What Conservatives Are Thinking Right Now

I've come to accept my place as pretty much the lone conservative on the HuffPo. Which is fine; people who read the HuffPo that I meet (and there are a lot) are generally nice to me. Want to know what conservatives are thinking right now?

I do quite a bit of speaking to business groups, who are in general pretty conservative. I often ask for a show of hands on matters I'm curious about. Lately I've been asking questions about the presidential race, which my 78-year old mom tells me is the most interesting in her lifetime.

When I ask about John McCain, the response is tepid, pretty much "Yeah, if he's the nominee we'll hold our noses and vote for him." When I ask about Hillary, the consensus is she'll motivate conservatives to dredge up all the old issues and release the hounds. Witness the Wall Street Journal's examination this week of Bill Clinton's FALN pardons. She motivates us. Hillary's attitude seems to reflect that of Francis Urquhart: "(America) must be governed -- and you know who will do it best. If you will the end, you must will the means. What's the matter? You do trust me, don't you? Of course you do."

She gets the blood afoot.

Obama generates the most interesting responses in my informal polls, especially on the experience issue. Someone in an audience told me this week, "If Obama can handle Hurricane Hillary, he has the experience to handle the country."

Conservatives also seem to be anticipating with glee Hillary having to use the Bush-Gore precedent in a superdelegate fight. Overall though, most audiences I query, and remember these are hundreds of conservatives, seem resigned, but not worried, that if Obama wins the nomination, he wins the race. He seems not to motivate conservatives to expend energy against him. We're cool with him.

So do conservatives secretly want Hillary to be nominated? To quote Urquhart again, "You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment."