The Case for McCain

In the September 15 issue of National Review magazine, Ramesh Ponnuru makes the case for McCain. Taking a look at the 2006 election, Ponnuru cites how the voters were deeply dissatisfied with the Republican party at that time and that this signaled a move towards the left. Ponnuru adds that the Republicans would have won if they had stopped the spending and brought the public up to speed on what was going on with their government. Less secrecy and more accountability are some of the main arguments Ponnuru makes. 

Ponnuru goes on in the article to say that Democrats are believing Americans have lurched leftward when in reality the country is right of center. He says that Obama is the most liberal senator ever to run for President, a sentiment echoed in the National Journal when Obama began running for President. 

In other words, where McCain votes 95% with the current President, Obama votes 97% of the time with his party except when he voted with the Republicans for the FISA bill and agreed with McCain on the Supreme Court decision regarding child rapists. 

Ponnuru then goes on to say that Obama would be no Bill Clinton. Insisting that McCain is the better choice of the two, he makes three distinctive points where McCain is significantly different from Obama. For one, the surge. McCain advocated more troops in Iraq back when it was not politically expedient. The second, in terms of taxes. McCain will not raise taxes while Obama will (on certain portions of the public). The third is McCain's health care policy.

Ramesh says that McCain's plan is "designed to make health care coverage more affordable; to let people take it with them from job to job more easily." That sounds reasonable. It actually got me to thinking about Obama's universal health care plan, which advocates a governmental tax to help pay for uninsured Americans. 

Both plans are good. In fact, on health care, I actually prefer McCain's. Why? Particularly, because universal health care has not been very effective in Europe and other countries where it has been tried. Not that it will not work here, but America has previous examples to draw from in terms of whether it will be successful.

Ponnuru also discusses McCain's strong stance against excessive government spending called earmarking. McCain does indeed have a strong record. A stronger one than Obama's on this subject. Another interesting nugget in the article is Ramesh's discussion on judges. He states that McCain will not appoint judges who will force liberal and/or conservative policies down people's throats. He wants judges who follow the law, whereas Obama wants more Souters than Roberts'. 

Ponnuru, overall, makes the case for the 72 year old Senator. He definitely got me to thinking. While my mind is made up on who I will vote for - if I was undecided I would have definitely been swayed by the points Ramesh makes in the article.