Right On The Right

Rush Limbaugh refuses to endorse, with two possible exceptions. The first exception is the possibility of a two-man race in the later states where one man is a non-Conservative. The second exception, of course, is in the General Election. As of right now, Rush hasn't come out and said who he's for. We all know who he isn't for however, and that may be just as powerful. To the right is a graphic showing the long list of anti-Huck articles on Rush's site today, and it is an extraordinarily long list that covers a lot of issues. Here's an excerpt from just one of those segments:

RUSH: So Huckabee writes this piece basically savaging the Bush administration's "arrogant bunker mentality." Now, one thing I know, I remember back in the '92 campaign, Ross Perot came along, and I had my instincts. I had misgivings about it from the get-go, and I shared those misgivings, and I tried to talk the Perot people out of it. "You people are being fooled. He's not even serious about wanting to be elected. There's something else going on here. I'm going to get to the bottom of it and find out." I found out what it was. When it looked like he was going to win, he pulled out, then he got back in. He basically gave the election to the Democrats and Bill Clinton. But what I remember is that all during that period -- when I was so intense and so purposefully desirous of trying to get the Perot people to see the light -- they didn't want to see it. They were like cultists, and I learned that you cannot talk cultists out of their cult.

Huckabee's comments about the Bush administration's "arrogant bunker mentality" were a complete dealbreaker for me. It wasn't just the anti-Huck articles that gave us an idea of Rush's subtle endorsement. Hot Air noticed it too. There are a plethora of pro-Mitt articles. Here's an excerpt:

Do you realize how long it has been since a political person, a presidential candidate of either party, spoke extensively of the founding of this country and how crucial everybody's understanding of that is to maintaining American exceptionalism? Mitt Romney took the long view of this country, from its founding to its future, farther than we can see, and he described what it is that binds us together and defines us as Americans. It is crucially important that people understand this. This was a speech of the long view, a speech of leadership and of vision. It didn't attack anybody. It was optimistic. It was positive. It had reinforcement of American traditions and values.

This is as close to an endorsement as we're going to get before the Hawkeye Cauci, unless Rush has some sort of major surprise in store for us today. I'm a Fred Thompson supporter, but if I was forced to caucus between Mitt and Huckabee, it'd be Mitt in a heartbeat. Let's see how things go down tomorrow.