wafflesatnoon.com

The 2008 Republican campaign dealt a well-deserved blow to the Religious Right of the Republican party. But didn’t they see it coming? The presumed front-runner throughout all of 2007 was Rudy Giuliani, who was the only vocal pro-choice candidate. After his disastrous wait-for-Florida strategy put him out of the race, we were left with Mormon Mitt Romney, moderate and 2000 also-ran John McCain, and ordained Baptist minister Mike Huckabee. With a split in evangelical votes, McCain surprised everyone on the right and pried the nomination away from the right wing of the party.

For the record, I am a Republican. A moderate, and proud of it.

The likes of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are beside themselves with no “true” conservative to support. In other words, McCain doesn’t pander to the right wing of the party. This is supposed to be a bad thing?

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I remember as a kid how people thought Jimmy Carter aged badly during his administration. I don’t know that he aged so bad, as much as his trademark smile was wiped off his face during the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Recent thoughts of that made me want to go back and see how other recent presidents looked at the beginning and end of their terms. It does appear that being president ages some men more than others.

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