Why I support John McCain
I have been wrestling with this decision for quite some time. Most of you will know that John McCain was not my first choice for President. I started supporting Mike Huckabee almost a year ago and I was very disappointed when he dropped out of the race. I sincerely felt he was the best candidate we had seen for the Republican party in a very long time. Maybe it will happen in 2012, but it clearly isn’t happening in 2008. So, I have decided to support John McCain as the Republican candidate for President.
I realize there will be some of you who may not understand my decision, but trust me when I say, I did not come to this decision lightly. There are some issues on which I would like more clarification from McCain. These include immigration, campaign finance reform, and most importantly, abortion. However, I have came to the conclusion that he is ultimately a lot better than what we will have if Barack Obama is elected President.
Part of this decision is based on the high amount of distrust I have for Obama. I simply do not believe he has the best interests of the United States at heart. Some may say I am simply choosing to support the lesser of two evils and while that may be true to a certain extent, my decision is not based entirely upon the fear and distrust I have of his opponent. Watching the forum at Saddleback Church convinced me that John McCain is a better candidate for President than Barack Obama.
There has been a lot of talk about third party candidates as the general election draws closer and to be honest, I had thought about supporting one of those candidates. To those of you who have chosen to support them, I say I respect that decision and I do understand where you are coming from. I have just came to a different conclusion than you.
So, those of you who may disagree with my reasoning and my decision, please do not go away. Continue to read what I have to say and in future posts, I will try to explain in further detail why I am now supporting John McCain for President.
That’s my take!
Larry
Well, Larry, I think it’s a reasonable choice on your part. I don’t happen to agree, but I know a couple other Huckabee bloggers who have gotten behind McCain. Heck, Huckabee got behind McCain!
The only thing that might win me over is the concern about judicial appointments. That is no small concern, either, so I guess I could (theoretically) be persuaded.
Honest people, even with similar principles, can still reach different conclusions. We’ll see how things play out.
Thanks for understanding where I am coming from, Ken. One of the things that concerned me the most about coming to this decision was that I didn’t want to offend people like you, Kerry, and others who have visited and commented on my blog a lot. I consider you all my friends, even though I have yet to meet you in person.
One thing I do ask is that you continue to comment, even if you disagree with what I say. Your opinions are important.
I would be very worried about you if you were backing Obama, but I do “get” your decision to support McCain. Like Ken, I don’t agree. If you read my blog today, you’ll know that I don’t agree with my husband on his choice of peanut butter either, but I’m still married to him. The key to disagreeing about politics is civility, and you do that very well.
Ken, I have an article from the Wall Street Journal about the whole judge thing that I’ll stop by later and leave a link to (it’s on my computer and right now I’m on my husband’s computer).
Here’s the link I mentioned in my earlier comment.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121625042990560111.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
Ken, I guess you don’t really need the link since I realize I got it from you to begin with. Silly me.
Kerry,
You are entitled to silly moments every once in a while.
Honestly though, thanks to both of you for understanding where I am coming from.
Does anyone believe that a third party candidate in this election can win? I mean, come on. Look at the polls. No third party candidates are competitive. If the polls showed that a third party candidate had a shot, I could understand why someone would want to support him. But, that is just not the case. I’m not crazy about John Mccain either, but I’m 99.9% sure that either Mccain or Obama will win the election. And, who is the more conservative one? It’s John Mccain. If anyone plans on voting for a more conservative third party candidate, you’re helping Obama win. It might not feel great to vote for Mccain, but it makes sense.
And, I don’t like the argument that you might hurt the Conservative or Republican brand by voting for John Mccain. If that happens, we can call ourselves something else. In 1852, the Whig Party disbanded, and, in 1856, the Republican party was running a candidate for president. The Republicans lost in 1856, but, in 1860, they won. So, my point is that brand names can change. The ideas behind the original brands can stay the same, but the brand names can change. If the Republican or Conservative brand is tarnished by a Mccain presidency, then we can call ourselves Constitutionalists or Originalists respectively. Or, whatever other names work.
Robert,
Maybe I should just let you post on my blog. LOL!! You said exactly what I was thinking. If you will read some of my other posts, you will find that I wasn’t all that crazy about McCain either. However, looking at the other option, I came to the same conclusion. To not vote for McCain is helping Obama win this election and I can not do that.
Well, Robert, let me explain it this way …
Do I think that a “third party candidate” will win? No. But the only reason that Bob Barr, Joe Schriner, or any of the other guys don’t stand a chance is because too many people accept that they only have two choices.
I refuse to have only two choices. If neither the Democrats nor the Republicans earn my vote, I’m not willing to throw it away voting on some second choice (or, in this case, McCain would be even lower — after Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Gene Amondson, Joe Schriner, Bob Barr, and lots of other candidates).
I don’t really care about the “Republican brand,” as you put it. I’m not a Republican. I’m an independent.
If McCain fails to win, it isn’t because I didn’t vote for him — it’s because he didn’t give me a reason to vote for him. Candidates aren’t entitled to our votes … at least not the way I see it.
However, I don’t want to turn Larry’s comments section into a fight on that point; I just thought it was worth answering.
I support John McCain.
I support McCain because he understand the rights of artists. The creative community should be supporting John McCain. Barack Obama has given direct support to Shepard Fairey, a visual artist who is a known international copyright violator. Obama has had direct contact with Shepard Fairey and has sent Shepard Fairey letters praising his activity and art even though dozens of art organizations are against artists like Shepard Fairey and others who support the Orphan Works bill. This connection needs to be exposed. Where does Obama stand on the rights of artists when he supports Shepard Fairey who has violated the work of Mederos and others?
The media keeps trying to paint McCain as being a copyright violator by the songs his campaign has played, but McCain is not directly behind the choice in the songs and in every case so far the campaign bought the rights to use the songs and were nice enough to not use them upon finding out the thoughts of the artists behind them. Obama continues to use the service of Shepard Fairey even though artists have demanded him to stop and to be clear on his position with the Orphan Works bill. Obama has been silent. He won’t answer!
How is it out of touch to stand against Obama and Shepard Fairey when dozens of art organizations have spoken out against artists like Shepard Fairey and the potential of the Orphan Works bill being passed. Seems to me that the Obama campaign is out of touch with the needs of the creative community and that certain people in the creative community are going along with it just because they can’t put their politics aside in order to honestly support the rights of artists.
You want truth?
http://lgwilliams.com/obama/obama_poster_challenge2.html