So many are down on being a conservative at the moment and the truth is, few leaders for the last eight years have modeled / pushed true conservatism.  For some reason the Republican Party continues to stray from his core principles and embrace elements of ideas that we simply do not believe in.  Reading essays like this make it a little easier to support McCain even though this article has nothing to do with him.

Enjoy, or not.

David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’

Well, we get what we pay for. We have officially paid for George W. Bush. McCain is no conservative but he is a heck of a lot better than Obama or Clinton. It is surprising that polls show Obama only slightly behind McCain among Republicans. That clearly shows how disillusioned our party is. Obama is a socialist, but he is a nice socialist. He has the charisma and the ability to articulate and sell the extreme socialist, liberal agenda like no one else. I must admit he is impressive. In reality, we as a country might need an Obama figure to show us the “Clinton” years again. It will then swing back our way, but probably not for another 8 years. That is my assessment and it is obviously open to criticism.

McCain will have to answer too many questions about his record. He will be fighting his way out of a hole the entire election as he tries to cover up / repair his record to make him palatable for the right wing (which he needs a good percentage of to even have a chance). On the flip side, he will go into the election with a lot more cash on hand. The current battle between Clinton and Obama will suck them dry. I have not looked into this but I bet many have maxed out to either candidate and will be unable to help the Democratic winner in their final push. Obama’s fundraising ability scares me more because a lot of his base is young and idealistic and will chuck money at him to beat McCain (McCain wears the scarlet letter R next to his name; R = W). Obama’s average donation is pretty low which leaves more room to nickel and dime his way to a hefty campaign coffer.

Here is a list of things that McCain will have to explain / punt on.

1.) Bush’s Tax Cuts: He voted against them in 2001 and for them in 2006
2.) Immigration: He supports amnesty
3.) Iraq: Supports the war and has made fairly bold statements about the length of time he is willing to remain there
4.) Campaign Finance: McCain-Feingold – I will say no more

On top of these pretty big issues, he will need to defeat Obama’s (assuming the Democrats do not bite the hand that feeds them; a.k.a the African American vote) anti-war, pro-socialized medicine, populist message of hope.

I think this may be too much for the 71 year old man.