McCain Jumps In

Senator John McCain just announced on Letterman that he is moving from explorer to full fledged candidate.

At this point in time, I am not supporting Senator McCain.  I respect him for his service and consider him a real American hero, unlike that low-life coward, Kerry.   But McCain is a loose cannon.  The McCain-Feingold bill proved that.  It is one of the worst assaults on campaign finances and is inherently anti-free speech. Despite that piece of bad legislation, there is no real change in the influence money plays in the campaign process.  McCain's brushes with the Democrats have been a little too close

Right now, I'm looking at two candidates.  I haven't made up my mind on either.  There are things I don't like about both of them.  Rudy Giuliani is a solid conservative on a lot of issues, but his support for gun control bothers me a great deal.  Mitt Romney is also a conservative on most issues, but he's flip-flopped on a couple of them.  I'm also not pleased with that disastrous Massachusetts train wreck health care bill he signed as he was leaving office.

Both men, unlike McCain, have executive experience.  It's possible that Giuliani could carry New York over Hillary. 

Romney has the religion problem.  Since he is a Mormon, there are some folks who would hold that against him.  Some ignorant people seem to think he would take orders from Salt Lake.  There are some small minds that think he is some kind of cultist and there are probably a few dolts out there that think he has more than one wife.  The MSM has already brought up the fact that his ancestry contains a polygamist.  To all of you worried about his religion, worry about your own first.  I might also add that the Constitution  does not list religion or lack there of as a qualification to be President of the United States.

All that said, those are my two possible candidate choices at the moment.  The caveat is that my choices are subject to change.  It's still a year and a half out.

VW

Comments

[BobF]

People had big problems with JFK being Catholic but they overcame it. I don't agree with the Mormon religion in the least but I have found Mormons I've worked with to be honorable men and women who love this country and are willing to sacrifice for it. The immediate supervisor that taught me most on how to be a Senior NCO and groomed me to be a Branch Chief was a Mormon Bishop. I've watched him put his military duties before his church obligations on many occasions. I also watched him when he went to visit the wife of one of his church members, a KC-135 pilot, and inform her that her husband died in an aircraft accident. Yup, Mormons died for this country too.

I would not hold Romney's religion against him one bit. The thing I worry about Romney is the same people that elected him governor are the same ones who continually reelect Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, and Barney Frank.

[canuckistani]

I could get behind McCain. I think he would be good. He only seems like he has a temper because he has a low bullshit tolerance.

[KnoKtaremf]

Rudy and Mitt have the "appearance" of being conservative. But the substance isn't there. Rudy is on the record as a pro-choice candidate and supports gay marriage. He's also been big in appointing liberals to courts in NYC:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2957.html

"Multiple Choice Mitt" on the other hand "says" he's a conservative. But it's hard to imagine someone suddenly changing his mind on issues like gun control, abortion, and gay rights -- three things he endorsed strongly in his 1994 Senate debates.

Oddly, the most conservative potential GOP candidate out there is Chuck Hagel, based on Natonal Journal's annual tally of Senate voting records (mind you Rudy and Mitt weren't considered).

The big difference between choices in the GOP right now really focuses on the Iraq War. True Conservatives will support candidates with conservative values (whether they support the war or not) as we've seen at this week's CPAC gettogether. Neo-cons will tolerate candidates who are anti-gun, pro-choice, pro-gay -- as long as they support the war.