McCain on the Brink

Wow, what a turn of events. I watched John McCain at the Saddle back forum, and he sounded like a guy I could really respect, like, and vote for. I mean, pro-life, sure of himself, all the right moves, or at least as many as can be expected from a political candidate these days.

But these are not the days of Reagan, nor even of George W. Bush. The persona that was presented at Saddleback was not the person who would take a pro-choice VP. It was not the person who would ban drilling in ANWR, nor who would sound wishy-washy, as he so often does in other settings. It also was not the angry person who grudgingly gives lip service to a border fence (or the more often repeated phrase secure the borders first).

I mean, if he selects a pro-life VP running mate, you can pretty much kiss the GOP goodbye. We cannot out-Democrat the Democrats. If voters want a Democrat, they will vote for Obama. He's the true Dem here. Or they could even still engineer the overthrow of the Obama candidacy, and install Hillary as their candidate, as she would love to have happen. But the GOP depending on Democrats that they attract by alienating the GOP base is like a football team putting their defense on the field to beat the defense of the other team. It just doesn't work! You play to your strengths, and beat them fair and square. Yes we can (to borrow a phrase)!

Not to be outdone, the Democrats are trying to get the pro-life vote, while remaining solidly pro-abortion. They put some mealy-mouthed mushy words in their party platform about protecting the life of babies, and supporting pregnancy, a few paragraphs after stating they will never allow Roe v. Wade to be overturned, nor infringed upon in any way. One pundit called it putting some words out there for pro-Obama Republicans to have an excuse to vote for him. It's too thinly veiled to fool us. Anyone who thinks will see thru it.

Obama Speech Rewrite

I have a copy of Barack Obama's speech, and I think it was very good, with a few notable exceptions. I think I will rewrite parts of it, and post it here. Did you read it? I will try to link to it, or at least the text of it. I don't think one needs to hear his actual voice reading it.

Stop back by soon, and it should be up.

Fear: not the motivation we need, from Hillary or McCain

I wrote a reply to Gary Bauer's article of 2/29/08 on why we should vote for anybody but Obama. I am not an Obama supporter, let me make that clear. However, Gary was using fear as the key argument against voting Democrat, no matter who wins. I'll try to put the link in here:

John McCain may be strong on the war, but he too, would close Gitmo. He would limit our ability to interrogate (waterboarding, anybody?). McCain would fight the war "over there" while letting illegals in over here: ask Juan Hernandez, his adviser on immigrant affairs.

Yes, Obama is a leftist with some even more leftist supporters. However, I can't count on McCain with a Democrat house and Senate to do Republican things. With the Gang of 14 ideology and his signature piece, McCain-Feingold on the line, he won't push strongly for strict constructionist supreme court nominees, Ted Olson not withstanding. For every Ted Olson, there is a Warren Ruddman (David Souter, anyone?)in his campaign.
McCain is doomed to fail, because if he moves right, the libs who nominated him will bail. He will also be a flip flopper, which doesn't attract most people, if he moves right. If he moves left, Obama will be the true lib, and we, the true conservatives on social, defense, moral, and immigration issues, will stay home or vote Ann Coulter-style.

John McCain is not moving right, and he is not naturally conservative. He curses people out, holds grudges (Bush 2000), and does not admit his failures. I think McCain's Freudian slip was showing when he said his upcoming debates would be "dispirited", and he is "a proud Conservative Liberal Republican". I know what he was trying to say, but I also saw his heart. Nobody is perfect, and I certainly do not expect a candidate for President to be perfect. However, I do expect a person who seems to have a humble heart (G. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan), and who is not just the lesser of two evils. I think a good strong Republican congress and senate are the best checks against a probable Democrat president next year. Fear will not motivate enough people to swallow their principles and vote McCain in, especially when McCain is not likely to protect us much better than his opponents.