Drudge predictably goes for the big headline from a Sid Blumenthal talk at Barnes and Nobel (Sid was promoting his new book) – Blumenthal Claims Inside Knowledge that McCain Flirted with Leaving GOP. My reaction to that is… zzz… so what if McCain flirted with leaving the GOP? Even if he did, we will never know how serious he was. Certainly Blumenthal doesn’t and I will wager even McCain himself doesn’t, since I imagine, like most of us, the depths of his decision making process are mysterious even to himself. I happen to admire McCain for trying to think things through and searching for truth, maybe changing his mind on occasion. I do and have. Everyone intelligent I know personally has. Consistency is the hobglobin of small, etc…
But that’s not what’s important in Blumenthal’s comments. The concluding comments by the longtime Clintonista are far more significant:
Although McCain has disappointed some members of the conservative movement, Blumenthal said he did not think this would hurt McCain on Election Day.
“I think Republicans as a whole – even though they’re suspicious, many of them of McCain and have been angry at him in the past – are much more disciplined as party members than Democrats are,” Blumenthal said. “There‚Äôs the famous saying of Will Rogers, ‘I’m not a member of an organized political party – I’m a Democrat.’ So, I think Republicans will rally behind their candidate to a greater degree than people will recognize right now.”
Blumenthal even supplied advice for McCain.
“So I do not think this will hurt him and if I were advising McCain right now, I would say he’s slightly overreacting to his conservative base,” Blumenthal said. “I don‚Äôt think he needs to do that so much. I think they don’t have any choice right now.”
Makes sense to me.
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