Assessing the GOP field: John McCain

In assessing the GOP presidential field for 2008, Senator John McCain is the favorite of the media and the GOP establishment. That much, right there, should disqualify him. Of all the lukewarm, liberal-leaning GOP candidates running for the nod this time around, none of them embody the definition of RINO – Republican In Name Only – the way McCain does.

When liberal newspapers endorse any GOP candidate in primary season, it should set off caution flares in conservatives across the nation, and no GOP candidate has received more media endorsements than John McCain. In all honest, McCain is someone who should have been purged from the party as a traitor long ago.

The list of conservative-stifling crimes is long and dismaying. McCain-Feingold? He’s the co-author of one of the most anti-Constitutional campaign “reform” laws in US history. Foreign policy? He’s a nightmare on most of the wars that have been fought since he took public office; McCain even whined when Ronald Reagan bombed Libya, even though that one action has kept Qaddafi nice and quiet ever since. If you want a list of measures in which he’s voted against Ronald Reagan conservative values, one need look no further than just about his entire voting record. It would be easier and quicker to cherry-pick his rare conservative-compatible votes than to point out his instances of voting with the opposition.

John McCain for president? I’m not even convinced he should be a GOP Senator from Arizona. His history as POW should not make him an expert on torture; it should disqualify him from becoming the chief executive because when push comes to shove, I’m just not convinced he has the stomach to do what’s necessary in the War On Terror, especially if winning is the goal.

McCain is probably the only GOP candidate that, if he secures the GOP nomination, WonderfulPessimist.com could absolutely not get behind in the general election; if McCain gets the green light from the GOP, WonderfulPessimist.com may just have to endorse a third-party conservative, because there really would be no difference between a potential McCain administration and the Democratic alternatives. If he wins, this site may have to spend the next four years on a series of Carnival Cruises.