First: On the McCain Campaign

The Presidential election is an important time for our country. It is a time for redefinition of our political ideas, if we so wish. There are always group pushing to keep the status quo. In the last several weeks of this contest there has been a great deal of focus on Hillary and Barack, the only real competition left. The sad part of the story is that people are missing important details like that John McCain is getting less than 80% of the vote when he is the immanent nominee (I cannot rightly say that he is the only nominee, keep going Ron Paul). Tonight I am going to examine why this may be so, his potential problems running against Barak, and some of his recent comments and the controversy behind them.

John McCain the war hero has done so much for this country and I honor him immensely for the sacrifices he has made for us here in the United States. However when he enters the political field I do not see any reason for candy coating our comments. Senator McCain is no longer driving the “straight talk express.” He has, pardon my language, kowtowed to the whims of a party which, by the polls, is not fully backing him. There are three central features which I see playing an important role in this up-and-coming election: the economy, the war, and the comparison to the current president. Introduction of social issues is a possibility, but I do not see it as large of a factor in this year’s race unless something is started by recent comments which I will address later. His lack of backing by those considered the base of the party lies in his history as a semi-moderate in the Senate and current conditions of his changing sides on ideas like global warming, illegal immigration, and torture. These flip-flops played a major role in the stopping of John Kerry in the 2004 election and raise questions among true die-hard conservatives about his convictions on ideas they see no debate in.

This leads to the strong possibility of him running against Barack Obama in the fall and the problems he will most likely have in the competition. He says he wants to run a clean campaign which is great but this relies heavily on 529 groups doing the dirty work for him. If they just debate the issues he faces major stoppages for flip-flopping and the conviction question, so attacks to take down Obama on character are important. The problem is what is he going to use? If he uses the Reverend Wright controversy, not only will his own “pastor problems” be brought up, but he may even get a huge yawn from those of us who are already tired of hearing about it. Whoever is going to attack Obama needs something scandalous enough to stick, so far the Reverend Wright controversy has stuck but everything else rolls off of Obama like water off of a duck and Obama has passed a vetting by the Clinton attack team without even a scratch that McCain has a chance of reopening. Besides the problem of what he can hit Obama with there is the question of where. John McCain is not the best debater while Obama’s oratory skills are amazing and inspiring even if he really isn’t saying anything that any other democrat hasn’t already said. There are many times when McCain looks rehearsed and uncomfortable talking to groups and that discomfort could be his downfall. There is one issue which McCain has more than earned the right to attack Obama on and that is experience. McCain simply has more of it. And though it is the “old Washington” experience, it has a value of its own that cannot be matched. John McCain’s label as a maverick is important here. Though he fell in line with the more conservative end of the party more recently, he has put forth some ideas that were considered to be risky for a republican senator. Here is where people reach a fork in the road, should they think about that and go with his experience or go with the new rhetoric he has been spouting.

Recent comments by McCain about the conservatism of judges are very chilling not for the fact that he wants more conservative judges but for the fact that he wants judges who would be at the whims of voters. Judging by popular demand undermines our justice system not to mention the system of checks and balances set forth by the rarely read US constitution. By the way, small plug, Scott Ritter, former chief U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq, recently gave a talk at my university and was awesome. The best and most important point in his lecture was not about lies or stopping the war, it was about knowing the constitution and what rights we as Americans are guaranteed. To the main point, if he appoints judges who bow to the whims of the people, that means the laws will bow which means that, in a largely skewed view if criminals get to be a majority, the crime could be stricken from the record. The problem with following the majority is 1) is it a majority or a passionate and vocal minority, 2) what if the majority changes, and 3) what if you are suddenly found in the minority. These are three points I wish any person to examine before starting anything as suggested by John McCain.

Thus ends my first blog. I don’t know what I am going to right about next. Probably oil prices unless something more delicious catches my eye. Please comment on what you like or don’t like. I tried to touch on high news items so that no one is left in the dark but if you would like more info, let me know and I will try and provide it. I apologize for all misspellings and grammar issues. If you want anything in particular researched or talked about comment about it and I will try and blog about that next though I would prefer further discussion on the same topic. DO NOT ARGUE BLINDLY!!! This is an observation based on the facts I know and I do not want a yeah-ha, nuh-uh argument. Thanks for reading.