My ideal of a good Republican Candidate is not currently represented so if I'm going to have any inclination of supporting Americas party I hope that McCain is wise enough to choose some that will reflect conservative values, like Sarah Pallin or even Duncan Hunter.
Pat Buchanan says if McCain is the nominee, the Republican Party will
lose its soul. I'm more worried about the Republican Party losing its
mind.
Republicans are doing what the Democrats tried in 2004 with John
Kerry. In a state of despair, Democrats dumped the legitimate leader of
their party, Howard Dean, for a candidate they deemed "electable."
Kerry served in Vietnam! Republicans: Conniving has never been our
strong suit. Honor is our strong suit.
We have never been embarrased of George Bush because he makes mistakes in the way he talks; it's because we know that he does it to make you sniveling liberals think you're superior. If you understood the rules of power one of them is to let the enemy show it's true colors, liberals definitely have in the last 8 years.
Sen. John McCain's claim to being a Republican comes down to two factors:
(1) He was a POW -- I know that because he mentions it more often than John Kerry told us that he served in Vietnam.
And (2) he has a relatively conservative voting record compared to, say, Maxine Waters.
I note that there were hundreds of POWS in Vietnam. We can't make
them all president. If we're just going to pick one, how about one who
doesn't want to shut down Guantanamo and give amnesty to 20 million
illegal immigrants? Hey, didn't Duncan Hunter serve in Vietnam? Why,
yes, I believe he did!
Moreover, it's crazy to imagine that military service makes one
qualified to be president. Everyone knows the true test of presidential
leadership is an ability to cry on cue. Another point for my Hillary.
To be sure, McCain has a relatively conservative voting record --
but only relative to Republicans who have to get elected in places like
Vermont. Relative to Republicans from conservative Arizona, McCain's
voting record is abominable.
We keep hearing about McCain's "lifetime" rating from the American
Conservative Union being 82.3 percent. But McCain has been a member of
Congress for approximately 400 years, so that includes his votes on the
Spanish-American War. His more current ratings are not so hot.
In 2006 -- the most recent year for which ratings are available --
McCain's ACU rating was 65. That year, the ACU rating for the other
senator from Arizona, Jon Kyl, was 97. Even Chuck Hagel's ACU rating
was 75, and Lindsey Graham's was 83.
Since 1998, only four Republican senators have had worse ACU scores
than John McCain -- and none were from Goldwater country: Lincoln
Chafee, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe and Arlen Specter. The last time
McCain ranked this far down in his class, he was at the Naval Academy.
In fact, McCain and Romney are mirror opposites: As Romney had to
tailor his conservative views to the liberal voters of Massachusetts,
McCain has had to tailor his liberal views to the conservative voters
of Arizona. While Romney's record in a liberal bastion is as bad as it
will ever be, McCain's record from a conservative bastion is as good as
it will ever be. Which isn't very good.
In the immortal words of -- well, me, actually: Always choose a
strong conservative from a blue state over a lukewarm conservative from
a red state.
Bob Dole from Kansas had a pretty good voting record, too. But no
one fully believed he believed it. Another feather in his cap was that
he didn't burden voters with a "Straight Talk Express," a means of
conveyance even more useless and idiotic than an electric car.
Even McCain's supporters on the Spaghetti-Spined Express know he
can't be trusted on social issues like abortion. I notice how everyone
seems to agree that of course Rudy Giuliani's voters would go to
McCain.
Why would that be? On the two seminal issues of our time other than
abortion -- taxes and the war on terrorism -- the two could not be more
different.
Rudy cut taxes in New York City and, as a presidential candidate, proposed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history.
McCain voted against Bush's tax cuts twice.
Rudy supported torturing terrorists -- or using "enhanced
interrogation techniques," as they say, announcing in one of the
debates: "I would tell the people who had to do the interrogation to
use every method they could think of."
McCain is hysterical about pouring water down terrorists' noses and campaigns to shut down Guantanamo.
I know he would do something like this wihout a good conservative for VP
JOHN McCain goes crazy
He demands that no terrorist interrogation be "degrading" --
perhaps recalling how not degrading it was for people in the upper
floors of the Twin Towers to have to leap to their deaths rather than
be burned alive on Sept. 11.
9/11 911 PHONE CALLS FROM TOWERS
Everyone knows he'll take the liberal position on social
issues like abortion -- and everything else -- as soon as he doesn't
need the voters of Arizona anymore, so why vote for a republican candidate with out any sign his backup is going to be conservative, might as well go with the liberal so people learn and not hold republicans accountable.