The American Spectator

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p>Jeremy Lott says, "we cast those ballots (for third party candidates) to send a message but nobody listens." Perhaps Mr. Lott is on the wrong end of the equation. Maybe he and others like him, who cast worthless ballots, are the ones who need to listen: waste your vote if you want to, but don't expect us to follow you. br> -- Arnold Ahlert br> Boca Raton, Florida /p>

Mr. Lott, Jeremy that is, you ask a question that I would like to attempt to answer. I do not pretend to answer for anyone else, only myself. You point to the disdain, indeed contempt, that John McCain is held in by conservatives, and ask if we seriously believe that Mitt Romney would have been any better. My answer is a huge YES.

Let me explain. John McCain has demonstrated his disdain for conservatives over and over in no uncertain terms. Indeed, he has demonstrated a particularly vicious, and volatile, and even violent attitude toward anyone that would dare to openly disagree with any of his stated opinions, or policy decisions. His temper is, in fact, legendary.

Mitt Romney, on the other hand, exhibits the classic traits of a problem solver that MBAs are trained to be. He has preferred policy positions, but he is open to being objectively shown that he is either wholly or partially wrong. We see a man that will change course, when shown the error of his ways. His detractors in the GOP universe made much of his "flip flops" on policy points, particularly on abortion. Yet, in my opinion, what we saw was a man that, when he was placed in a position of having to actually think about certain positions, actually learned from the experience and admitted that he had been wrong before. I believe that we saw a man that would have started out as a moderately conservative occupant of the Oval Office, but would have been open to being convinced to take more deeply conservative stances. I believe that he would have populated his staff with a majority of folks that were more conservative, and would have truly listened to their advice. I believe that he would have especially done this in the area of military affairs, an area where he had no real personal first hand experience. This as opposed to McCain who seems to think that he is the second coming of Clauswitz despite his ranking in his class at Canoe U and the results obtained almost as soon as he was first introduced to combat.

p>Finally, Mr. Lott, I would like to say that my opinion is that of one who was not a particular fan of Mr. Romney. He was not my first choice, nor my second choice. I just felt that, in the vernacular of the sports genre, he had a greater upside potential, while McCain is virtually at his ceiling and has a huge downside risk. So, yes, Jeremy, Romney would have been very much better. br> -- Ken Shreve /p> p> FAULTY INTELLIGENCE br> Re: Tom Bethell's

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