John McCain Gets the Kiss of Death

A Republican candidate being endorsed by The New York Times is like Fredo being kissed by Michael in The Godfather Part II.



Such is the case with John McCain.

Primary Choices: John McCain

We have strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president. The leading candidates have no plan for getting American troops out of Iraq. They are too wedded to discredited economic theories and unwilling even now to break with the legacy of President Bush. We disagree with them strongly on what makes a good Supreme Court justice.

Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah.

Still, there is a choice to be made, and it is an easy one. Senator John McCain of Arizona is the only Republican who promises to end the George Bush style of governing from and on behalf of a small, angry fringe. With a record of working across the aisle to develop sound bipartisan legislation, he would offer a choice to a broader range of Americans than the rest of the Republican field.

"Small, angry fringe"?

That's pretty funny!

We have shuddered at Mr. McCain’s occasional, tactical pander to the right because he has demonstrated that he has the character to stand on principle. He was an early advocate for battling global warming and risked his presidential bid to uphold fundamental American values in the immigration debate. A genuine war hero among Republicans who proclaim their zeal to be commander in chief, Mr. McCain argues passionately that a country’s treatment of prisoners in the worst of times says a great deal about its character.

Imagine. McCain tries to appeal to the Right.

I WOULD HOPE SO.

Is he trying to be the Republican nominee or the darling of the libs?

Why, as a New York-based paper, are we not backing Rudolph Giuliani? Why not choose the man we endorsed for re-election in 1997 after a first term in which he showed that a dirty, dangerous, supposedly ungovernable city could become clean, safe and orderly? What about the man who stood fast on Sept. 11, when others, including President Bush, went AWOL?

That man is not running for president.

The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.

Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.

The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.

Wow.

Is it just me or does it seem like they don't care much for Giuliani?

The other candidates offer no better choices.

You're kidding.

I'm shocked. SHOCKED!

Mitt Romney’s shape-shifting rivals that of Mr. Giuliani. It is hard to find an issue on which he has not repositioned himself to the right since he was governor of Massachusetts. It is impossible to figure out where he stands or where he would lead the country.

That's an absolutely untrue assessment of Mitt Romney.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is an affable, reassuring Baptist minister who talks about a softer Christian conservativism. His policies tell the real story. To attract Republican primary voters, he has become an anti-immigrant absolutist. His insertion of religion into the race, herding Mr. Romney into a defense of his beliefs, disqualified him for the Oval Office.

Hear that?

Inserting religion into the race disqualified Huckabee for the Oval Office. The Times doesn't apply that standard to the Dems.

Remember Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's battle for Selma?

Obama:

In a 35-minute address, interrupted repeatedly by applause and shouts of praise from worshipers, Mr. Obama said it was time for his generation to pick up the work of those who had toiled before. He said it was time for the “Joshua generation” — a biblical reference to the leader who succeeded Moses — to urge family and friends to shake their apathy to engage in politics and action.

Hillary:

"I just want to begin by giving praise to the Lord Almighty," said Mrs Clinton, 59, with a Southern twang not normally detectable in her speeches, as she announced she had come as "a sister in worship and a grateful friend and beneficiary of what happened in Selma 42 years ago".

Give me that old time religion! (For Dems only.)

Mr. McCain was one of the first prominent Republicans to point out how badly the war in Iraq was being managed. We wish he could now see as clearly past the temporary victories produced by Mr. Bush’s unsustainable escalation, which have not led to any change in Iraq’s murderous political calculus. At the least, he owes Americans a real idea of how he would win this war, which he says he can do. We disagree on issues like reproductive rights and gay marriage.

In 2006, however, Mr. McCain stood up for the humane treatment of prisoners and for a ban on torture. We said then that he was being conned by Mr. Bush, who had no intention of following the rules. But Mr. McCain took a stand, just as he did in recognizing the threat of global warming early. He has been a staunch advocate of campaign finance reform, working with Senator Russ Feingold, among the most liberal of Democrats, on groundbreaking legislation, just as he worked with Senator Edward Kennedy on immigration reform.

The Times knows a flaming lib when they see one, Wisconsin's great embarrassment -- Russ Feingold. The fact that McCain joined with him on campaign finance reform is not a plus, unless you're a fringe Leftist.

That doesn’t make him a moderate, but it makes him the best choice for the party’s presidential nomination.

In effect, what The Times considers to be the many positives for McCain are actually reasons for conservatives to oppose him.