Drudge predictably goes for the big headline from a Sid Blumenthal talk at Barnes and Nobel (Sid was promoting his new book) – Blumenthal Claims Inside Knowledge that McCain Flirted with Leaving GOP. ^[1] My reaction to that is… zzz… so what if McCain flirted with leaving the GOP? Even if he did, we will never know how serious he was. Certainly Blumenthal doesn’t and I will wager even McCain himself doesn’t, since I imagine, like most of us, the depths of his decision making process are mysterious even to himself. I happen to admire McCain for trying to think things through and searching for truth, maybe changing his mind on occasion. I do and have. Everyone intelligent I know personally has. Consistency is the hobglobin of small, etc…

But that’s not what’s important in Blumenthal’s comments. The concluding comments by the longtime Clintonista are far more significant:

Although McCain has disappointed some members of the conservative movement, Blumenthal said he did not think this would hurt McCain on Election Day.

“I think Republicans as a whole – even though they’re suspicious, many of them of McCain and have been angry at him in the past – are much more disciplined as party members than Democrats are,” Blumenthal said. “There‚Äôs the famous saying of Will Rogers, ‘I’m not a member of an organized political party – I’m a Democrat.’ So, I think Republicans will rally behind their candidate to a greater degree than people will recognize right now.”

Blumenthal even supplied advice for McCain.

“So I do not think this will hurt him and if I were advising McCain right now, I would say he’s slightly overreacting to his conservative base,” Blumenthal said. “I don‚Äôt think he needs to do that so much. I think they don’t have any choice right now.”

Makes sense to me.