“Then you are not much of a conservative if he in your opinion is right on most conservative issues:”
Unfortunately, you’re misguided about Senator McCain:
“2. McCain-Fiengold” - No comment, but it does show Senator McCain’s efforts to get the big dirty money out of politics - imperfect but still noble.
“3. McCain-Kennedy” - He’s totally backed away from this and has a totally different approach to border security. He said that he’ll secure the border and ONLY THEN once there’s widespread belief and agreement that it’s secure, he’ll look at how to deal with the illegals and he refuses the blanket amnesty approach now.
“4. McCain-Lieberman” - His environmental approach is concerning to some GOP’ers but I think that it’s not a disqualifier - every Republican has a weak point.
“5. Support for Stem-Cell Research” - Sure, but only at the same levels of President Bush - existing lines and he’s wavering publicly even on this support, too. What’s more, you conveniently ignore the fact that the National Right to Life Committee refers to him as pro-life and hints at endorsement, while NARAL has given him a 96% pro-life rating and is blasting him for PUBLICLY saying that Roe v. Wade should be overturned (even GWB refused to go that far!). How much farther must he go?
“6. Support for Global Warming Scam” - See above.
“7. Will NOT Nominate judges like Scalia or Alito” - Totally distorted and opinionated information, I’m afraid. He has REPEATEDLY said that he’ll nominate justices like Roberts and Alito and uses the same ‘strict constructionist’ terms that President Bush used. He strongly supported Alito throughout his confirmation. This is certainly not a fact-based allegation.
“9. Leaked top-secret information about CIA Prisons in Europe.” This is grasping at straws, I’m afraid.
“10. Voted against President Bush’es Tax Cuts” - and Mitt Romney said he didn’t want to bring back the Reagan-Bush era and made NRO’s top 10 RINO list as recently as late 2005. John McCain now openly and unabashedly wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.
“11. Gang of 14 which kept conservative judges from being nominated.” Actually, the Gang of 14 is probably what saved Samuel Alito from being filibustered (he was only confirmed 58-42). It also got ultra-conservative judges like William Pryor, Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown confirmed. In other words, we should probably thank Senator McCain for helping us get good judges confirmed that were otherwise hopelessly filibustered. What’s more, the filibuster is still there to be used by the GOP if they need it during a Dem administration - reassuring considering that we lost the Senate.
What about his solidly pro-Iraq position? What about his persistent opposition to pro-gay hate crimes and the anti-business ENDA and his strident opposition to pork and the now almost countless solid conservatives lining up behind him (to name but a few reasons to vote for him).
Anti-McCain folks, please stop beating around the bush and come out and support John McCain. You know you can’t support Hillary or Obama. Let’s stop resorting to 5th Grade mentality name-calling like ‘McAmnesty’, ‘McInsane’, or ‘McLame’ and start acting our ages and be realistic. Once you resort to name-calling instead of facts, it’s one of the surest signs you’ve lost the argument.