Webloggin » Setting the Record Straight on John McCain

In what I hope will be my last McCain effort for a while, I wanted to provide a service to those who get the majority of their views on John McCain from the same divisive voices. My goal, as usual, isn't to suggest that McCain is the perfect candidate or a perfect conservative. But he has it where it should count.

As a conservative who is probably aligned with most other conservatives on 80% of positions, I have to wonder why I'm perfectly fine with supporting McCain while so many other like-minded people are bitterly opposed to him. I think we have all been exposed to a long-running culture of conservative anti-McCainism. While studying the GOP candidates this past fall, I spent some extra time on McCain, looking for the reasons why I despised him as I did. I really couldn't find that much that was significant. And with an open mind, I added up all of his qualities. The good things I saw about McCain far outweighed the bad and I came to the conclusion that my hatred of McCain was built largely on media-hype, that after giving him a fair assessment it was apparent that not only was I wrong about him in many ways, but some of how I perceived him was based on inaccuracies, if not flat out smears.

So this is not to turn anyone into a McCainiac but instead hopefully will make some people question whether they have ever really given John McCain an honest and fair shake. Here is my response to a few complaints about McCain that I think are deserving of a second look by any reasonable conservative or Republican struggling with what to do in November:

Myth: McCain is not a Reagan conservative

Truth: McCain is more in the mold of Ronald Reagan than many of his conservative critics. He has near impeccable conservative records on abortion, gun rights, tax cuts, spending, military support and an aggressive foreign policy. And like Reagan, he is crafty in his compromises and his ability to appeal to outsiders to get what he wants accomplished.

My Two Cents: McCain has the potential (more so than than the narrow appeal of what the hard right has in mind) to do for the Republican Party what Reagan did in the 1980s. Reagan didn't succeed by appealing only to conservatives - he humanized conservative principles and brought less conservative people on board by promoting smaller government and a stronger American projection on the world in a way that defied the status quo image of a conservative. Even if some hardliners refuse to see it, McCain has this same potential.

Myth: John McCain opposes tough interrogations of captured terrorists.

Truth: This past week, McCain voted against a bill that would put limits on what can be done to get information from suspected terrorists. McCain opposed the bill on the grounds that it would be too restrictive. A proposal made by McCain in 2006, while setting more stringent guidelines than are already in place, allowed wiggle room in the event that certain government agencies had to act swiftly.

My Two Cents: I disagree with McCain on waterboarding and I oppose any attempts by Congress to define our techniques for our enemies.

Myth: Closing Guantanamo

Truth: McCain's support for closing Guantanamo isn't about appeasement. Closing the controversial prison would render Democratic/UN/Amnesty International arguments moot on this issue and McCain's solution is to move the prisoners from the luxury of Camp Cupcake to Leavenworth, a dreary maximum-security prison, while assuring that their status as enemy combatants remains intact; the only thing that changes is where they are held until military tribunals can begin (also supported by McCain).

My Two Cents: I see nothing wrong with this. It's another McComplaint where McCain's position seems ludicrous on the surface, but actually has some teeth to it once we actually look at it.

Myth: McCain is not a fiscal conservative.

Truth: McCain has stayed true to fiscal conservative principles from his earliest days in the House to his current run as senator. He has been one of the most consistent voices against spending and government waste, he has supported tax cuts, supply side growth and deregulation over and over and over again. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in just a matter of a few years, have cost the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in earmark spending. McCain has proposed…zero dollars in earmarks.

My Two Cents: McCain will continue the best foreign and domestic initiatives of the Bush Administration with one clear distinction: he will continue to fight against wasteful government spending (as he did in opposing Bush's vast Medicare expansion).

Myth: McCain opposes tax cuts based on a populist agenda

Truth: McCain's lengthy record of fiscal conservatism has one blemish: opposition to the Bush tax cuts. Conservatives reject McCain's claims that he opposed the tax cuts due to a lack of spending cuts. The truth (that you don't hear from Rush or Coulter) is that two weeks before he voted against the tax cuts, he signed on to that years Congressional Budget Resolution, which included the Bush tax cuts as well as stringent spending caps. When the bill came to a vote, the spending caps were excluded and McCain, true to fiscal conservatism, refused to support it.

My Two Cents: McCain is being berated by conservatives for essentially being too conservative over the Bush tax cuts. McCain, who went against many conservatives in 1990 and voted against Bush41's tax increase, had an approach to the Bush43 tax cuts that should make conservatives proud - he was right and he refused to sign on to something that was more irresponsible. Had more Republicans followed his path, the spending caps may have eventually made their way into a final tax bill. And true to his record, McCain opposes letting the Bush tax cuts expire (and seeks to expand them) - it's important to consider what a President Obama or Clinton will do when the time comes to renew the tax cuts. Is "permanent" a part of their vocabulary?

Myth: The 'Gang of 14' was a slap in the face to Republicans

Truth: McCain's political courage in this stunt was a win-win for Republicans. It streamlined the nominations of two conservative Supreme Court Justices. Samuel Alito was facing a guaranteed filibuster. Democrats were set on obstructing Bush's judicial appointees and Republicans were prepared to destroy the filibuster all together as a counter. McCain's actions with this bipartisan 'gang' compromised in a way that ensured up-and-down votes on many of Bush's appointees-in-waiting and preserved a valuable tool for the minority party (which today happens to be his own).

My Two Cents: I was on the bandwagon that opposed the 'gang of 14' and some months later, I realized that it actually worked, in a manner that left little doubt that there was no better alternative. It costs Republicans nothing and the brilliance of it was unfortunately marginalized by the anti-McCain conservative media who have never been interested in giving McCain a fair shake.

Myth: NY Times endorsement of McCain proves he's a liberal

Truth: The NY Times is not interested in getting a Republican elected. Once the Democrats choose their candidate, the McCain endorsement will have become a forgotten relic in the NYT archives the NYT will endorse Obama (or whoever) over McCain.

My Two Cents: The NY Times (and other mainstream media outlets) represents one of the few areas in the world where I promote my own conspiracy theories. The Times endorsed John McCain for two reasons that seem pretty clear to me: they see McCain as a weak candidate because (1) the possibility that he'll split the party and (2) he's the biggest hawk in the election and the Times is doing everything it can to make sure that war is not on the forefront of people's concerns. I have no problem supporting a candidate that the NYT's endorses when it's so obvious that the NYT has no interest in seeing that candidate succeed and will do what it can to prevent that from happening.

Myth: McCain is a supporter of amnesty

Truth: 'Amnesty' is an abused buzz-word that has become synonymous with right-wing fringe rhetoric. McCain has never supported amnesty and supported stricter border enforcement and employment controls long before it became in vogue to do so. McCain, like myself and like Mitt Romney, believes that most immigration issues take second place to first securing the borders. McCain has supported border enforcement and empowering law enforcement to better deal with border crossers.

My Two Cents: The illegal immigration could have been a big win for conservatives. Instead, the same mentalities that lead the anyone-but-McCain movement today also hard-lined their way out of doing anything to solve the illegal immigration problem last year. It's ironic that the same conservatives who support Ann Coulter's drive to get a Democrat elected in November are the same people who proudly take credit for destroying any meaningful attempts to reign in this problem when they had the opportunity. And here they are willing to snub McCain and elect a president who will do the complete opposite of what they want to see done in regards to immigration. A Democratic president and a Democratic Congress are going to make conservatives wish for comprehensive immigration reform along the lines of Bush-McCain. As a plus, if conservatives had their way over McCain, the filibuster (the only tool that might prevent amnesty in the future) would also be a thing of the past…

Myth: McCain seriously considered being John Kerry's 2004 vice president

Truth: The only person who thought there was a chance that McCain would cross the aisle was…John Kerry.

My Two Cents: This CNN article (McCain on talk of run with Kerry: 'No, no and no' ) from April of 2004 says it all.

Myth: McCain-Feingold justifies rabid anti-McCainism

Truth: McCain-Feingold is a joke in every sense of the word. If it's intentions were to limit speech, it has failed miserably. There is more political activism today than ever before, more ads, more money, more donations…at it's worst, McCain-Feingold is one of the most worthless pieces of legislation to come out of Congress in years.

My Two Cents: One would think that McCain-Feingold destroyed the political process. Funny, the only time anyone wrings their hands over it is when they are using it to clobber John McCain. McCain's intentions were honorable enough, but sure, I prefer that he never would have involved himself in this failed attempt to make politics more accountable. But I don't recall Mitt Romney or Fred Thompson or Mike Huckabee running on repealing McCain-Feingold. Why? Because ultimately, no one cares. In other words, it's not even worthy of the controversy that the anti-McCain conservatives pretend it is.

Myth: McCain opposes free speech

Truth: McCain, at the height of talk radio's assault on him over his immigration stance, proposed legislation to protect talk radio from the stirrings of the Fairness Doctrine being reimplemented.

My Two Cents: McCain could have simply ignored this issue but instead led the charge against the Fairness Doctrine. He was basically rallying to support the speech of the very people who have made it part of their careers to tear him down and to this day, work day-in and day-out to smear him. Has Limbaugh spent one minute praising John McCain for taking on the true anti-speech fascists in Congress on his behalf?

Myth: McCain is as liberal/more liberal than Clinton or Obama

Truth: This is so asinine that it doesn't even deserve a response.

My Two Cents: This theory, perpetuated by conservative whiners like Ann Coulter, is symbolic of the derangement of the anybody-but-McCain mindset. It demonstrates that no claim is off the table, regardless of how ridiculous and delusional it is.

Myth: There is no difference between a President McCain and a President Clinton/Obama

Truth/My Two Cents: If you are a hostile enemy of the United States, I suspect that you would see a difference between McCain and his Democratic counterparts. Commander-in-Chief McCain should worry our enemies. Commander-in-Chief Obama should worry our citizens. As columnist Max Boot says in a column from February 12th, "Personally, I am less interested in what Rush Limbaugh, Tom DeLay or Ann Coulter think than I am in the views of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar Assad and Kim Jong Il."

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