No one to Bush's right can get even into double digits at the national level right now.
Yes we should try to lobby McCain to be more serious about policing the border. No, Obama is not going to be better on the subject, he will be far worse.
But no, that isn't national security and the war, and pretending it is, is mere pretence. McCain is a hawk who our enemies rightly fear, just as Bush is. Ahmadinejad would much rather have Obama in the white house, and you can bet he is far more concerned about the McCain Obama difference, than and McCain Tancredo difference.
“But no, that isn’t national security and the war, and pretending it is, is mere pretence.”
I honestly believe you’re serious. We can wipe any foreign nation off the map in half a day if they become a real threat to our national security. But attacks like 9/11 were years in the planning, and who knows how many more are in the planning now, and how many visa holders (or overstayers) or recent immigrants or illegal aliens are in place to execute new plans.
Our gravest national security problem by far is what can be done within the US, not off in the Middle East. Those are sideshows compared to the potential threats at home in this era of attacks by small groups of terrorists.
And McCain is the 35% nominee. Far more votes were cast for candidates to the right of him while they remained in the race: Romney, Huckabee and Thompson. There is absolutely NO consensus among Republicans for McCain and his positions. He won a bogus primary set up because those who favored more conservative candidates split their votes among three and more at times, and he got winner take all states with <40%.
And don’t forget all the help he received in some states from crossovers and Dems. A potential disaster in the making, unless the Dem. nominee scares enough voters away to give McCain a chance.