The Reasons to Vote for McCain
Creators Syndicate—R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr., October 29, 2008.
Washington—Though I cannot recall ever endorsing a presidential candidate I am going to do so in this column. In this, I am following the lead of the dean of conservative columnists, the excellent Charles Krauthammer. Last week he endorsed Senator John McCain. Count me for McCain too.
Our country is at war with terrorists. It faces a grave financial crisis. On both issues McCain is infinitely more experienced than his opponent, Senator Barack Obama. Perhaps it is because McCain is a retired naval officer and a gentleman, but he remains disappointingly reticent about his personal achievements. Sure, he modestly declares that throughout his adult life he has never flinched from answering his country’s call, but there is much more to his life’s accomplishment than that. I wish he had allowed his campaign to air more of the videos showing him in that cruel North Vietnamese prison. And there is also footage of his leaping out of a burning fighter on the deck of an aircraft carrier, the back of his flight suit aflame. People who have seen these videos have understood that McCain’s commitment to duty is more substantial than the inflated claims of the average campaigning pol.
McCain might have made more of the fact that he rebuilt his broken body after being tortured in prison, defied the pessimistic medical prognostications, and flew combat aircraft again. Then he took command of the Navy’s largest air squadron, which he revived to flight readiness. That is an act of executive prowess no one in this presidential race can claim. Next, he became naval liaison to the Senate and helped rebuild the American military by working with senators on both sides of the aisle. As a congressman and a senator, he has continued this sort of bipartisan reform. Some of the reforms I have opposed, but no other candidate in this race has his record of constructive legislation and leadership.
In the area of national security, he has demonstrated that he knows things that Obama, a novice with but four years on the national stage, can only imagine. McCain knew the surge in Iraq would work, and he had the grit to support it when few would. Once again he was putting his country before his own political ambitions. Nonetheless, McCain is no soft touch for the military. Over the years he has demanded efficiency and economy at the Pentagon and throughout the federal budget. Now in a time of financial crisis he has opted for a proven strategy for economic recovery: low taxes, free trade, and budgetary prudence. Obama’s alternatives are the proven recipe for protracted recession. On healthcare McCain’s policies promise expanded coverage with costs under control. Obama’s alternative promises the efficiencies of the Post Office, with the citizenry standing in long lines and costs spiraling ever upwards.
McCain then is a true American hero, probably the most heroic to come this close to the presidency. He is a seasoned political leader. He is the model for good citizenship.
Alternatively, there is Obama’s record. People who have worked with him tell me he is a decent man. Yet, all he has ever done is run for office, though he has only held two: a seat in the Illinois senate and the U.S. Senate seat he won in 2004. Though he is new to politics, his policies are not as new as he boasts. They are a rerun of the failed Great Society with some later-day left-wing extravagances thrown in.
That he has not been honest about this is disturbing, and he has established a pattern of deceit in this election that is still more disturbing. His claim that he offers a tax cut for “95%” of the citizenry is an obvious deceit. So far as I can ascertain it means sending government checks to some 40% of the citizenry who pay no taxes and raising taxes on the rest of us—yes, tax increases in the midst of recession! More disturbing is that Obama has not been honest about the radical figures he has associated with. William Ayers is an unrepentant left-wing radical who actually bombed government facilities and caused the injury and death of fellow Americans. That is a cold fact. Obama’s association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger put him in company with angry anti-American fringe figures, who, were they on the far right, would have ended Obama’s political career long ago. Again, he has not been honest about these associations, and McCain—officer and gentleman that he is—has not held Obama to account.
Now we hear that there is at least audio of a 2003 dinner held for Palestinian activist Rashid Khalidi (a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization when it was recognized by Washington as a terrorist organization) with Obama in attendance. Reportedly the Illinois state senator was praising Khalidi. Though the audio is being withheld by the Los Angeles Times, Americans ought to hear it before the election. At this dinner speakers allegedly denounced the United States and Israel. By 2003 Khalidi was a neighbor and friend of Obama at the University of Chicago. Again Obama has been deceptive about this dinner and his relationship with this former spokesman for Yasir Arafat. *
I actually know a good bit about people such as Ayers, Pfleger, Wright, and now Khalidi. They are the kind of anti-Americans who thrive on the outer fringes of the left. Whether they really hate America as they boast or are just attitudinizing I do not know. But the consequence of their behavior has endangered this country. By 2003 Obama, green as he is, should have known this. More to the point, he should have been forthright when these friendships were revealed.
At best an Obama presidency would be a return to the Carter years. At worst it would place this country in a condition of peril that we have never experienced in modern times. McCain will protect the country and put it on the road to recovery. He has protected America all his adult life and deserves another tour of service.
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute.
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Pingback by America Needs John McCain « Kerfuffles and Flourishes — November 2, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
Charles Krauthammer is just so cool.
I was hoping for America to get another 4 years of fighting against terrorism and protecting Israel - a repentant McCain has realized the importance of this fact and Obama has not. It’s not surprising that Obama gets a majority of the Jewish vote, because they are no more “Jewish” than the majority of “Americans” claiming to be “Americans” and voting for Obama. CHANGE is the theme that the prophet Daniel warns us against as the trademark of the anti-Christ devil who deceives Israel into a peace treaty and then breaks it. So the kind of subliminal change tatooed on democratic CHANGE is just that -
Da 7:24 The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three kings.
Da 7:25 He will speak against the Most High h and oppress his saints i and try to change the set times j and the laws. The saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time. 22 k
Da 7:26 “ ‘But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed l forever.
Da 7:27 Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms m under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, n the people of the Most High. o His kingdom will be an everlasting p kingdom, and all rulers will worship q and obey him.’
Da 7:28 “This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled r by my thoughts, s and my face turned pale, t but I kept the matter to myself
That’s my main reason for voting for McCain over Obama - I don’t like the kind of CHANGES that democrats are proposing during their marriage with Satan.
Comment by Michael Sunstar — November 3, 2008 @ 8:23 am
OBAMA HAS PROPOSED A ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN COMPOSED OF SPARE PARTS LEFT OVER FROM PREVIOUS FAILURES.
WE ALL LOSE IF HE WINS.
A THINK-ISRAEL Editorial http://www.think-israel.org/special.obamaandeconomy.html
The luck of the Irish! Just as Obama’s gaffes and flipflops were beginning to take their toll, the economy took a nose dive. Barack Obama’s has been able to convince people it’s all the fault of the Republicans and he would change things.
How do you change an economy that is spiraling downward?
[1.] You can try to put a temporary clamp on where it is — so it doesn’t fall further. These tactics are similar to those used by socialist governments all the time. They don’t start a rise. They create a pseudo-stable society, that slowly loses momentum — and goes nowhere. In the short run, the money shift encourages a feel-good state of mind, because a lot of people seem to be doing better. But if you take money from one pocket and put it into another but you don’t keep adding new money to the source, eventually, you’ll have nothing in anyone’s pocket.
[2.] You can try to stimulate the economy. The economy might act like a drunken driver for a few months, but then it starts a steady upward slope, as individual producers apply their own unique, erratic solutions. This admits that our understanding of economics is still primitive. Trying to control such a complex organism is almost impossible. The government can encourage/discourage trends by tax incentives and/or punitive taxes; it can encourage new directions. It can call a halt when things get out of hand. But it’s still a crap game.
Many people believe it’s the 1929 depression again and we need a New Deal to deal with the economy. They see Roosevelt’s new deal as the paradigm. The New Deal of the 1930’s did indeed stop the downward spiral of an economy that had no banking regulations and a very thin welfare support system. But, and this is important, the economy didn’t start to recover until stimulated by the second world war.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2008 @ 9:27 am
OBAMA HAS PROPOSED A ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN COMPOSED OF SPARE PARTS LEFT OVER FROM PREVIOUS FAILURES.
WE ALL LOSE IF HE WINS.
A THINK-ISRAEL Editorial
The luck of the Irish! Just as Obama’s gaffes and flipflops were beginning to take their toll, the economy took a nose dive. Barack Obama’s has been able to convince people it’s all the fault of the Republicans and he would change things.
How do you change an economy that is spiraling downward?
[1.] You can try to put a temporary clamp on where it is — so it doesn’t fall further. These tactics are similar to those used by socialist governments all the time. They don’t start a rise. They create a pseudo-stable society, that slowly loses momentum — and goes nowhere. In the short run, the money shift encourages a feel-good state of mind, because a lot of people seem to be doing better. But if you take money from one pocket and put it into another but you don’t keep adding new money to the source, eventually, you’ll have nothing in anyone’s pocket.
[2.] You can try to stimulate the economy. The economy might act like a drunken driver for a few months, but then it starts a steady upward slope, as individual producers apply their own unique, erratic solutions. This admits that our understanding of economics is still primitive. Trying to control such a complex organism is almost impossible. The government can encourage/discourage trends by tax incentives and/or punitive taxes; it can encourage new directions. It can call a halt when things get out of hand. But it’s still a crap game.
Many people believe it’s the 1929 depression again and we need a New Deal to deal with the economy. They see Roosevelt’s new deal as the paradigm. The New Deal of the 1930’s did indeed stop the downward spiral of an economy that had no banking regulations and a very thin welfare support system. But, and this is important, the economy didn’t start to recover until stimulated by the second world war.
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2008 @ 9:28 am
WE ALL LOSE IF HE WINS.
A THINK-ISRAEL Editorial
http://www.think-israel.org/special.obamaandeconomy.html
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2008 @ 9:42 am
With his Democratic Congress in tow (or in the lead), Obama will indeed implement New Deal II with the most massive fiscal stimulus spending as a percentage of GDP since the Great Depression. [I only hope he gets to the potholes on Lake Shore Drive]. On the tax side, Obama will redistribute wealth with a range of imaginative tax increases and service fees that will leave the effete bourgeoisie saying, “thank you Sir; may I have another”.
The most interesting challenge for Obama will be whether or not to increase defense spending to ward off Russia, China, and his newly energized Muslim comrades. On the one hand, a terrific fix for the economy and required to safeguard the country; on the other hand, a 180 degree shift from that which he has promised his acolytes. This ought to be good!
Comment by Charles Martel — November 3, 2008 @ 12:57 pm
A good reason to vote against Obama is:
Burning flags, Iranians cheer US Embassy takeover
By NASSER KARIMI – 3 hours ago
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5goykFnHZsAqRUFl1bXBuWbVNcpkgD947IFM80
Comment by yamit82 — November 3, 2008 @ 2:36 pm