But how moderate is McCain?
I think McCain likes to get us all riled up into thinking he is not a good Republican because that helps his image on the MSM.
On what issues would you call McCain a "moderate" or at least compared to Bush. On most congressional scorecards he is only a bit more centrist than the GOP average.
For one thing, he has an unblemished Planned Parenthood score rating of 0% from 1996-2003.
I am not saying he is necessarily conservative, but he is definitely not a liberal. He is definitely right of center and his magic is that he has the middle third of this country sold on him.
He is definitely right of center and his magic is that he has the middle third of this country sold on him."""
I don't think that the middle third of the country is still sold on McVain. I would need to see the figures on that, state by state. His never-ending appearances with Kerry make alot of people suspicious. McVain likes the strokes he gets from being "consulted" on anything down to his opinion on kinds of bread for PBJ sandwiches, for gosh's sakes. McVain thinks he hasn't been given the recognition HE thinks is DUE him. He will go to his grave with that opinion.
I don't know the figures on how much support McVain got from the middle of the country when he has run for President in the past, but I contend that whatever support he got in the past is more than a little tarnished now, with sKerry floating the idea of McVain being his running mate. Solid flyover country citizens don't like that kind of wussing around. They like to know that they can count on the person they are supporting. They are too busy working hard and running farms, businesses, and ranches to watchdog politico every minute of the day. McVain is losing stature every day with his wussing around regarding the SBV's and their right to talk about what sKerry did in Viet Nam. He is flip-flopping on the rights of citizens to speak out.
McVain gave us this 527 mess with his attempts to get some sort of law that would be front and center every 2 years on into the future. He created a Frankenstein of a law, along with Feingold, who isn't that bright to begin with.
Thousands of words, too many pages, and this law is a joke. It never should have seen the light of day, and McVain will pay for his attempt at a position of permenance in American history with a poor law.
He also is more hawkish than Bush.
With McCain it is less about his being conservative or moderate, it is more about his being disloyal and self-serving.