Behind Today’s Endorsements
Shaun Mullen beat me to the punch on the Robertson-Rudy endorsment, but there is another endorsement of some note in the GOP race: Brownback for McCain. Politico has the details on both.
And what are we to make of all this noise?
The Brownback-McCain pairing is logical and (though not yet official) may already be helping McCain who (discounting margins-of-error for the moment) seems to be edging into second place in national polls. According to RCP’s averaging of the polls — as of 9:15 a.m. CDT — the Senator from Arizona was a thumbnail’s width ahead of Thompson, 16.5 vs. 16.2 percent.
In contrast, the Robertson-Rudy pairing may be the most illogical development of this everlasting campaign. In fact, I had to read it several times to make sure I wasn’t confused, dreaming, or inadvertently smoking crack — which, it turns out, I’m not, proving yet again that real life is more bizarre than the movies ever could be.
But more than that, I think Robertson’s newfound love for Rudy suggests: (1) the prior walk-out threats of the Religious Right were overplayed; and (2) the RR may be breathing its last gasps of power.
When a prominent, founding member of the RR “stoops” to endorse a clear pro-choice, pro-gay candidate, it would seem to suggest they’ve now fully sacrificed principles for politics; that they’re now more interested in beating Hillary than advancing their agenda. Granted, the RR has always been highly political, but they’ve generally (love ‘em or not) been true to their narrow-minded, two-plank platform. However, if Robertson’s endorsement does, as I suspect, signal that they’ve now sacrificied their platform simply to beat the D’s, then frankly they have litttle-to-nothing left to stand on and maybe (hopefully, finally) we can wave them “buh-bye.”
On the other hand, Robertson is only one voice in the RR, and his prominence has flagged of late, so perhaps we shouldn’t count the entire movement out for the count just yet. Accordingly, I’ll hold off on buying the keg, party balloons, and kazoos … for at least a little while longer.
Update: Steve Benen — whose politics I generally don’t share but whose intelligence I respect — has a much different take on the Robertson-Rudy development.
