A Question of Character 5-10-06

You can file this under things we need as many people to understand as early as possible...

See, I am a Democrat, its well known, I mean i don't think I am toxically partisan, yet I am fairly partisan.  However what has consistently bothered me over the past 5 or so years of the Bush Presidency, second only to the canonization of Rudy Giuliani, is the rewriting of John McCain.  I hear many Democratic leaning people that I know saying they would vote for John McCain because he is a good moderate and principled...  Both assertions I fear are false.

First John McCain is quite the conservative.  Voting against tax cuts does not make you moderate, it makes you borderline sane.  particularly given the fact that we were going to war, and cutting taxes during war is about as sound of an economic policy as investing in magic beans.  However, if you were to look at his voting record he is quite conservative, perhaps slightly moderate on social issues which is why he looked downright leftist at times standing next to Bush in the 2000 primary.  However, while I am not a fan of conservativism the second issue is more important, which is McCains complete lack of principles...

To examine we need to look back to the 2000 primary.  Bush was the heralded front runner, who never went to most debates, and didnt really run in the primaries planning to be anointed.  Next thing you know he loses the New Hampshire Primary to John McCain.  Now normally this wouldnt mean much since New Hampshire is not really in the mainstream, but it got him noticed and so Bush knew he was going to have to run a Bush race to win.  So he went to South Carolina and got dirty.  In South Carolina, the begin with the story that war hero McCain was not actually a POW but was actually AWOL for most of that time, or even that he was a traitor.  Wow  Then the coup de grace in the good ole confederacy was the rumor that his adopted daughter who is I believe Asian was actually his illegitimate black child.  I know the press wants to say it was the fact that he was moderate that hurt him in the south, but no it was good ole lies and racism that sunk him.  In that race while he was on the straight talk express he criticized the Christian right, and stood up against a lot of fundamentalism, calling Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson out on their Bullsh*T, but of course we all know he lost, and now we have to fast forward.

First during the 2004 election McCains daughter stopped speaking to McCain for going above and beyond being the Bush advocate for re-election despite the fact that Bush was so dirty in 2000.  Secondly McCain showed his changing colors when he stood by and still support Bush despite the whole Swift Boat veterans thing though he has constantly spoken out about twisting the legacy of veterans as well as the fact that it was done to him.  Finally as we enter the time of the 2008 race, we see an even deeper McCain.  First he goes to the straw poll for republicans attempting to run for President and tells people to vote for Bush, to show support for the President.  Then he is criticizing Obama is a whiny letter for not supporting his gutless ethics bill, and therefore giving McCain a new set of headlines and being a hero.  Next he is running to Liberty University and speaking highly of Pat Robertson, a long with a growing list of pandering moves to the right.  It is time to accept this basic fact.  John McCain does not have the character to be president.  Whatever heroics he may have shown during the war have evaporated in a sea of political opportunitism and desperation.  On his own, where McCain stood was not good enough for me to support him in the white house, but the fact that he is willing to compromise what seemed to be his more basic beliefs for what is still an outside chance at the Presidency is sad.  I know all politicians are somewhat opportunists, but you must have a line.  What you are willing to compromise determines who you are, and McCain is not someone who should be the leader of the Free World.