The Dobson Undorsement

He just told Laura Ingraham he won't vote for McCain in the general election. Here's a snippet:

I am deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, has little regard for freedom of speech, organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters in judicial hearings, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.

You can read the whole thing here. I would make three points. First, Dobson conspicuously didn't endorse Mitt Romney; indeed, the entire statement more or less assumes a McCain victory, and strikes a note of near-elegiac wistfulness rather than defiance. (Insert your "evangelicals won't vote for Mormons" speculation here.)

Second, as Ramesh noted over the weekend, it was clear after South Carolina, and arguably earlier, that the nomination fight boiled down to a choice between McCain and Romney. Yet an awful lot of big conservative names waited till the eleventh hour - which in Dobson's case meant the actual day of Super Tuesday - to bestir themselves and attempt to rally the faithful against McCain. Why?

Finally, attacking McCain for his tendency to use "foul and obscene language" seems like the purest form of social conservative self-parody. Particularly given the Bush Administration's record on that front.