open-ended and lead toward an open-ended expenditure of my tax money. But, our boys were (are still) in a foreign land fighting for freedom, and I am loathe to see their sacrifice be rewarded with nothing. I want to see them come home, and the threat of foreign terrorism suitably reduced for their effort.

2006: My fleeting flirtation with the liberal Democrats, as the Lord was shaking me up and waking me up to see that I needed salvation: I actually voted (D) for a few folks, including Gov. Spitzer (!!) and John Hall, who isn’t actually that bad of a guy, though a true leftie-liberal. In Hall’s case, I was sick of Sue Kelly’s tolerance of soft corruption and well… that’s meat for another post. In this case, I got what I voted for: an entrenched far-left NY state government, and a tight race that won a bunch of lefty (D) seats in NY congressional districts. This trend was repeated on a national scale, and we conservatives still rue it… and may be a hint to us thinking about spurning the “inevitable” Johnny Mac.

2008: Where we are now: Fred quit, Mitt has quit, and we are left now with the Backstabber, the False Prophet, and the Calvin Coolidge Retread (who I am coming to like in spite of my earlier charges of moonbattery and asininity). Heck, I can be wrong too, y’know. For now, I will support (post-electorally for me, unfortunately) Dr. Paul for the remainder of the pimary season, even though McCain pretty much has the nomination in the bag.

The only thing left is: can I support McCain in the general, despite my very acidic earlier criticisms and judgments of his record and his character?

On his own merits, I cannot support him, and if he fails to pick a suitably conservative running mate, I shall certainly vote for Dr. Paul if he runs as an independent, or a suitably conservative third party (US Constitution Party?) candidate as a protest vote.

I hope he picks Sen. Jeff Sessions or someone of similar standing and record.

McCain would do well to pick a strong southern conservative, so as to be sure to prevent that region from being picked up by the Democrats, and with Mitt’s magnanimous withdrawal from the race, the western states will likely turn out for him as well. I expect the talk radio magnates (Rush, Hannity, and etc.) to give him their full but conditional “we will be watching you very critically” backing.