Presidential Reality Check

A previously unexciting and even depressing presidential race has suddenly given some very unlikely people reason to rejoice. Sarah Palin seems to represent a set of values that have seemed lost on the leadership of the republican party for years now, and it was certainly a breath of fresh air to hear someone finally bloody up the liberals with their own platitudes. Personally, I’ve shifted from being adamantly opposed to both candidates to wondering whether or not the country could ever recover from four years of the Marxist Obama.Yet beyond the nuances and newfound emotional appeal thrown into the campaign mix, the November vote will still be a choice between two rotten evils.

Obama’s increasingly hesitant and stammering talk is making his insecurity and foolishness apparent to many who could not see it before. His associations with unrepentant terrorists and apparent affinity for Marxists are beginning to hurt him. Some of the lemmings who have hitherto been ecstatic about Obama’s “change you can believe in” even noticed that his 45 minute speech at the DNC could have been made by any other liberal politician seeking victims for political fodder, catering to the unthinking, striving toward a society reduced to the lowest common denominator. Through the course of such a long campaign, even those who would blindly cast a vote for “hope” are beginning to see the facade that is Barack Obama.

Accompanying Obama’s timely self destruction, John McCain surprised the country with the unconventional choice of Sarah Palin as his veep. McCain’s pick is in stark constrast to that of the candidate of change: an old white guy who’s been entrenched in the beltway for 35 years. In fact, picking Palin has virtually removed McCain himself from the news. I’m beginning to wonder how many actually remember that John McCain is the Republican candidate, and exactly what that means.

Perhaps most importantly, electing McCain means installing a president who’s crowning achievement in the Senate was to co-author an unconstitutional piece of legislation amounting to, as Reason.com put it, “a federal speech code, enforced with jail terms of up to five years.” The RNC was laden with the “maverick” and “bipartisan” motifs. Yet, if McCain believes that these “virtues” outweigh the vice of blatant disregard for our Constitution, we’re in for trouble. McCain’s maverick status was on full display as he actively sought to advance and legalize the Mexican invasion of our country as well. His co-authorship of McCain-Kennedy could certainly be hailed as bipartisan, but the success of the bill would have meant rewarding illegal entry into the United States with citizenship. Again, the record shows that McCain’s most proudly touted virtue is practiced at the expense of the rule of law.

Nearly as unnerving as the reality of McCain’s maverick status is his stance on the global warming hoax. To many, including McCain apparently, there is no reason not to enact legislation aimed at combating global warming, for what could that hurt if it turns out we’re actually heating up the earth? There are two problems with this attitude. The first is, far from being “decided science” as Al Gore and the global warming alarmists claim, there is far more reason to believe that humans are not causing global warming than there is to believe that we are. The second is that all of the tactics ostensibly aimed at curbing global warming involve economically crippling taxation, onerous restrictions on individual liberty, and massive expansions of government. In other words, for the sake of preventing an imaginary problem, measures must be enacted that are contrary to everything conservatives stand for. One would hope that a Republican presidential nominee would take it upon him or herself to learn the facts before allowing conservatism to be co-opted by environmentalist hysteria over a scam.

Economically speaking, John McCain could do a lot of good. He has promised to put an end to earmarks and to cut taxes, which could go far in chipping away at the trade deficit, which is on track to hit $438 billion in 2009. Yet McCain’s support for tax cuts seems to be a product of necessity in a presidential campaign rather than a value based position. McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts, regurgitating populist liberal tripe about the cuts favoring the rich. He now says that he opposed the cuts because they weren’t coupled with cuts in spending. It seems the man who Sarah Palin presented as immutable at the RNC is at least slightly susceptible to change (he has also stated that he would now veto his own legislation, McCain-Kennedy).

Republicans are warming up to domestic drilling as a vital American interest and winning campaign issue. McCain seems open now to offshore drilling, we’ll see if we can get more than a lukewarm “maybe” out of him on drilling in ANWR.

Finally, a reality check on presidential politics would not be complete without a look at McCain’s supposed area of expertise, foreign policy. I’ve come to regard our massive presence in the Middle East and around the world as regrettable, it is what it is and realistically will not change for a long time. The back and forth between McCain and Obama over Iraq is one that is years old, and one which most have already decided on. More interesting and important to the future of American foreign policy is the story of Randy Scheunemann, and the implications of McCain’s response to the recent Russia/Georgia conflict.

Randy Scheunemann has always been a lobbyist, that is until the always principled McCain campaign adopted a tough stance against Capitol Hill lobyists. On May 15, 2008, Scheunemann ended his lobbying days to serve full time as McCain’s foreign policy aide. This was about a month after two events of import occurred: 1) John McCain joined the chorus (which included Obama) in condemning Russia over its invasion of Georgia, and 2) Sheunemann, the same day, won a $200,000 lobbying contract with the Georgian government. Yes, Sheunemann was McCain’s foreign policy aide at that time as well. Sheunemann is also the president of the Committe for the Liberation of Iraq, which was the premier lobby for the Iraq War. He was also a signatory to a letter to Bill Clinton in the 1990’s urging war in Iraq. Now he is taking money from the Georgians while simultaneously advising the Republican presidential candidate to provoke Russia over a conflict unrelated to the United States and on the other side of the globe.

Far from preaching isolationism, Thomas Jefferson succinctly and presciently warned against just what is going awry with our foreign policy today. In his 1801 inaugural address, he said, “Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none.” In Washington’s farewell address, he said, “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to domestic nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.” In 8 years of speeches espousing his doctrine of spreading democracy throughout the world, George W. Bush has all but erased non-interventionism from the highest levels of American government. Sure McCain has disagreed with Bush on some aspects of foreign policy, but the prospects of him relying more on our intelligence services and Navy and winding down our role as world police are not looking good so far.

I publish this review not to beat a dead horse, but to keep fresh in mind what the Republican Party has but forth as its best and brightest. If one had to pick between the fairly liberal John McCain and the purely Marxist Barack Obama, the choice would be clear. Yet even with Sarah Palin added to McCain’s ticket, questions remain as to what electing him will mean for the country and for the future of the Republican Party. After all, Palin is at the bottom of the ticket. Even if she truly is the “rock ribbed conservative” that we’re told she is, her role cannot be but so large in McCain’s administration. Nearly everyone agrees that Washington needs a good “shake up,” but to shake the place up without halting its expansion and intrusiveness is not what this patriot is looking for.