Republicans had better rush to come to grips with the reality that all of our smart options for the 2008 election cycle are already off the table. Unlike past elections, Republicans actually had two very strong conservatives to unite behind in the 2008 primaries, Thompson and Hunter, and they failed to unite behind either of them.

The time to stand up for a true traditional conservative Republican has passed. The chance to do something smart no longer exists. Now we have one last shot and less than one week to do something that is at least half-smart.

John McCain is an Outright Liar

It is no less than Clintonesque to listen to John "amnesty" McCain call himself "the official new leader of the conservative movement in America."

McCain is not being nominated by conservatives. He is being nominated by liberal Independents in open primaries and liberal RINOs in closed primaries. He has very little support among conservatives and he can’t win in November as a result.

But more importantly, on the issues facing our nation today, John McCain is no more conservative or Republican than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. In fact, after more than three decades in Washington DC, his friends are not Washington conservatives, but Washington liberals like Clinton, Obama, Kennedy, Lieberman, Graham and Martinez.

Bold Faced Lying on the Issues

John McCain says he "changed the strategy in Iraq" and now we are winning in Iraq. But John McCain changed nothing in Iraq. He only supported beefing up the existing strategy in Iraq by putting more boots on the ground. A good move that should have happened sooner, but by no means a "change in strategy."

Worse yet on this subject, McCain is on record fighting for open borders, legalizing illegal immigration, closing down Gitmo and giving known terrorists access to the US criminal courts, while refusing to aggressively interrogate those who can tell us when and where the next 9/11 might happen. Yet, to hear him from the campaign stump, he’s strong on national security, just not any of the measures needed to actually secure a nation under attack.

McCain now says he is for the Bush tax cuts that he railed against and indeed voted against in the Senate.

McCain sided with Kennedy, Lieberman and Russ Feingold in passing the first legislation to limit free political speech in US history, some of which has since been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Yet he sees himself as a conservative champion of liberty and freedom.

In short, McCain’s senate record is that of an inside-the-beltway Washington liberal, not any form of a conservative or even a Republican. McCain is so far left that he is fully on-board Al Gore’s Global Warming Swindle and promises to usher in the economically disastrous policies drafted and advanced by international socialists for the sole purpose of bringing America to its economic knees.

But none of this is the John McCain touted from the campaign stump. Almost every word coming out of McCain’s so-called "Straight-Talk Express" is an outright lie.

South Carolina & Florida Change Everything

Like it or not, the worst possible Republican candidate has emerged from key conservative states the liberal victor of the early Republican primaries. In an instant, I went from being for a conservative or no one else, to being a reluctant Romney supporter as a result.

There is NO meaningful difference between a vote cast for Clinton, Obama or McCain. Ideologically, they are the same person and the same vote. All three are cut from the same cloth. It matter’s not a bit which of them wins the November election as all three believe in the same things.

Remember, all desirable smart options are already off the table. Only one half-smart option remains and the clock is ticking fast on this one.

One Shot and One week to do something about it

No matter how I feel about Mitt Romney, or disagree with some of his past positions, some of which he now disagrees with as well, he is not Hillary Clinton, Barack Hussein Obama or John "amnesty - weak on terror" McCain.

I am a staunch conservative who supported Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter until they were no longer in the race. Even then, I was quite temped to vote for them in the primaries just to make a statement against all others. In part, this is what happened in Florida, making it possible for the most liberal Republican to claim he now holds the conservative mantle. What a joke! Except not so funny…

The fact is, Republican ideologues like me, clinging to my principles and my principled but failing candidate, helped John McCain become the unlikely front-runner for the Republican nomination. Thompson, Hunter, Paul, Giuliani and Huck fans all put McCain in the lead. That means we have the power to take him out of the lead.

Straight Talk about Principled voters

Standing firmly and unapologetically upon American values and principles is never wrong. It’s in fact the basis of conservatism and our founders called upon each of us to do exactly that.

But it is not always the best political strategy for doing all we can to protect and preserve those principles and values. The founders also warned us to be forever vigilant and somehow, we failed to head this mess off at the pass and avoid the need to make less than attractive choices.

Sometimes, when vigilance has been forgotten for too long and smart options are no longer available, a half-smart alternative is the best we can do. It seems to me that this is the crossroads we conservatives find ourselves at once again.

Four Candidates Standing – Two Choices Available

Thompson and Hunter dropped out of the race a week ago. Giuliani dropped out last night and endorsed the other liberal in the race, John McCain. The Huckaboom has already enjoyed its last bang in Iowa. Paul was never in the race, other than as a Perot type spoiler with much less support.

The Republican race is down to McCain and Romney, neither of them ideal, but one of them an outright career backstabbing liberal liar and the other, at least a reasonable hope for something much better.

Republican voters have six days to decide whether to hold their noses and help Romney defeat McCain on Super Tuesday, or stink up the entire country by voting against Clinton, Obama or McCain in November. No matter which of these three we vote against in November, we will get the same result.

Tomorrow, John Edwards will drop out of the DNC race. Clinton or Obama will be on the Democrat ticket in November, maybe both of them.

Four candidates remain and three of them are equally dangerous to America. Only one offers even a glimmer of hope to Republicans and conservatives, Mitt Romney.

Straight Talk about November

McCain has been propped up by the leftist press ever since he lost to Bush in 2000. He is the darling of the lame leadership of the Republican National Committee who has clearly determined that joining the left is the only way to compete with the left.

Romney is at least a Washington outsider with significant experience, strong family values, a moral compass and a general sense that America should be what the founders established it to be. McCain is none of these things.

Romney can attract most Republican voters under these conditions. If we propel him ahead of McCain, then help him continue to move right in the coming weeks and help him choose the right running mate at the convention, we can at least limit our losses. We have hope…

But McCain will never attract the support of the conservative base he has spent years stabbing in the back. Doubt me on that one and you can inaugurate Hillary for certain.

You Decide

We passed on the smart option of pro-actively and aggressively supporting a true conservative. It’s time to cut that loss loose and do something smart now. You can decide to sit back, lick your wounds and complain about losing America to the left, be it under Clinton, McCain or Obama.

Or, you can take immediate pro-active measures to stop the train wreck called McCain and limit our losses by making certain that the choice in November is at least a choice between wide open socialism under a Democrat White House with a Democrat congress, and a Republican who owes his presidency to the people who carried him to victory against the odds, the MSM and the Martinez RNC.

You decide, but decide fast! Super Tuesday is your last chance to do something at least half-smart. The consequences of failing to do so are immeasurable.