12 Comments »

1. A broken clock is still right twice a day, and while I completely share your opinion of Andrew Sullivan as evidenced elsewhere in the blog, I’m afraid he is right on this one. What’s not conservative about McCain? His entire 22-YEAR Senate career he’s voted for tax cuts and spending decreases, and we’re giving him grief over the ONE time he voted against a tax cut. Look guys, it’s not like he voted to increase taxes, and the particular cut he voted against did not come with accompanying spending decreases.

   Please do not buy into the Tom “We pared [the deficit] down purrrty good” DeLay mentality of thinking the tax cuts pay for themselves. You can’t call yourself a conservative if you just support the easy part (tax cuts) but not the hard part (reducing spending and size of government). If McCain tried to use one as a bargaining chip to get the other, I don’t blame him. People need to stop whining that he withheld tax cuts in order to force conservatives to cut spending first, when the GOP was in control — and after 7 years of the largest expansion of government since LBJ — McCain looks prescient in hindsight.

   Comment by Bla — January 31, 2008 @ 9:37 am - January 31, 2008

2. What’s not conservative about McCain?

   From Gene in Pennsylvania, in another thread:
   

   1. Amnesty for illegals
   2. McCain Feingold anti free speach legislation
   3.He was against W’s tax cuts for tax payers
   4. He comtemplated being Kerry’s VP
   5. McCain was ripping the Sec Def in the middle of a war
   6. Organized the gang of 14 which prevented the nuclear option. So Republicans couldn’t abide by the Constitutional 51 votes for approval for judges.
   7. He was Chris Matthews favorite guest for years during W’s first term. Almost becoming co host. Because he took smug digs at Republicans.
   How’s that working out for you Sen McCain?
   8. He is the MSM favorite Republican. Why is that?

   Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 31, 2008 @ 11:29 am - January 31, 2008

3. P.S. to earlier comment – My own list would look more like this:

   1. same
   2. same, with small spelling correction
   3. same
   4. same
   5. same
   6. same
   7. Favors “doing something” – i.e., drastic measures – about the farce of Global Warmism.
   8. Attacks pharmaceutical companies as “bad guys”, thus not understanding capitalism and implicitly favoring socialized medicine.

   Long story short: John McCain is an authoritarian at heart, more than in-love with Big Government. But, as someone quoted Ronald Reagan saying, “If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism”, the opposite of all that.

   Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 31, 2008 @ 11:39 am - January 31, 2008

4. Final P.S. – As for Andrew Sullivan: Pre-2/24/04, he understood that the pharmaceutical companies were good guys – for inventing all these incredible new drugs, that couldn’t have existed otherwise. So he, of all people, should have a bone or two to pick with McCain.

   But as Bruce highlights, the post-2/24/04 Andrew Sullivan is a nut, with every thought and feeling organized around one small-ish issue.

   Comment by ILoveCapitalism — January 31, 2008 @ 12:23 pm - January 31, 2008

5. First off, any Democrat elected will have to prove their onions by being a hawk internationally. To prove they and the country won’t be pushed around just because Bush 43 is gone. McCain won’t be burdened by having to prove he is a MAN. So that will play out that his foreign policy re: Iran and N Korea will actually be softer than a Hillary administration. The critics worldwide will temper themselves just because a leftist is in power in America. The day to day actions of Hillary not withstanding. In other words, any Dem can be hawkish, the leftists worldwide will look the other way. They would never do that for a Reagan or Bush 43.

   Comment by Gene in Pennsylvania — January 31, 2008 @ 1:15 pm - January 31, 2008

6. Well…on the positive side, there’s always this:

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTD7FP1mAYk

   Comment by Draybee — January 31, 2008 @ 3:05 pm - January 31, 2008

7. 1. Amnesty for illegals

   I agree amnesty is a bad idea. Now tell me why any of the other candidates are better than McCain on illegal immigration.

   2. McCain Feingold anti free speach legislation

   I agree McCain-Feingold was a bad idea. Now compare this to Romney’s socialized health care and Huckabee’s theocracy — and you’ll see that they’re all “authoritarian” to a certain extent. The advantage (or disadvantage) doesn’t fall to any of them.

   3.He was against W’s tax cuts for tax payers

   His entire 22-YEAR Senate career he’s voted for tax cuts and spending decreases, and we’re giving him grief over the ONE time he voted against a tax cut. Look guys, it’s not like he voted to increase taxes, and the particular cut he voted against did not come with accompanying spending decreases.

   Please do not buy into the Tom “We pared [the deficit] down purrrty good” DeLay mentality of thinking the tax cuts pay for themselves. You can’t call yourself a conservative if you just support the easy part (tax cuts) but not the hard part (reducing spending and size of government). If McCain tried to use one as a bargaining chip to get the other, I don’t blame him. People need to stop whining that he withheld tax cuts in order to force conservatives to cut spending first, when the GOP was in control — and after 7 years of the largest expansion of government since LBJ — McCain looks prescient in hindsight.

   4. He comtemplated being Kerry’s VP

   No, the media contemplated it for him. I challenge you to prove me wrong — show me evidence that he considered being Kerry’s VP.

   5. McCain was ripping the Sec Def in the middle of a war

   Rumsfeld’s “light footprint” strategy wasn’t working — this is what happens when you put people who have never been in the military in charge of the military. And I expect anyone who had better strategies to offer to do their patriotic duty and offer it.

   6. Organized the gang of 14 which prevented the nuclear option. So Republicans couldn’t abide by the Constitutional 51 votes for approval for judges.

   The Gang of 14 got Roberts and Alito onto the bench. Also, the Democrats are now in control of the Senate — you want them to have the “Constitutional” option to ruin our country?

   7. He was Chris Matthews favorite guest for years during W’s first term. Almost becoming co host. Because he took smug digs at Republicans.

   He fired off at Republicans for not being Republicans — what’s wrong with that? Growth of government, federal government encroaching on states’ rights, corruption, etc.

   8. He is the MSM favorite Republican. Why is that?

   Because they know conservatives hate the MSM, and treating him well causes conservatives to defeat him in the primary, so that he can’t go on to beat the MSM’s favored candidate, Hillary. And many conservatives are falling for it.

   Comment by Bla — January 31, 2008 @ 4:22 pm - January 31, 2008

8. Look guys, it’s not like he voted to increase taxes, and the particular cut he voted against did not come with accompanying spending decreases.

   BULLSHIT!! That’s his excuse now, but he opposed the tax cuts with liberal class warfare rhetoric.

   Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 31, 2008 @ 5:49 pm - January 31, 2008

9. In 2001, McCain said the tax cuts favored the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In 2003, he said there should be no tax cuts until the Iraq war costs were known.

   Comment by ThatGayConservative — January 31, 2008 @ 5:53 pm - January 31, 2008

10. Try as I might, I can not think of any advice I would seek from Andrew Sullivan. But it never, ever occurred to me that he would be an oracle to heed on recognizing the needed qualities of American conservatism.

    When Sullivan put the donkey on his home page during the Kerry campaign, I think he showed his own…….donkey.

    Comment by heliotrope — January 31, 2008 @ 7:05 pm - January 31, 2008

11. McCain’s is harldy conservative. He is an elite. For proof you need look no further than his campaign finance reform bill. Once McCain got it in his head that congress was corrupt, and he must do something about it, his immediate reaction was not to limit congress, but to limit the people.

    The old saying is, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” not, “money corrupts” as McCain would have Americans believe.

    The reason there is so much money in politics is because politicians have taken upon themselves virtually unlimited power. They can now tell us when, where and what we can and cannot say. They can silence us when we want to criticize them. They actually believe they can force us to buy health insurance — even if we dont want it. Politicians like McCain have taken so much power upon themselves that the founders never intended them to have, there is virtually no aspect of our lives that they feel they cannot regulate.

    It is the power they have usurped from the people that has made them corrupt and until they relenquish that power, or it is taken from them, people will use their money to try and protect themselves or benefit from it. If you want less money in politics, restore the constitutional limits on congressional power that they have thrown out the window

    John McCain is not the conservative protecting the people from the excesses of government, on issue after issue he has made it clear that he is among the most corrupt in washington, leading the excesses of government, thinking there is nothing that is not appropriate for him to legislate.

    ….oh, and P.S. Sullivan is a hysterical woman. :^)

    Comment by American Elephant — February 1, 2008 @ 5:35 am - February 1, 2008

12. The reason there is so much money in politics is because politicians have taken upon themselves virtually unlimited power…

    …If you want less money in politics, restore the constitutional limits on congressional power that they have thrown out the window.

    Amen! People pay bribes, oops I mean “legal campaign contributions”, from self-defense. The way to make politics less corrupt is to make government vastly less important and powerful.

    Comment by ILoveCapitalism — February 1, 2008 @ 10:59 am - February 1, 2008

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