So Ann Coulter is saying thatshe would campaign for Hillary Clinton if John McCain gets the GOP nomination. Surely that’s one of her famous grand overstatements. But just as the Left is plagued with what has been termed “Bush Derangement Syndrome”–defined as an irrational, over-reacting hatred of George W. Bush–might the Right be plagued by a “McCain Derangement Syndrome”?
I’m not saying I’m for him, mind you. I’m still trying to decide. But I’m not finding the hysteria against McCain very persuasive. He gets an 80-something % approval rating, based on his votes in the Senate, from the American Conservative Union. That would come to a grade of B. That’s not “excellent,” which would be an A, but it’s “good.” That 20% lapse may be a concern on a number of issues. And I realize that a quantitative tally is no indicator of the relative importance of particular issues. Still, the two Democratic senators running for president score, as I recall, 0%, a big fat F. Those 100%, straight A conservatives will need to be critical of some of McCain’s policies, but surely they would not be as objectionable in the aggregate as what the Democrats would do.
Why don’t we have a 100% straight A conservative candidate? Well, in this current climate–thanks to the ineptness of various conservative honor students–it is probably impossible for one to get nominated, much less elected. So conservatives are going to have to do the best they can.
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