It looks like McCain will be the GOP nod.
Here is just a small pick of issues about McCain.
From this website
http://www.ontheissues.org/John_McCain.htm
Assuming nothing more complex in the issues than what is presented below:
> Supports repealing Roe v. Wade (May 2007)
That's up to the Supreme Court, not the president. I think it's a bad decision, but I'm still moderately pro-choice (guess you could say I'm moderately pro-life, for that matter). Even if SCOTUS were to overturn it, I'm convinced abortion would remain widely available throughout the country.
> Things are tough now, but we're better off than in 2000(Jan 2008)
Well,
I'm better off. I think the country is safer today from terrorists than in 2000, when we were barely aware of them. Question is really too vague to answer intelligently.
> Leave gay marriage to the states. (Jan 2007)
Someone else aptly pointed out the problem with the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution. I don't see how you can have some states recognizing gay marriages and some not. House divided and all that. I'd like to see gay marriages recognized nationwide, but the country won't be ready for that for another 10 or 20 years.
> Teaching creationism should be decided by school districts. (Jun 2007)
This bothers me. Kids aren't even taught how to read, write, add, or subtract, but we argue about whether they should be taught some mythology about how life arose. Jeezum crow.
> Ok with American presence in Iraq for 100 years. (Jan 2008)
We've been in South Korea for 57 years. Of course, there hasn't been any significant shooting there since 1954.
> Supports federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. (May 2007)
That's a non-issue now, since scientists have figured out how to make stem cells without embryos.
> Climate change is real and must be addressed. (Dec 2007)
Mildly agree with the first part, but since we don't know how much of it is our doing and how much of it is simply cyclical in nature, disagree with the rest.
> Preserve and help our National Parks. (Jan 2000)
Yeah, okay, and honor your mom and pop, too. Everyone loves national parks.
> Prosecute criminals, not citizens for gun ownership. (Sep 2007)
Agree.
> Waterboarding is torture; we're not going to torture people. (Nov 2007)
Disagree. A few minutes of pain and suffering for one man planning to blow up a building is a fair price to pay to save the lives of the people in that building.
> Refused release to hurt Vietnamese & remain loyal to POWs. (Nov 1999)
That's not an issue, but it speaks volumes about his character; I consider that very important.
> Confederate flag on top of capitol was wrong; in front is ok. (May 2007)
Not a federal issue at all, irrelevant.
Why or why not would you vote for McCain?
Now that Romney is gone, I'll vote for McCain, because national security trumps every other issue for me. I've actually gone to the trouble of visiting Clinton's and Obama's web sites to see where they stand on it, and they basically talk about fighting a defensive war against Islamist terrorism. You can't win a war if you don't hit back, and neither Clinton nor Obama says how they would hit back, or that they would hit back at all. Romney had the clearest vision of how to win, which involved getting other countries to fight with us; he recognized that we can't do it alone. McCain is vaguer on that, but he's still better than Clinton and Obama. Obama says pointedly about the war in Iraq that he will "end the war." Note he doesn't say he'll
win it; we'll just leave.
I have problems with McCain, the biggest being the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, which was going to take the corrupting influence of money out of presidential politics. We saw how that worked. What McCain-Feingold does is limit political speech, and that's an attack on the first amendment, and I hate that.
So I won't be completely happy about it, but I'll vote for McCain, and hope that that strength of character he displayed at the Hanoi Hilton comes out as president. But I really believe that this country is going to elect Obama - the adoring press coverage makes it inevitable, to my mind.
