Over at Sebastian’s, I made a comment that “I think gun owners in particular should rally behind McCain through Tuesday just to knock Mitt out. If we can keep Mitt from winning Michigan, we can kill his campaign.”

Following that statement, we discovered the Ron Paul fan version of Fred Thompson hangs out on Sebastian’s blog. See, apparently I’m compromising my principles for seeing an opportunity to make positive statements about one less evil candidate than another in an effort to knock the most evil candidate out of the race. At no point did I say anyone needed to give money or volunteer, just rally in whatever form they want through Tuesday in order to get the biggest danger to gun rights out of the race now.

I noted that after questions about my principles were raised that such a move would provide “the better opportunity to knock a big moneymaker out of the race on Tuesday, thereby freeing up supporters and money for other candidates – including Thompson.” But such a politically realistic argument is certainly no excuse for not giving in and voting for Fred. Apparently, I deserve the scarlet letter for this or some such punishment. (Nevermind that I’m not voting in the GOP primary anyway since they pulled the loyalty oath stunt…)

So, just why is McCain a good candidate to rally behind through the Michigan primary? Just the reasons I outline above, but here’s more to consider.

1) Polls show McCain has the best chance to beat Romney. Romney is anti-gun. Romney, for the sake of our hardcore no-one-but-Fred-will-save-us, is also the anti-Fred.

Mitt Romney and McCain, the New Hampshire winner, were statistically tied in a Detroit News poll released Sunday, but Romney led McCain by 5 percentage points in a similar survey by the Detroit Free Press.

2) If Mitt doesn’t win Michigan, even though he has more delegates than anyone else right now, he’s lost the momentum he needs to go into Super Tuesday as a truly viable candidate. Don’t get me wrong, he’d still spend his money like crazy, but politically, the GOP mainstreamers are going to be more open to shopping for a new candidate – and that could be Fred since McCain seems to have a few more enemies.

3) In regards to gun owners, McCain is hands down better for us than Mitt who will throw us under the bus at the earliest signs of an anti-gun poll. Fred may be better than McCain, but Fred isn’t on the verge of knocking Mitt out of the race right now.

4) The immediate past president of NRA believes that gun votes in Michigan could make the difference in the primary. For that reason, gun owners should leverage their vote right now to further damage Mitt’s campaign.

5) Giving McCain the win in Michigan now and sending Mitt’s supporters and donors looking for possible other candidates actually gives Fred more options now than it will if Romney remains a viable candidate through Super Tuesday.

Apparently, asking people to consider this possibility that generating buzz for a competitor in the short term gets stronger competition out of the way to allow your guy to take the lead is just too sinful to consider. I guess I should tithe to make up for it. I already donated to Richardson though.

So until the votes are counted on Tuesday, I say,

Go McCain!

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