Why conservatives can’t stand McCain, part 4,389.
October 13, 2008 by Laura | Trackback URI
And THIS is a prime example why conservatives were so dead set against John McCain in the first place. The difference between him and Obama is one of degree, not kind. They are simply too close on too many positions to give voters a clear alternative. Obama’s going to move us further into socialism. So will McCain, just slower. Obama says kill all the babies you like, even to the point of describing an unplanned pregnancy as being “punished” with a baby. McCain says you should kill fewer babies. Obama says stick it to the “rich” people and redistribute that wealth. It’s only “fair.” McCain feels much the same; the main difference is that McCain wants to shrink government and prevent the kind of corrupt earmarking that Obama used as a State Senator to funnel money to his friends, family members, and wife’s employer.
I still have a text file on my desktop from back when Fred! was in the race with a list of reasons why McCain was the wrong candidate. (WHY did Fred! quit?! If he’d stayed in 48 more hours he’d have had Louisiana’s electoral votes and been competitive enough to stay in the race! Argh!!) Here’s the list:
- The McCain-Snowe-Dorgan S. 2328, Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act of 2004. This is, per NRO, “Drug prices set by a foreign diktat…at levels set by socialized medical systems abroad…”
- Mccain-Feingold – the “Incumbent Protection Act.”
- Shamnesty. Which he still has not given up on, as he admits. No, he doesn’t admit. He brags.
- McCain is good on pork but overall fiscal responsibility and smaller government, not at all. (Or he wouldn’t be trying to import another 10% of Mexico’s poorest, illiterate vaccuums of $20k/year of taxpayer resources, for one thing.)
- “The Patient’s Bill of Rights.” – Mccain-Edwards-Kennedy; a tort lawyers dream bill.
* McCain reflexively attacks Republicans and defends Democrats. See Vets, Swiftboat and the N.C. GOP.- McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts – and he plays the class warfare card quite a lot.
- Gang of 14 – perpetuated the filibuster against fully qualified judges and preserved Senate privilege and unaccountability. McCain played his “judge” card, but it wasn’t so long ago that he found Alito too openly conservative. Being openly conservative should be a feature, not a bug!
- McCain supports Constitutional rights for terrorists. Mark Levin wrote: “It just so happens that in each of these cases—detention, interrogation, and intelligence gathering—McCain has adopted the litigation agenda of some of the most radical antiwar activists, including the ACLU.”
- McCain is against drilling in ANWAR.
- McCain believes in manmade global warming.
- McCain on the GOP, in 2004, on a few issues, but this certainly describes his behavior in many areas: “I believe my party has gone astray. I think the Democratic Party is a fine party, and I have no problems with it, in their views and in their philosophy.” That was the straightest talk I think McCain has ever publicly indulged in.
And with regard to #7 – it’s worth nothing that it was the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Ohio to let Jennifer Brunner continue to rig the election which will go a long way to ensuring McCain’s loss. Rather than do what she admits will take two to three days worth of work, to ensure that voter registrations are legitimate by cross checking them with the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles or the Social Security Administration, now all those fake Acorn registrations can be used to cast a vote. How’s that Gang of 14 membership feel now, Senator McCain? Do you think now, that it was worth the good press you got at the time?
I would...
Like an aging monument, democracy itself is crumbling.
A few objections:
1. It seems like this drug plan would merely allow our citizens access to the tax-subsidized drugs of foreign countries. The foreign governments would still have to pay our drug companies whatever they asked for to buy them, and then our consumers could re-import them cheaply.
3. McCain has flip-flopped on the issue of amnesty due to popular opinion.
10. If you watched the second debate, he seems to have abandoned the smokestack tax idea (at least as long as the economy remains down). When the lady asked him about global warming, he mentioned his past McCain-Lieberman bill — but emphasized that his current solution would be to promote nuclear power. He has said that raising taxes during a recession would be suicide.
And ultimately, McCain has sacrificed a good number of liberal votes by picking Sarah Palin, so I think the least we can do is support him wholeheartedly. That, and he’s old.
Here, Drew, read this. It was Cato, not NRO. But even without that comprehensive report, the common sense argument should be considered. We all agree that the United States – one way or another – is paying the bulk of the cost of drug research and development. If we stop paying it, by reimporting drugs at lower prices, then no one will be paying for research and development. And consequently research and development will stop. The correct solution is not for us to kowtow to socialist medicine, but instead to demand that they enter the free market – which will lower the prices here AND provide for future drug technology.
I watched him tapdance his way around global warming. He believes wholeheartedly that it’s a manmade problem and in cap and trade; a ridiculous solution in any event that will largely serve to enrich Al Gore. The trouble is, science is increasingly showing that a) it’s no longer warming, b) that big, burning ball of gas in the sky has a lot to do with the temperature, and c) our measurement system is totally screwed up – read Watts Up With That to see the problems with the temperature stations. Another few years and we’ll be neck deep in another “global cooling” scare like we have been several times before.
I’m still voting for him, but certainly not wholeheartedly.
Laura: I heard some mumbling in here… it seems this theater has been closed for a long time. Do you need someone to help you find your way out?
No, Tom, just engaging in a bit of schadenfreude. “The party” insisted that we needed to move further left in order to win, and while I still obviously want McCain to win over Obama, I think it’s really funny that all the best arguments against Obama are out of bounds because they apply at least in part to McCain as well.
Even the “Reverend” Wright argument – which McCain refuses to use anyway – would have been negated to some extent by the separatist La Raza supporters McCain has for campaign advisors. Yummy schadenfreude – except for the bitter aftertaste, of course; the problem with this election is either Obama or McCain is going to win it!
Sadly, Laura’s list is all too factually correct. I was a Fredhead myself, then Romney. McCain is a nice man, but, not having any real principles other than an admirable honor, he does not ignite the conservatives. That said, it is a hold your nose situation to vote for him; of course Palin makes the political dish way more palatable.
Problem is, whatever was going on with McCain before the last few weeks has been made incoherent by the events in the financial markets. I am no Greenspan, so I cannot make any lofty pronouncements, but we see that when the grownups like (whether you agree with him or not) Paulson and company, do big big stuff on the financial markets, it is always easy for the demagogues like BHO and his minions, to appeal as they do to the “middle class”.
Heck, I am in the middle class I guess, but I just have a hard time with Obama and his focus group tested soundbites. I just hope McCain can get traction, and we can keep ACORN from stealing the election.