January 27, 2008
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I'll probably be voting for McCain this primary...
I'll probably be voting for John McCain on "Super Tuesday." Why? There are several reasons but it really comes down to the issues and I find that I agree with his positions more than most of the other candidates. But it also comes down to the overall consistency of his message. Unlike some other presidential candidates (Romney, Hillary, etc.) he hasn't come across as somebody who has changed his core positions on a regular basis. Here are some issues where I agree with John McCain.
Immigration - Contrary to popular conservative opinion I believe that McCain actually sided with Ronald Reagan on the issue of immigration and that Reagan was pro-amnesty in some cases. As Reagan once said, "The legalization provisions in this act will go far to improve the lives of a class of individuals who now must hide in the shadows, without access to many of the benefits of a free and open society. Very soon many of these men and women will be able to step into the sunlight and, ultimately, if they choose, they may become Americans" (link). I respect McCain's consistency on this issue though it has made him the political enemy of people like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
Bipartisanship - McCain has had the rare ability to reach beyond party lines as he has been endorsed by both the New York Times (link) and Joe Lieberman (link). This will make it difficult for him to win the Republican nomination but will help him during the general election.
Torture - Since McCain is the only politician running for office who has actually been tortured I think it gives him additional credibility. McCain is strongly against using torture during interrogation techniques and I agree with him on this issue. As he states, "The abuse of prisoners harms, not helps, our war effort." (link).
Economy - The U.S. Congress has spent over $70 of pork since 2005. However, McCain actually has not sponsored any earmarks since he's been a Senator (link), setting a fiscally conservative example for a financially indulgent Congress.
Iraq - Should we have gone into Iraq to begin with? Honestly I don't know. The war may have been based on faulty intelligence or a heightened amount of fear after 9/11, but either way both Democrats and Republicans voted on the intelligence they saw, and both parties chose to send our troops into war. To argue that only one party believed that Saddam had WMD's to me is misleading. For example, in 2002, Al Gore said, "We know that [Hussein] has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country". Also in 2002, Sen. Ted Kennedy said, "We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction" (link).
Now that we are in Iraq, is an immediate pullout a good idea? I personally don't think so. Iraqis are used to having some sort of powerful figure govern over them - be it Saddam Hussein or the United States - and I tend to think that leaving Iraq would create a vacuum that an ill-intending group like Al Qaeda would love to fill. A good friend of mine is currently serving in Iraq and I believe that our military is filled with good people like him who continue help in the protection of Iraqi citizens, the training of the Iraq army and the building of the Iraq democracy.
As Joe Lieberman puts it, "There are many fine people running for President. Many of them are good friends of mine. But I have concluded -- and I hope you will, as well -- that John McCain is the candidate who can best reunite our country and lead us to victory in the war against Islamist terrorism" (link).
Who will you be voting for this election?
Comments (17)
if i was voting for a republican, it would be mccain. we disagree on a lot of core issues, but, like you said, he is good at sticking to his positions.
I'm surprised none of your bullet points discussed the U.S. economy. It appears to me that most of the republican candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, totally dodge the economic issue by presenting plans that in the end will have a null effect on the economy. It is pretty obvious to everyone that a large part of what is happening in the U.S. market right now is due to the debt we have around the world and the weakening dollar, much of which is caused by the current war. If we keep up our current state of affairs much longer, and a real concrete threat poses itself to us, I'd say we are going to be in a little bit of trouble.
You are a thoughtful person, Pete, and I believe that you have carefully thought this whole matter through. I am a Canadian, living in Vancouver, and so am not eligible to vote in a US election. But like many thousands of other Canadians, I follow American politics with a lot of interest, and usually form strong opinions and develop my own favorites among the US political leaders.
Going back to the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair, I have had absolutely no use whatever for the Clintons, and I've been further turned off by their shoddy mudslinging tactics and disgusting manners toward Barack Obama, tactics which I hope totally backfire and destroy any possible chance of their ever occupying the White House again.
I had a very high regard for Ronald Reagan, and your opinion of John McCain sounds credible to me! Thank you for this post!
David
haven't done the homework yet.......but hopefully there is someone out there that meet my core beliefs: stay in the war and fight terrorism, marriage is between a man and woman, anti abortion, and at least a belief in the One True God and Savior. That all may be asking too much, but we'll see.
Good post
......as always.
Yeah, McCain is probably my favourite candidate as well. So much attention is being paid to Clinton and Obama because of the Race/Gender spectacle that issues and platform get almost no airtime. Honestly, how many times do we need to hear some CNN anchor ask some random expert, "Will African-Americans/Women vote for Obama/Clinton?"
I'm Canadian too so maybe I'm getting a skewed media perspective. Plus my opinion doesn't count.
Well thanks for the post. I have donated financially to Mike Huckabee's campaign. But I think he is dwindling and probably won't be a viable option much longer.
huckabee/mccain would be ideal, in my opinion...
but opinions are like armpits...:)
Well, I think it's possible to be a fan of Reagan without being a fan of his amnesty policy. As I've argued (in comments on your blog) before, Reagan's amnesty bill 1) didn't do anything to stem the tide of illegal immigration, and 2) created an administrative nightmare for the Immigration Court, as well as for the Border Patrol, INS, and other federal and state law enforcement. I'll mention again, I worked for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (formerly the INS) for four years (2002-2006), and when I left, they were still dealing with fallout from the Reagan amnesty bill.
Therefore, on immigration, I would not vote for McCain, since you say he tends toward the same philosophy.
A much greater sin was the 'campaign finance reform' bill he co-sponsored with Russ Feingold, the bill often referred to as "McCain-Feingold." That was an unambiguous attack on free speech, a boon to incumbents and a bane to anybody new who would want to run for office. Thompson's support of the McCain-Feingold bill was one of the things that shot down his run for the Republican nomination, and rightly so.
Frankly, every one of the candidates, among both Democrats and Republicans, stinks to high heaven. To me, Thompson would've been barely palatable. Now that he's gone, I'm half considering switching to Democrat & voting for Obama, just to see what happens. Why not? If I have to suffer a bout of pessimism, I might as well go in head-first. Then again, I have to consider Iraq, and no Democrat President will be able to stave off his/her constituency long enough to get the job done in Iraq. It is important that we do right by the Iraqi people, and bring them as much stability as we can.
"but either way both Democrats and Republicans voted on the intelligence they saw, and both parties chose to send our troops into war. "
exactly. A lot of people seem to have forgotten that, including the people who voted for the war.
Google Ron Paul.
IF I HEAR the word "TIMETABLE" again I'll SCREAM. Media is focused only on the Romney/McCain Cat fight
They need to leave the gossip behind and focus on the issues.
Huckabee clearly Showed he's presidential material. He was Clear, Concise, Witty, Informative. He has 40 delegates and only needs a state or two to move back into first place. CNN and MSNBC and Fox Snubbed Huckabee again....Is the Media swaying your vote? Do they speak for you? They do not speak for me!
DO NOT SELL OUT YOUR VOTE!
GET INFORMED mikehuckabee.com AND leave your religious prejudice at the door This man has a lot to offer the American people!
Great post. I saw your earlier post on uprisingyouth's post that's how I found it.
That pretty much sums up my points about McCain. But the economy is also an issue I think McCain is easily qualified to lead in.
and Charity,
I don't think "witty" is a good criterion for President.
~IM_R
Your made your point well after fred thompsons pullout that leaves me with the need to find a new canidate. Truthfully mccain is far from my fris chioce. Mike Huckabee is closer to me beleif sady my favorte helped to kill his changes with Rush Limbaugh driving the last fatal stake. Romney has a great platform but i worry about a man whose has seen the light on the second amendment and abortion in only the last five years.
That is leaving McCain. fortunately my state caucuses are not untill the 9th
I am a libertarian Republican. A year ago I was for Dr. Paul. He brings excellent thought to the table as a congressman, but we are talking President and not congress. I would not be comfortable with him as commander in chief.
The President does not legislate or have charge of fiscal allocations. He can suggest all day long, but it is Congress who sets fiscal policy. The President proposes and can veto. A president does affect our foreign policy and is commander in chief that is where I trust John McCain most.
So despite what the media wants us to look at, do not bite at the distraction bait. I have held we may have been better off with Kerry in 04 with a gop congress as they would have kept each other in check and both parties would have been at the top of their game.
We can hear all this whose the conservative talk, but it is just talk. 12 years is the proof of the pudding and the only gop who can run as a fiscal conservative is Mc Cain- how can you be fiscally irresponsible and claim to be fiscally conservative. It takes more than cutting taxes period.
Let's talk about real world. Having also been in business I recruited and trained managers for a national contractor in the long term care industry. One thing I always found to be an indicator in training of whether someone really had what it took was what would they do when they saw a problem? In several cases I diverted peoples employment to another (lower) level because of them seeing a problem but not acting because they were unsure exactly what to do, so did the action of seeing it, ignoring it and doing nothing.
On the other side, I knew I had someone I could work with who saw something and knew something had to be done and did it. It was always wrong to do nothing, but it is always right to do something. Many times the decisions they made were wrong, but not as wrong as doing nothing, and the client was always ok and gained trust in them that they had their interest at heart.
I would rather have someone who has "the balls to do something", than to do nothing. The republican party, conservatives included , did nothing but give lip service the past decade to the Washington system. Even though his fixes were not always right, even very wrong, he did something. Including the surge. So did the rest, they did nothing except steal the democrats operating manual of spending like drunk sailors. They called it tax and spend, but there version was spend money that is not there, is that what fiscally conservative is???
Having also been in business for myself, I made weighted decisions and took risks for gain, but not everyone I took worked. Republicans more than anyone should not bastardize people who try to offer solutions, but be working to improve those solutions to a better one, instead of whining about it.
Romney as a venture capitalist knows this all too well and is playing a card he himself does not believe in. I want a leader who sees something broken and does not ignore it because it might not be popular, but tries to fix it because it is broken. That is responsible and that is leadership. That is why I will vote for John Mc Cain..in April.
I'm McCain.
@Drakonskyr - in that case I just voted for ya yesterday. And I'm lovin' the new head of hair (:
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