McCain Vs. Bush

One of my readers, Paul, asked me if I thought McCain would be better or worse than Bush, and if I thought Bush was a conservative. I think those are some excellent questions, so I wanted to address them on an actual post rather than just in the comments. Paul, thanks for asking!

First, let me say I'm still working through my feelings on McCain. I'll blog in more depth about this in the coming days, but this is not the place for that.

I think McCain would be similar to Bush, but weaker in a couple key areas. First, I think McCain will be pretty good on the War on Terror and the fight against radical Islamic jihad. That could be the most important thing in the next few years, and that's the one thing on which I'm confident in McCain. But, both McCain and Bush are very soft on illegal immigration, which is a big deal to me. I can't get my mind around people who say they're tough on national security but are weak on immigration - the two go hand in hand. It just doesn't make sense. Aside from the security aspect of it, I think that everything about McCain -- and I mean LITERALLY everything -- screams fake on immigration. I would be shocked if he actually worked to secure the borders, refuse amnesty, refuse benefits to illegals, and all those things. He has absolutely no credibility in his statements that he has 'learned' from his past mistakes, and this is a grave concern to me.

Nevertheless, I think that McCain might be slightly better than Bush on spending and expanding government. Bush has gotten much better at curbing Congressional spending over the past couple years, but he was AWFUL during his first term! Hopefully McCain would be more steady from day one. Another concern I have with McCain is that he would work to make Bush's tax cuts permanent, and to continue working to reduce/eliminate other taxes. I know, I know, he has recently pledged to do just that, but I find it hard to believe he's suddenly seen the light when he voted against those very same tax cuts TWICE. No warm fuzzies on that front.

I think Bush and McCain would be pretty similar on things like abortion and stem cells.

I think McCain would be weaker than Bush on judicial nominations, too. Again, I don't believe him when he said he'd appoint originalist judges given that he's recently complained about at least one of Bush's appointees whom I consider to be excellent.

A couple other things disturb me about McCain - McCain-Feingold, for example. That is a clear infringement on the 1st Amendment, and is a horrible piece of legislation! He wants to close Gitmo, but has no good solution for what to do with the terrorists there. My fear is that he will bring them INTO the U.S. and give them the same rights as you and I have.

I think the biggest problem I have with McCain, and possible the biggest difference between a McCain presidency and the Bush presidency, is the tone. Bush comes across as confident, almost to the point of cockiness at times, but he is also genuine, humble, and treats his friends and enemies alike with grace and respect. McCain, however, has a history of flaming outbursts against his colleagues and those on his own team. He has shown (in my opinion) a disturbing amount of low-blow mud-slinging over the past few weeks in the GOP campaign, and that reveals a lot to me about his character.

In my opinion, McCain's biggest character flaw is that he has been dishonest with his base. His record clearly shows that he is NOT a complete conservative. If he held himself up as a moderate Republican, I think many of these things would be a non-issue. But, for him to call himself a conservative when everyone with a brain can see that he clearly isn't is a blatant slap in the face, and an insult to all of us who are actually conservatives. That's the kicker in his character, and something that Bush has never done.

Now, the second question: is Bush a conservative? I think that it's a bit of a trick question. Something I've realized through this primary season is that there are, in fact, different flavors of conservatism. The three big ones are social, economic, and national security. I believe that Reagan actually established those three things as the '3-legged stool' of conservatism. Bush is definitely a national security conservative (though weak on immigration), and a pretty strong social conservative (his stance on stem cells proved to be dead-on, and should prove to be almost prophetic as time moves on). Economically speaking, however, he has been very liberal. Under his term, the government has expanded dramatically, and I don't believe he vetoed a single spending bill through his first four years. Not good.

I think that Bush embodies the term 'big-government conservative', meaning that while he has true conservative leanings, he also believes that government is the answer to way too many problems. Is he a real conservative? My answer would be: kind of.

So, Paul, hopefully that clarifies my thoughts on these great questions. I'd welcome any and all comments.

There's my two cents.