PJB On Citizen McCain

Here is an excerpt from Pat Buchanan’s response to McCain’s overtures to conservatives. I would recommend reading his entire piece, because it is food for thought.

If the issue were simply, “Does McCain deserve the support of conservatives?” the answer would be simple and emphatic: No. Indeed, John McCain has fully earned the repudiation he received in the Arizona primary, when Mitt Romney ran far ahead among conservatives.

However, there is a question other than whether McCain deserves the support of the right, and it is this: Would it better serve the causes in which conservatives believe to have McCain in the White House or to have Clinton there?

If Hillary or Obama wins, as Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford in 1976, there is, argue some conservatives, a chance for a restoration in 2012, just as happened in 1980 when Reagan ousted Carter, sweeping 44 states and bringing in the first Republican Senate in a quarter century. And we got the Reagan Decade.

But if Hillary or Obama wins, the likelihood is good that either would nominate the next two justices to the Supreme Court. And there is no doubt that any Clinton or Obama nominee will be in the mold of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, not Antonin Scalia, and the long battle for the Supreme Court will be lost irretrievably.

The most powerful case against McCain is that, put brutally, he is not to be trusted.

Many on the right believe that if he wins, he will have no further need of conservatives and will revert to the McCain of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Lieberman, the John McCain of the Gang of 14, who will never nominate justices like Sam Alito, because that would alienate his true constituency, the media, who are at his feet every time he undermines the conservative cause.

There is another consideration. McCain has said he will stay in Iraq another 100 years if necessary, that Russia should be thrown out of the G-8, that he will do whatever it takes to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He has told us: “There’s going to be other wars. … I’m sorry to tell you, there’s going to be other wars. We will never surrender, but there will be other wars.” – PJB

The argument is being made that if conservatives sit this one out, or vote independently this time around then all is lost and for the next months until November we will hear the constant drumbeat of doom and the “end-of-the-world” if Obama or Billary wins. One of our authors, Jim has already started the drum roll.

The fact is, President Bush and Congress are going to leave behind one big mess for the next President and Congress to sort out. We have had a Republican so-called conservative President for 8 years now and up until two years ago a Republican so-called conservative Congress to go along with him. Is anyone out there arguing that the result has been a positive one? No, we have had nothing but lip-service and token conservative efforts. Until the Democrats took the Congress, President Bush did not see a spending bill he did not like. And right there in the mix of it all was John McCain. Do we now forget all of that and pass the torch to someone who is part of the problem? I don’t think so.

This is not new to the readers of BCR. I told you folks last year what was going on and what to expect. For my effort, I was labeled a conspiracy nut. I explained that the field was being loaded with a spectrum of conservatives from every vein of conservatism in an effort to dilute the conservative vote. The only way that McCain or Giuliani had any chance of becoming the nominee was to divide the conservative base. Now who did you see standing on the stage with McCain in California with the Governator after his withdrawal? The other big CFR “conservative” gun was Mitt Romney, and after Super-Tuesday he withdrawals although he still had a credible shot at the title. Now no matter how the election goes, there will be none of that conservative nonsense standing in the way of what lies ahead.

I thought we were at the point where conservatives would reject the same old status quo and take the Republican Party back. Guess we will have to wait for 2012.