A brief hiatus....

What, a guy can't let a year or so lapse between postings and chalk it up to ennui and apathy? Nobody (and I do mean nobody) has read any of this anyhow, so I'm perfectly ok with such significant chunks heaving too and fro. I write this for me, so there.

A year gone by, and so much has happened. I've seen my man Mitt rise to prominence in the Republican eye, even garnering the endorsement of my beloved National Review, before fading into the background with too many also ran contests. Maybe next year. I'm from Chicago, home of the Cubs, and I don't have to like baseball to appreciate the patience necessary.

I have to admit I am stunned by the outcome of the primaries so far. Who would have predicted such a bloody, brutal slugfest on the left? Certainly the continuing revelations about our state's junior senator have come as no great surprise to those of us more familiar with Chicago politics. I didn't think we'd ever be so lucky as to have the venomous hate speech of his preacher captured on DVD for our viewing entertainment, but it was a surprise gift for the fall. The Ayer's connection, the Rezko case, the snobbish anti-gun comments were not exactly anticipated, but each of these things fit my general understanding of the man.

That being said in reviewing my post last year, I was delighted by the 'I told you so' possibilities within. If ever there was a chance for me to trumpet my own prescience, my portrait would be the case. Sure, I was wrong about the whole 'smashing Obama aside' theory. He's the surprising favorite right now. I don't think he's in a position to win, however, and given that I do think this will have a devastating effect on his potential within the DNC. Beyond that, I do think that Obama has more than mirrored the picture I painted, and so I feel a tad smug about that. It's been a year, and his positions are no more clearly articulated than they were at the time. His attempts to be all things to all people has taken him so far, but whether it can take him any further I have serious doubts.

The Clinton implosion at the start of the campaign was also a huge shocker. The long feared Clinton Machine pulled a Keystone Cops routine so laughable as to discredit decades of Republican fears about the family. We've seen a bit more of the old Clinton skill come out in these last few weeks, but it seems too little too late. Whether a bloodied Obama can still claw out a nomination remains to be seen, but I wonder if she hasn't knocked him off the pedestal just enough that even John Mccain can finish the job.

Speaking of, it's hard for me to be thrilled by a John Mccain candidacy. I have tremendous respect for the man and his service, but I have enough disagreements on policy that I'll be casting a very reluctant vote come November. Add on his seeming inability to masterfully articulate an argument which doesn't include spitting out the same rehearsed talking point, and it is hard for me to think he will shine in the fall. To face Obama or Clinton, the Republicans should have fielded a master debater. Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson spring most forthright to my mind from the Republican field, but both where passed over for the candidate of inevitability. So it goes, but we endure.