I Forgot to Vote for John McCain

Today, on the most super of Tuesdays, millions of voters in 24 states will cast their ballots for the candidate which they believe best represents their party. The culmination of too many months of non-stop election coverage is upon us. In less than 12 hours, clear victors on both sides will likely emerge, setting up the next 9 months of non-stop election coverage.

Selecting a candidate is a tiresome process. I've backed every remaining Republican candidate, except Huckabee, and a good number of candidates who either dropped out, or never even officially entered the race in the first place. Does every candidate look so good that I can't hold myself to just supporting one? Not even close. Rather, once I start backing a candidate, he becomes the subject of a great deal more scrutiny than the others in the race. After idealistically nodding along with Congressman Paul's solid libertarian record, I took a second look to find that he is far from a champion of free-trade. Oh, and he's kind of crazy. George Will's pseudo-endorsement of Rudy Giuliani got me to go as far as donate to his campaign. I had to take a second look at Giuliani's character, however, and what I learned was not impressive. Plus he sends me too much mail. When Senator McCain blitzed back into the race I saw a beacon of hope. But soon several respectable conservative columnists were at his throat for what seemed to be some pretty good reasons.

I received my absentee ballot a few days before the deadline for mail-in, Friday. My most recent whim had me supporting McCain, but only marginally. Friday came and went and I never made an effort to fill out the ballot. Quite simply, I forgot.

McCain will have my support along with most conservatives, moderates in particular. But why should those conservatives who find McCain to be tolerable at best "remember" to vote for McCain when it counts in November? Some won't, and I don't blame them.