Update, 31 October 2008: Coming into the home stretch now. Despite my critique below, I'm for McCain all the way. You should be, too. To borrow a phrase from ACORN and the Obama Campaign: Vote Early, Vote Often. (For those of you with a sense of humor bypass: Just kidding about the Vote Often bit.) McCain is a known quantity at a time when we need more stability. Boy, we can all deal with a bit more stability.
Update, 05 September 2008: Wow, what a week this has been. After the selection of Sarah Palin, her speech, and then McCain's speech last night, I can't begin to say how wrong I was below...McCain is the man. (And I put my money where my mouth is, too; McCain got a little bit more from me than I gave to Romney in the primaries.)
UPDATE, 23 April 2008: Now that Romney is out, and McCain is the nominee designate, I am fully behind him. Go here for my rationale. I also think he has infused a lot of checks on his public persona so far, too, which shows that maybe old dogs can learn new tricks.
Original Post:
I've been making comments on other blogs and sent an e-mail or two regarding my thoughts on McCain, who is now the "front-runner" for the Republican Party nomination.
I will yield to Cobb with regard to McCain-Feingold campaign finance reforms. Saying it is an attack on the 1st Amendment is overegging it. The rancor fellow Republicans hold for him is actually that the reforms severely hampered the Republican Party in a way that it did not hamper the Democrat Party.
His disdain for Justice Alito can also be brushed aside, as he has shown the closest thing to contrition that McCain could show: that is to publicly say he would seek to nominate more justices like Alito.
Likewise the mud that people are dragging up about the Keating 5 is likewise a red herring, nothing to see here. And fer cryin' out loud...This is a Republican. He may not tick all of our boxes, but the fact is, when it comes to defense and foreign affairs, he is far better than either of the alternatives on the other side of the aisle. And that is going to be very important. And we shouldn't be doing their (the Democrats) work for them.
However, that being said, he shows clear disdain for those who disagree with him. Unlike the other Senators who were sucked up into the immigration issue, he has shown no contrition, no acknowledgement that his immigration bill was not the best thing. He only regrets that it didn't stress the border fence first. He regrets the sequencing of the provisions of the bill, not the content of the bill. And he clearly does not like those who were opposed to the content.
He has also gone after Romney in a sleazy underhanded way which the Clintons could be proud of. I seem to recall both Huckabee and McCain whined about personal attacks when Romney went after McCain and Huckabee on their positions in Iowa and New Hampshire (as a result, I think Romney pulled many of the ads attacking his opponents' positions because people didn't like the "negative" campaigning then). This past week, McCain actively lied about Romney and when Romney called him on it in the debate, he didn't even address it. He didn't even stick by his lies.
One of the reasons people don't see Romney getting as down and dirty as McCain, and he could, is that he has actively decided not to attack personalities or to lie about his opponent. He is arguing based on the record. He is trying to rise above. And if Hillary is the nominee on the other side, it is not going to be scrappy mudslinging that will win the day against her, but being able to rise above the mud.
Look at how Obama got suckered into it by Billary a couple of weeks ago; it is when people play classy rather than reacting to the Clintons that their account goes up. McCain is incapable of playing a classy game. It will turn people off when he finally blows his top publicly, and he will. People don't want to see old and cranky. They want young and hopeful.
I see McCain campaigning against Billary like this: Billary will slime McCain with some nasty mud. McCain will blow his cool. Voters will get turned off of him.
I see McCain campaigning against Obama like this: Obama plays it classy (as he mostly has to date; yes it is possible for socialists to be classy), but does the whole hope and youth thing. McCain plays slimey, gets caught. Voters will get turned off of him.
McCain also doesn't go into those places on his own side where he is challenged the most (such as talk radio). He has a problem being under scrutiny, it pisses him off. Look at what has happened to Bush over the past eight years. Say what you will about Bush's poor communications, he has certainly suffered the slings and arrows under grace, never letting it buckle him.
McCain clearly holds disdain for the right wing of the party on domestic issues; he does not like them. And the right wing of the party makes the party viable. But anyway, despite his ability to get independents to vote for him, he will have a problem getting conservatives to show up.
McCain is also anti-business, or speaks anti-business at least (he has changed sides on the tax cuts issue, and has some good support in his camp, though). And the next president should not be anti-business. There is only one of the top four candidates on either side that are not so populistically anti-business.
Anyway, I have already voted for Romney, and I would vote for McCain if he is the candidate, only because I think the alternative will be worse.
I got an e-mail from the Romney campaign which also highlighted a few more points to consider when pulling the lever for the Republican candidate:
5) Governor Romney has tremendous financial support, from people just like you. Not including ANY of Governor Romney’s personal contributions to his campaign, Governor Romney’s campaign has raised more money than any candidate in the history of the Republican Party! He has raised roughly $20 million more than John McCain thus far. And that financial support remains strong; in fact, the day after placing second in the New Hampshire primary—what some were calling a “big loss” to McCain—Governor Romney held a fundraiser and raised $5 million in one day. By comparison, the democrat winner in NH, Hillary Clinton, also held a fundraiser that day and raised only $700,000. This relates directly to his ability to stay the course and beat the Democrat nominee in November.
6) Governor Romney is the most electable Republican because he can fight the fight. I just mentioned money raised. Money will mean a lot in the coming months! John McCain is currently spending as much money as he brings in and is $4.5 million in debt. The Democrats have raised hundreds of millions of dollars and if Senator McCain becomes the nominee, he will have no money with which to compete with the Democrats. The Democrats will bury him with the sheer size of their war chests. He CANNOT compete with them financially.
7) Senator McCain CANNOT beat the Democrats. You cannot beat the Democrats by acting like a Democrat. John McCain has sided with the Democrats on issues from supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants, attacking the 1st Amendment with campaign finance reform, opposing drilling for oil in ANWR to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and he voted TWICE against the Bush tax cuts. John McCain was reported to have considered running as John Kerry’s running mate in 2004. You can’t beat Democrats at their game, you need someone who talks AND acts like a true Republican leader. That is clearly not John McCain; that person is Governor Romney.
We need to unite NOW behind Governor Romney. People ought not to vote for John McCain simply because they aren’t given all the information about how strong Governor Romney is as a candidate.
Mitt Romney was a much better candidate than John McCain. It's had to figure why so many Republicans voted from McCain. McCain should retire.
Posted by: John Presidon | 03 October 2008 at 01:24