John McCain is supposed to be basking tonight. He came back from the political dead to storm to the front of the pack, leaving his supposed betters in Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney behind. He cut a field of eight men down to three (including Ron Paul) and he did it all without the help of right wing talk radio, the right wing blogs, and right wing intellectuals. In fact, all three groups hate his guts. (Unless you believe Rush Limbaugh's feint, that he's really helping McCain ...)
And yet, despite having come so close to wrestling the presidential primary prize out of the hands of the George W. Bush wing of the Republican Party (and even coming away with Bush's endorsement -- and his brother's,) McCain, tonight, looks like a loser. He's going to beat Mike Huckabee in Virginia. (Update: he's winning by 9 points.) But exit polls show he has done so largely without the votes of conservatives -- particularly evangelicals, but also tax cut zealots and immigration jihadist conservatives, all of whom appear not ready to accept him as their nominee. He's also won Maryland and Virginia, although the press corps, in the wake of twin three-fold victories, only has eyes for Barack. In fact, when you compare Obama's 18,000 supporters crammed into a college auditorium in Wisconsin, McCain spoke to a smallish gathering of what looked for all the world like a cigar club consisting of geriatric white men and their wives...
In fact, one almost suspects that the vaunted "base" -- Bush and Rush Limbaugh's "qaida" in Virginia (where nearly half of the voters classified themselves as "conservatives" -- have been going out of their way to try and rob McCain of the joy of victory -- even to humiliate the war hero -- the man who survived the Bush onslaught in 2000, only to become Bush's bunker buddy on the war -- this year's version of Bob Dole (Dole likes him, too...) They know McCain has strength with just two groups: moderate Republicans and Republican leaning Independents -- both constituencies he could well lose to Barack Obama, should Obama be the Democratic nominee. So McCain gets another joyless win, gives a thoroughly joyless speech (it's not about hope, it's about serving a cause greater than you -- like tax cuts and the 100 year war in Iraq...) and despite all his travails, he can't begin basking, at least not yet.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
