Do I feel better yet? No.
Nothing in McCain's record that I've read says he's trustworthy on conservative issues. He's lied before. He'll lie again - especially to get elected.
I will stay home or vote for a third party.
I think I just noted some areas where he is trustworthy. And this is just the beginning.
And don't forget, he flat out lied about and slandered Romney as part of his "straight talking" to woo Florida.
Sparkle, I really started paying attention to McCain and reading about his political record and history in order to find some way to support him. It's had the opposite effect. The more I learn, the less I like him or his politics, and the less I believe him when he panders to us. He'll do more harm to the U.S., the GOP, and conservatism than Hillary or Obama ever could in 8 years. He already is.
Sorry Sparkle,
You are obviously blind to his many many shortcomings. I do not trust him on any level. I am just sorry Texas doesn't have much of a voice in the primaries.
yeah unless Obamas name is on the card eh?
more McCain from the daily show
"I will close Guantanamo and make sure the US doesn't torture"
I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with your take on the Gang of 14. McCain trumpets that like it was something to be proud of, and its something he should be ashamed of.
Regardless of who is in office, the constitutional requirement for judicial confirmation is a majority vote - meaning 51. The Democrats were imposing an unconstitutional requirement on Bush's nominees and the correct action would have been to excercise the nuclear option and keep the Democrats from acting extra-constitutionally.
By joining the Gang of 14, McCain effectively ammended the Constitution and now any nominee requires a filibuster proof vote. This is wrong, no matter who sits in the Oval Office.
Yes, there were a few nominees who made it through the confirmation process as part of the Gang's deal. Those few will be far outnumbered by those thrown under the bus both now and in the future.
If McCain is the nominee, he'll get my vote, but that vote will come reluctantly and through gritted teeth and with one hand holding my nose.
Sorry, KM, but McCain will nominate moderates foir whom the Democrats like. I fear a landside fior the left. I only hope its Barry Obama not Mrs Bill Clinton
McCain and his supporters need to get over the delusion that he's winning primaries because of conservatives. Only 29% of self-described Sunshine State conservatives voted for him. The rest of his support came (as usual) from self-described liberals and moderates in the "closed-yet open" Florida primary. Unfortunately, the misperception of conservative support will cause conservatives in future primaries and caucuses to believe that their brethren are already on McCain's bandwagon.
Senator McCain claims he will bring back faith in government, yet he feels the need to slant the truth or outright lie about his GOP opponents in order to win. His warping of Romney's comments about Iraq where shameful, and reason enough to not vote for the Senator. Even worse, not only does he distort the words of his opponents but he lies about his own record as well. On Fox News McCain said "in 24 years as a member of Congress, I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state..." That is not true. He channeled $10 million toward the University of Arizona for an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist; and he attempted to secure a $5 million earmark for a wastewater project in Arizona after Congress had rejected the request in its own spending bill. As Ted Stevens said: "one man's pork is another man's alternative white meat."
Does anyone really believe McCain will appoint conservative, strict-constructionist justices who might overturn McCain-Feingold, his signature piece of legislation? The Gang of 14 is hardly a friendly force for conservative justices. And beware bloggers, if you want to criticize John McCain you better do it while you can. As president he'll work to put the McCain-Feingold noose around our necks as well.
It's also a big concern that Juan Hernandez, a former Mexican cabinet official (and future American department head?) is still part of McCain's campaign as Hispanic Outreach Director. Juanny-boy is best known for quotes like: "I never knew the border as a limitation. I'd be delighted if all of us could come and go between these two marvelous countries." and "There are twenty million people, like myself, who have one foot in Mexico and one foot in the United States, and we're very proud of it.". Good grief!
We've had eight years of lack-luster conservative leadership under W. As a result conservatism has lost its way. It has no leader, no conviction and the GOP is abandoning it. Now that we're staring down four to eight years of the same kind of trouble, I find myself in the same boat as Rush Limbaugh: "I can see possibly not supporting a Republican nominee." I'm tired of voting for the lessor of evils. I'm tired of voting "against" someone instead of "for" someone, and I absolutely refuse to keep up the pretense. If McCain gets the nod the GOP can plow it's own field; I'm putting down my yoke
I still don't see him as trustworthy on these issues. For one, Republicans are noted for not blocking supreme court nominations by Democrats. They're all of a sudden going to grow a pair now? Also, strict constructionists would overturn/seriously curtail McCain Feingold. McCain has already shown he considers that more important than his prolife views, so why would he choose strict constructionists when his pet legislation is obviously endangered?
KevinQC,
I didnt see your reply before I posted, sorry about that.
No problem Mark! The more we say it, the better chance voters will come to their senses before the 5th! 
Any candidate who voted for a budget which $250,000,000,000 more than the taxes collected by the government (and did not include any funding for the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan) who claims he will not raise taxes is simply not credible, or truly does not have a very good understanding of they economy.
The economy is slowing down, and even if it picks up in the next year, the tax revenues for the next year will not be what they were this year. Further, any cuts in Government spending during a recession will only make the economic damage worse to the economy as a whole.
The funding requests for Iraq and Afghanistan keep increasing.
The funding needs (repayment of debt for funds borrowed by Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush) of Medicare will start rapidly increasing during the next term.
The borrowing currently being done from the Social Security fund will not be as available next term (due to increases in the number of eligible recipients, and a decrease in the amount brought in due to stifled wages for the past two decades).
McCain has already pledged to start a war with Iran, with no mention of where we will get the troops or the funding to fight it.
All in all, his campaign promise not to raise taxes should be seen as a sign that he will say absolutely anything to get elected. (I give him credit for being wise enough to realize that he will have the power to cut funding in education, Social security, medicare, or any of the other major expenditures of the government under then Congress which will also be elected next year.)
McCain is the candidate who is likely to continue G.W. Bush's policies the most. (Excepting torturing prisoners and keeping secret prisons and "unreachable" prisons operational . . . . he seems to have some personal issues with these.)
Also, he's so deeply in the pocket of AIPAC that I wouldn't be surprised to see him select Leiberman as his running mate.
If you agree with these neo-con policies, you deserve to be governed by McCain.
Kevin,
"closed yet-open" primary???
Do you have a link. I hadn't heard anything about non-Republicans casting ballots in FL (in the Ruplcian primary at least).
RWS:
Here is a link that might be useful to your position on McCain.
http://www.americanthinker.com/
2...out_the_ga.html
I still don't support him because of his past errors of judgment, although I may have to vote for him in November.
I hope you are following the part of the conservative base that is recommending voting Dem in the general election, they are providing a good story.
My understanding is that they say it may be better for the GOP in the long run to allow the Dems to run the country for 4 years, prove they are incompetent, and be able to blame them for all the problems. Then McCain, who is close to a Dem in their eyes, won't further mess up the GOP and it will be forced to turn back to a more conservative approach.
Convoluted? For sure, but it is gaining traction.
If Mitt doesn't manage a miracle, the give it to the Dems strategy sounds like the best option to me.
I agreew ith all that has been said about McCain. I forgot where I saw it, but he was possibly going to switch sides and become a Democrat atone time. Sorry, I don't have a link, I forgot where I saw it. But even without that, I think that a McCain Preisndecy would be a stab in the back of most conservative Republicans. I hope that Mitt does something to stop him, even though I don't trust Mitt that much either, but he has not stabbed the Republicans in the back as much as McCain.
But if McCain is the Republican nominee I will have to vote and holfd my nose for him. Yes, he is flawed and is a backstabber, but he is not an all out Socialist like Hillary or Obama
I think it is important to mention the reason why McCain passed on Bush's tax cuts, which is rather conveniently omitted when the sufferers of McCain Derangement Syndrome bash him. McCain is one of the leading opponents of wasteful spending and pork, his record reflects this, and the reason he passed on those tax cuts is because he felt they didn't address this issue and that the bill was full of waste. This is a serious issue, and McCain WILL be a fiscal hawk.
The Republican nominee will either be a guy who was pro-choice when he was setting up universal health care in Massachusets as governor,
or the Guy who is endorsed and is actively campaigning with Joe Lieberman, the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate from 2000.
Wow, tough choices.
But if McCain is the Republican nominee I will have to vote and holfd my nose for him. Yes, he is flawed and is a backstabber, but he is not an all out Socialist like Hillary or Obama.
I disagree. The more I read and the more I think about it, I believe 4 to 8 years of trudging through a Democratic desert will be good for conservatives; it might provide some clarity. After all, Carter begat Reagan, and Clinton begat the 1994 Congress.
Nice try Trey. That's McCain's line now, but at the time of the tax cuts in 2001 he was all about "class warfare" rehtoric; see #7 in this link: "I am disappointed that the Senate Finance Committee preferred instead to cut the top tax rate of 39.6% to 36%, thereby granting generous tax relief to the wealthiest individuals of our country at the expense of lower- and middle-income American taxpayers.
Calling conservatives foolish isn't going to win him any converts either. But that's what he thinks of the base.
So if you all hate him who is voting for him? Sparkle is buying them all off isn't she? She's "rocking the vote" no?
My power has been out all afternoon! Argh!
What you guys have to understand is that this will probably be our nominee. You don't have to give me the arguments against him. I've heard them all. I'm just trying to help you understand that despite his major flaws, he is still a conservative in most ways.
"most ways" = "anti-choice"
He is not a fiscal conservative by his votes.
He is not a social conservative based on his history of positions supporting governmental programs in helping the poor.
He is not a moral conservative (other than on the abortion issue), in that he does not oppose gay marriage.
Where exactly does he get his "conservative" credentials???
He's a "maverick". Some crazy guy with a rich wife from out west who took down the lobbyists (except those who wouldn't show up for his hearings), and vowed to take the dirty money out of politics (after the S&L Scandal nearly finished his career.)
Oh, and he also headed that Baseball Player/Steriod issue.... he was really out in front on that one.
RWS,
At best you may convince some of us that Hillary or Obama would be much worse.
If I do manage to make myself vote for McCain it will be for that negative reason, not because I trust him to be conservative on issues most important to me.
Now, if you want to lie/spin/omit like Michael Medved has lately, you may have a chance to convince us that McCain really is conservative on important matters 
Rightsparkle is right that he may be our nominee. And I agre he will be more conservative than any of the socialists in the Defeatoctratic Party, but we do not have to like it. Yes I will vote for him if he is the nominee, but it will be a vote against Billary or Obama not a vote or him
All my adult life I have never once voted for a democrat and I never will. Yet, I am so tired of voting against Democrats instead of voting for a good conservative Republican. If Romney or McCain gets the nomination we will have a socialist liberal power hungry democrat on one side and a socialist liberal power hungry pretend conservative Republican on the other. At least with the Democrats you get what you see. McCain has been sticking his middle finger at conservatives for a long time.
Well, I think that you are having a tough time with this one, RWS! I can not put all my eggs in the Sen. "F--- You" McCain basket just because he is marginally right about the war. Even there he is convoluded. I also do not think that he did any favors for himself in tonight's debate. I think it is time that SOMEONE ask Sen. "F--- You" McCain what he would have done if the surge DID NOT WORK! Oh, BTW, Sen. "F--- You" McCain also said that timetables would have to be met. Then I guess he was a cut and runner. And talking about globaloney warming. PLEASE! I fear that Sen. "F--- You" McCain will, once again, stab us conservatives in the back if he gets this nomination. You read it here first. Sen. "F--- You" McCain will NOT have the Rev. Mike as his VP. I think that Hugh Hewitt got it right. John "F--- You" McCain Nixon.
I am leaving the republican party. Juan McCain's amnesty bill did it for me. If I wanted to live in a third world country, I would have moved to Mexico. My only hope is enough conservatives vote for a third party candidate and the third party candidate beats McCain and Hillary since they are both unpopular in their own party. If a third party candidate doesn't materialize, I am voting for the candidate most likely to beat McCain. I literaly hate him and wish the worst on him.
It's all horseshit. They'll all vote for him. None of them are going to vote for Hillary.
And we're all blessed that it won't be Romney.
Great post. I can live with McCain. The whining on the blogosphere about it is completely meaningless.
Just look at the actual, you know, elections.
Don't be so sure P. If you had told me a year ago I'd be considering not voting for the GOP candidate no matter who it was I would have laughed. But the more I've learned about McCain and the more likely it is that he will be the nominee the more firmly I mean "I will not vote for that man." Even if it means President Hillary or Obama.
It's ok, I know you are feeling vulnerable right now. Take my hand. We will get to the voting booth together and vote for McCain...
RWS, as much as it would please me to hold your hand, I will have to respectfully decline your gracious offer.
I will probably be staying at home with my vote safely locked up tight until a sane candidate comes along.
jandrew, he's the information on Florida's mishandling of the primary election. Florida mishandling an election...sounds familiar doesn't it? McCain can win in closed primary states if the law is ignored and the ballots are stacked in his favor...
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