Now what?

Two big wins for John McCain. Two back-to-back victories for Romney. And Hillary Clinton is kicking butt and taking names. So what do we know for sure? In the Democratic camp, it is clearly down to a two-way race. If Clinton ekes out a victory in South Carolina, Obama can start crafting his concession speech and a shot at the V.P. slot. The GOP is more up in the air. Clearly, Thompson is a bridesmaid. Ron Paul can decide between a Libertarian run or writing a book on How to Run a World-class Government on Two Dollars a Day. The Giuliani strategy remains an intriguing gamble. And it is pretty clear that Romney has the Mormon vote. The rest, I confess, is a bit hazy. It wasn’t all that long ago that John McCain’s campaign was dead in the water. And there is plenty of time in politics for him to fall and rise again. One thing, however, has to be troubling. McCain’s narrow victories have been with a rag-tag confederation of Republican moderates, independents and the religiously lukewarm. The traditional Republican mainstay of the abortion-hating, illegal hard-lining, born-again church-goers seem to favor a Huckabee candidacy and they, on the whole, have always been a bit leery of McCain and his maverick ways. I mean, the man opposes torture; Can this fellow really be trusted? Winning over the base of the GOP means not alienating this powerful block. Can McCain do it? Well, he’s just won over the people that knocked him out of the running eight years ago. So, anything is possible.

Channeling Ronnie

For a dead guy, Ronald Reagan sure gets around. The ghost of Reagan haunted the earliest Republican debates. Every plank of the GOP Presidential hopefuls’ stump speeches were “in the spirit of Ronald Reagan.” Or so they said. Our Reagan-loving electorate even coaxed a sad-eyed, bulldog-faced actor into the running because they were convinced this tough guy from Hollywood might be the heir apparent to the old twenty-mule-team Dutch. Now, even the Democrats are getting in on the act. For this last week, Barack Obama referenced Ronald Reagan with neither a sneer, snicker nor an eye roll. In fact, Obama’s remarks about the Gipper fell just short of full-blown praise. You see, Reagan was a change agent. Reagan was an optimist. Always electric, but never fiery. Always calm, but never weak. Reagan was not some cynical Karl Rove creation. He was the real deal. An icon of hope. A promoter of big dreams. And Obama thinks that America is once again ready for a new morning. We’ll see tonight if the folks in Nevada don’t agree.

Another Reagan

Fred Thompson’s campaign was going great guns. A true conservative. Ronald Reagan’s heir apparent. The genuine article. Then something happened. He showed up. Suddenly, that Law & Order bull dog tenacity morphed into a hangdog look that hasn’t done much on the campaign trail but lazily sniff the path those early-bird candidates had already trod. Now we learn that Thompson doesn’t care much for politics and isn’t all that interested in running for President. Which explains a lot: A lackluster campaign and a debating style that is reminiscent of the high school jock who squirms behind the speech class lectern longing for the next football practice. Of course, a cavalier manner is to be admired; and Ronald Reagan famously napped his way through eight years of peace, middle-class prosperity and the demise of the Soviet Union. The big difference is when Reagan campaigned he was electric. He oozed charm and an aw-shucks cowboy toughness that promised morning again in America. Thompson, by contrast, was more inspiring as a undeclared concept than he is as a candidate. But the truth is we could all use another Reagan. A guy with a political winsomeness. A guy who could pull a divided, humpty-dumpty country back together again. And Thompson clearly ain’t that guy. In fact, I am afraid that the vast group of GOP contenders (with the exception of maverick Ron Paul) only promise “more of the same.” The same war on terror. The same supply-side tax cuts. The same “benevolent bully” foreign policy. So if you are ready for a new morning in America, a fresh start and leadership that is simultaneously tough-minded and uplifting––Reaganesque, if you will––I see only one candidate with those kind of credentials and that level of charisma. His name is Obama. And this kid, unlike Senator Thompson, has wanted to be President since kindergarten. Oh well, who said the next Reagan had to be a Republican?