As for the lesser of evils, sitting out/voting 3rd party got us Clinton in 1992 and still didn’t get us a conservative in 2000 after 8 years of clinton. what makes you think it will work now? I would rather have the lesser evil than another 8 years of a Clinton White House, especially when at least 2-4 of those years will be with a Democratic Congress.

the republican parth fucked up by the numbers since 2004. But fairly obviously, republicans don’t care. We can either sit this one out and guarantee a D victory a la 1992/1996 or vote for the republican candidate and stem the bleeding.

Sure, but if we keep compromising to join in said winning coalition, they will continue to take us for granted. ;)

But, yea, maybe McCain won’t be entirely bad. He might still be able to convince me to vote for him for other reasons. I still wouldn’t get my hopes up that he would appoint good Justices or fight bad gun law though.

Either way, it will take a lot of convincing to get me to actively campaign for and/or defend him..

The RNC is not a company providing a product. They don’t honestly care if you don’t like the candidates they put up if they can find a coalition to make him win. All we do by sitting outside the process and treating it like we’re buying a product is guaranteeing pro-freedom candidates don’t get fronted.

We fucked up this time. We put all our eggs in the Fred Thompson basket, and it backfired. All I’m arguing is that McCain will hold the line better than Hillary, and perhaps in 2012 or 2016, we’ll be able to do better.

If Heller goes our way, even Hillary might be scared to touch a new AWB. If SCOTUS rules against us, who’s to say McCain won’t sign a new AWB with the Second Amendment “out of the way?” Or, for that matter, he already seems to think the First Amendment (with mountains of precedent behind it) is little more than a suggestion, so he might very well sign it anyway. Be it to pay back his friends at Americans for “Gun Safety,” or if the grabbers stick something about terrorism in the name of the bill.

One thing I am almost certain of is that if we keep groveling before the RNC and accepting whatever sub-par candidates they throw at us, they will never get their act together. What incentive do they have to give us real conservatives if we keep settling for less in the name of “electability” or what have you?

As for opening a vein, well, I’m almost to the point where I’d prefer one gaping wound to a thousand more paper cuts. At least then we’d know where to apply pressure to stop the bleeding, rather than having tens of thousands of tiny cuts and no way to patch them all.

Or, to use ye olde “boiling frog” metaphor, if they heat the water fast enough, maybe we’ll jump out of the pot instead of slowly cooking to death.

If SC nominations are to be the star we steer by, then Ron Paul is the candidate we must vote for.

Yeah, I know. Don’t bother.

You sure about this? And do you remember what the Democrats had to do to us to get 1994? Think the assault weapons ban will have a sunset clause this time? I’m not betting on Republicans getting their act together in 2010.

I don’t disagree that McCain very well may end up picking moderates that don’t please us, but we might luck out and get a Thomas. I can promise you we’ll get very left wing justices with Hillary or Obama, and even if there is a Republican senate, in 2010, there’s still two years, and I think you can expect near immediate retirement of Stevens and Ginsburg after the next election.

The lesser of two evils may still be evil, but I don’t see any reason to open the vein wider. Maybe someone will save us before we bleed to death.

And Congressional Republicans will rubber stamp them out of blind, party loyalty while the Democrats sit back and laugh.

Should Hillobama win, Republicans will likely take back the Senate in 2010, after which they would fight any Democratic nomination tooth and nail. Before 2010, the most the Dem’s would probably pick up would be replacements for Stevens, Ginsberg, and maybe Souter.

Either way, the lesser of two evils is still evil..