Jan
30
A little perspective on McCain
January 30, 2008 |
A caller on Rush Limbaugh earlier said that she would absolutely NOT vote for John McCain, and that there is not a single difference between McCain and Hillary.
Let’s slow down here.
I am not the world’s biggest McCain fan, and there have been times where I seriously contemplated not voting for him in the general election. But I will pull the lever for him come November if he is the nominee, and it probably won’t be quite the disaster we’re all making it out to be.
Pauli at Contrapauli and - GASP - Andrew Sullivan are basically both correct. As Sullivan says:
Something has gone seriously wrong with the right when John McCain is not regarded as a conservative.
That may be the last time I approvingly cite Sullivan, but he’s right.
First of all, on the direct comparison to Hillary: I would say that McCain is vastly superior to Hillary on almost all domestic issues, is certainly more likely to aggressively fight the war on terrorism, and despite my reservations, is decidedly more likely to appoint originalist Justices to the Court. If we’re betting that McCain is about 50 percent likely to appoint an originalist, I’d say that the odds are about zero for Hillary to do the same.
Moreover, as I said in the comments at Pauli’s place, McCain’s major sins have not necessarily indicated apostasy from conservative values. Though he was wrong to oppose the Bush tax cuts, opposition to tax cuts is not inherently non-conservative. Neither is his promotion of what is essentially amnesty for illegal aliens. And if we’re going to say this is a major betrayal, as Pauli once again points out, his betrayal isn’t as bad as Reagan’s. McCain-Feingold is, I believe, a major affront to conservative values, so you can have that one. But even his Gang of 14 deal, stupid as it was, did not stem from an inherently unconservative sentiment. In fact, it could conceivably be argued that it was a very conservative action in some regard.
Philosophically, I believe that McCain is at least to the right, and it’s not erroneous to call him a conservative. He has gotten some major issues very wrong (though he got prescription drugs and the surge right), but his errors in political judgment have not always stemmed from a betrayal of conservative principles.
So before we go off saying that there’s no difference between McCain and Hillary or Obama, let’s just think about it for a moment.
And with all that said, let’s hope that Romney somehow pulls it out.
Update: More from Jim Geraghty, saying pretty much the same thing.