John’s not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, but he’s surely smart enough to realize that he’s among a group who wants a candidate slightly to the right of Father Coughlin.

He establishes his conservative creds right away by talking about how the most important freedom of all is the freedom to be born without some vaccum-cleaner-wielding liberal getting all up in your fetusitude. He goes on to say the word “conservative” about eleventy seven billion more times, but honestly, he goes over like a lead balloon encased in a lead safe that has been thrown out of a lead airplane while someone plays Led Zepplein III.

There are exactly three times when he gets anything even remotely resembling raucous applause: (1) when he discusses lowering taxes; (2) when he disses Barack Obama; and (3) when he mentions Mitt Romney.

He also apologizes constantly, saying that he knows he hasn’t always been perfect and he counts on the cons in attendance to set him straight. He might as well puke on their shoes. To this crowd, any admission of error is an admission of weakness, and every mistake is made by someone else.

Those observations notwithstanding, McCain will be a tough competitor. I expect him to press all the jihadists-want-to-come-here-and-eat-our-babies hot buttons. And why not? To the Republican base, it’s what matters. His campaign will also tout his courage and bravery. The result will be that this mixture of fear and pride will overwhelm any doubts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter might have about him.

And of course, they’ll paint Hillary as a shrew and Obama as a dhimmi.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t skeptical when it comes to McCain, and promises.

McCain’s speech to CPAC was phenomenal, IMO.

(I have the “benefit” of being at home, sick today. And what a day it’s been….)

If you get a chance to see the whole speech, I suggest you do. He addressed financial and economic concerns quite often, and I liked his positions. I’m sure transcripts will soon be available, but his emotion was surprisingly strong and convincing.

I am, of coursed biased, being a Republican who holds conservative economic principles…I suppose we’re just a dying breed.

Now it will be extremely interesting to see how many of the folks who were supporting him switch to McCain vs how many switch to Huckabee.