LIKE IT IS

“John McCain may not be our first choice,” said Judy Needles, president of the Washington Federation of Republican Women. “He may not be our second, but he’s our choice.”

Mrs. Needles came from Walla Walla to Silverdale to spread party gospel on how to get Republicans elected “because this is one of the most important elections you’ll ever vote on.” Central Kitsap Republican Women were her audience.

The litany was the same as always, doorbell for candidates, take part in telephone banks calling people and reminding them to vote, stuff envelopes, help make voters be better informed, write letters to the editor, but be willing to give your time and your money.

I reminded them that people like to be asked for their vote. Or, as in the case of my father, who told me what legislative candidate he was voting for. Why? “Because he came into the tavern where some of us were sitting and bought us all a beer.”

It’s too bad Mrs. Needles’ message had to be to do your utmost to elect someone who was not your preference among the dozen candidates in the Republican presidential pool.

Can you still name them? A clue: They included two Senators, three Congressmen, one former Senator, four former governors, one former mayor and one former ambassador.

I’ll name them at the end of the column in case you want to test your memory. I was only good for six or seven off the top of my head and had to look up the rest.

Rudy Giuliani was my initial choice, although he lost points with me when he answered telephone calls from his wife during speeches he was delivering. My second choice was Mitt Romney because I came to admire Mormons when I was a newspaper church editor and was impressed by the fact they never ran up debt. When they built a new church, they waited until they had money to build the first part and didn’t continue until they saved up some more. With his experience, I’d like to see him be the veep to McCain, but I’m afraid Mormons are out of the question now, with all that’s been happening to them.

I won’t go into why I was not a McCain fan because I see no point in pointing out his flaws as I saw them, flaws I learned of from the man himself in his books. I’m going to vote for him although, like Tom Sowell, I had no reason to do so until it came down to him, Hillary or Obama.

I regard Hillary and Bill as two of the slickest crooks to come down the pike in my career of covering politics. I’d take Obama over her, but I have this feeling that we don’t really know him and what keeps slipping out, like his 20 years in the church of the America-bashing Rev. Wright, bothers me.

The campaign is getting meaner and meaner. Try listening to the repeats at night of the daily talk shows. That’s where I get my liberal input, pardon me, Progressives. Both John Rothman and Ray Taliaferro on the San Francisco station are for Obama. Taliaferro, who before this year, never said an unkind word about any Democrat, now refers to Hill and Bill as liars and has called her “that old bag.”

Bill Press is on the Seattle Progressive radio station, as is John Elliott, who the other night referred to Vice President Cheney as “that snaggle-toothed, grumpy, miserly old bastard.” I haven’t heard any criticism for that kind of language.

OK, the original 12 Republican presidential candidates were John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Mike Huckabee, Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, Ron Paul and Fred Thompson.

Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA 98340.