I hoped it would not come to this, but it has. In politics, the time to move on is when the electorate moves on.
Romney lost and McCain won.
McCain made a good speech to the conservative base today.
I opposed McCain in the primaries, because I wanted a candidate with executive experience and do not like McCain’s temper and tone. I think him a hero and a patriot, but distrust his fervor on culture of life issues.
Well, John McCain is still a grouchy old man. Social conservatives may have his vote, but we still don’t have his heart. McCain is a sitting senator and sitting senators have not become president in my entire life.
One will be president this year.
Clinton and Obama have less executive experience and less foreign policy knowledge. They oppose the culture of life with their actions and their hearts. Clinton snarls at pro-lifers and Obama smiles at us, but both are eager for the endorsement of Planned Parenthood and abortion extremists.
Both will buttress Roe versus Wade.
Perhaps we have had enough vapid rhetoric for one election cycle and a bit of straight talk is needed. I do know that McCain understands real evil, having personally experienced it, and if his words are sometimes explosive, they rarely coddle and pander.
He may shout at opponents in the cloakroom, but he has an older man’s ability to face the gap between hope and reality.
As John Paul the Great made clear, a culture of life voter cannot support a candidate who will not let a citizen live long enough to suffer or be blessed from other policies he or she might adopt. A traditional Christian cannot support a candidate who believes traditional views on family issues are immoral.
Whatever the merits of the War, losing it, as my Vietnamese friends can testify, is worse than anything happening now in Iraq for both the citizens of Iraq and the United States.
I have defended Mike Huckabee from unfair criticisms on this blog, but there is no way he can now win the nomination. The Romney withdrawal will make him look small if he continues. It will diminish all the good he has done himself with much of the base.
I hope Mike Huckabee follows Mitt Romney’s lead and pulls out to unite the pro-life forces behind the only remaining pro-life candidate who can win. Both of John McCain’s opponents are so extreme on this issue that they support partial birth abortion, one with a smile and the other with a grimace.
Which is worse?
Roe versus Wade took forty years to overturn and Americans are within one Justice of returning this issue to the states where it belongs.
No Republican is a favorite to win this year. The unexpected trouble in Iraq, overspending by a Republican congress, and mishandling Katrina, and the normal desire for change after a two term president make for tough times for pro-life voters. I still support the President, but know that only 1/3 of Americans share this position.
John McCain is the one Republican who can reach out to the other two-thirds of the public.
As to the notion that conservatives should “sit it out,” that is fool’s talk. Government programs, such as socialized medicine, once enacted are the closest things to immortal beings that humans can produce. There will be no roll back on the tax burden or loss of liberty to my children no matter what happens in the political future.
If you doubt this, then Social Security is a good example.
Social Security is going broke and saddles my students and children with a regressive pay roll tax, but Obama and Bush were both slapped hard just for telling this truth.
Programs produce dependents and opposition to programs produce no critics who will attack a check with as much fervor as those who receive it.
That is the reality of the moment. McCain was my next-to-last choice for President on the Republican side. I prefer Obama to Clinton, but McCain to Obama. Those are my real choices at this point since my primary is over here in California.
If you still have a primary ahead, vote for conscience now, but realize that the deal is done. McCain will be the only pro-lifer on the ballot in November.
The primary season has been a hard storm of political argument and rhetoric. That is good and proper in a republic.
Only John McCain has weathered the storm to face the typhoon.