Primary Update

John McCain's win in Florida's presidential primary last night is a sigh of relief to those of us who know in our guts that a Republican will be the forty-fourth President if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee. The Republican party is now coalescing around McCain even as Clinton and Barack Obama go into the Super Tuesday contests next week.

Rudolph Giuliani's withdrawal from the presidential campaign was expected. Even his endorsement of McCain was expected. What was not expected was John Edwards's sudden withdrawal, to be announced at 1:00 PM Eastern time today. Edwards had vowed to go all the way to the Democratic convention in the summer, but when he looked at the map and the delegate count didn't add up, he decided to give up.

The media apparently want Hillary to win the nomination, possibly so a Republican can win the general election. They kept belittling Edwards's populist message and gave him little attention beyond that, and it was suggested that they paid him less attention because their corporate bosses knew he could win a general election - something they wouldn't have wanted. Now, after a month of telling us Edwards was splitting the anti-Hillary vote, the media are suggesting that Edwards's mostly white supporters will drift over to Hillary, which re-enforces her status as having the inside track and her inevitability. Conclusion: Why bother trying to stop her anyway?

Don't you believe it. By the way, I'm white.

And. . . .

I back Barack. :-)

Meanwhile. . . . Bill Richardson. Dennis Kucinich. Fred Thompson. Mike Gravel. Who cares?

(I know Gravel hasn't dropped out, but he might as well. Even Reubin Askew knew when to quit his presidential bid in 1984. Who? Exactly.)