John McCain is the only candidate in this year’s presidential contest who possesses the character and qualities that were once (some would say not too long ago) regarded to make a man fit for the office.  No one in this race shares his level of experience, his courage, or his sense of honor.  In our day, there is no one more qualified or more trustworthy to carry out the duties of President of the United States. 

McCain fights endlessly for the interests of our troops and is the only man that can be trusted not bow to the political trade wind of the day when it comes to winning the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan or any other war we may find ourselves in.  On these fronts, he has been proven to be consistently right.  He is armed not only with foreign and defense policy knowledge and experience, but also the right instinct, a quality that, as some of you know, is nearly impossible to develop based on advice and experience alone.  He has been peerless in his fight against earmarks and pork-barrel spending, and he has lived by his word: by any definition, during his 24-year Senate career McCain has requested fewer earmarks than any other currently sitting Senator that has served at least one full term.  McCain is pro-life (and always has been) and has consistently fought to seat conservative judicial nominees on the Supreme Court – from Robert Bork to Sam Alito. 

Following his victory in New Hampshire, McCain read perhaps the best line I’ve heard all year: “We are the makers of history, not its victims.”  For those of us who cherish the most precious aspects of life and liberty, those words need no further explanation.  Very simply, there is no greater patriot in this year’s presidential contest and no man with as keen a perspective on our current social condition.

McCain is an imperfect Republican candidate.  (I would argue there can be no perfect candidate following the confusion of Bush’s second term and the varying critiques launched at Bush from the right and left of the Republican Party).  Yet all other alternatives fall far shorter than McCain.

There is Mitt Romney.  Being ostensibly a devout Mormon is the least of his problems.  Romney’s first and foremost faith seems to lie in satisfying his own ambitions at all costs, whether by changing his positions on Roe v. Wade and illegal immigration to suit changing constituencies or by initiating unprovoked and misleading attacks against his principal Republican opponents.  Romney’s tongue-twisting policy maneuvers testify to his lack of trustworthiness for national office, while his campaign methods (which threaten to do general election harm to any Republican nominee other than himself) illustrate an ambition unbounded by the interests he claims to support.  While these same qualities could make Romney an effective Machiavellian leader, they also make him the least electable of the Republican frontrunners.

There is Fred Thompson.  Thompson is pragmatic, straightforward and full of good ideas. He is anything but lazy.  But his organization is thin and he shows far less interest than his wife in running for the Presidency.  He has yet to provide voters with a clear rationale for his candidacy.  Taking the fact that Thompson’s Senate voting record is nearly identical to McCain’s, and Thompson’s deep respect (and history of support) for the Arizona Senator, one begins to suspect that he has a good deal of personal reluctance about running that no amount of well wishing from the irght could overcome.  My suspicion is that he won’t be in the race for very long – expect a McCain endorsement in the near future and a senior Thompson cabinet post in a possible McCain administration.

There is Mike Huckabee.  He is an affable character with strong values that needs to incubate about a decade longer (he also needs a few geography lessons).  The flat tax is a wonderful idea, but a congressional non-starter (as, among other reasons, it would require the elimination of the charitable giving and mortgage interest rate deductions).  Aside from that, Governor Huckabee hasn’t offered much substance.  We’re not ready for another George W. Bush, especially without Dick Cheney’s steady hand.

Finally, there is Rudy Giuliani.  Wait a minute.  Who are we kidding?  Mr. Giuliani is worthy of respect for his many achievements in New York City, not least his leadership in the aftermath of the worst attack against American soil.  Yet, aside from his unbearable constitutional apostasies (support for Roe v. Wade and flagrant disregard of second amendment rights), he possesses few of the qualities and little of the character necessary to be Commander-in-Chief.  I (and many others) would sooner vote for Ron Paul!

Many Republicans have pointed out and will point out again Senator McCain’s heresies on issues dear to their hearts.  Yet I know that at least 80% of Republican Party members would have agreed with McCain on at least 90% of his positions.  And many others will at least understand where and why he erred.  I have been deeply dismayed by McCain’s positions in the past and I’m certain that, if we elect him, I will enraged in the future along with the rest of you.  But let’s cast aside for a moment our shared dismay with McCain’s opposition to “water boarding”, his prior votes against across-the-board income tax cuts, his sponsorship of McCain-Feingold and his support for President Bush’s “amnesty” bill, and ask ourselves what impact his past positions may have on the future.  

As for immigration, who will enforce federal immigration laws?  My border-state friends should be beating down Rick Perry’s and Arnie’s doors, not President Bush’s (and certainly not John McCain’s).  Illegal aliens that are already here aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  And your local and state elected officials, who are the only ones that possess the power and resources to deal with the problem, might demagogue the issue, but they sure as hell aren’t going to do anything about it because it will harm local businesses and economies.  McCain has finally gotten the big picture right (and he’s the only one to do so).  First, secure the border (inevitably – and unfortunately – this means fencing off Mexico, liberalizing the Border Patrol’s rules of engagement and more proactively going after major corporate violators).  Only then can we provide for a long and arduous path to residency for those that snuck across before we got our act together. 

As for making President Bush’s tax cuts permanent, as long as we have at least one Democratically-controlled chamber, making all current income and capital gains tax rates permanent is all but pipedream (see Article II of the United States Constitution). McCain has promised to work to do so, and I believe him (despite his prior misguided votes, for which there is no excuse).  What’s more, I believe that McCain could extract a better deal from the Democrats than any other candidate.

What about McCain-Feingold?  Let’s face it.  To all those of us that believe (or once believed) in popular democracy, this sounded like a good idea at the time.  Let’s also bear in mind that McCain wasn’t the only leading Republican to support McCain-Feingold -- George W. Bush and Fred Thompson, among many others, supported it too.  The principal notion behind the bill was an optimistic one: it was that a place in the political process had to be preserved for the multitudes (who were, after all, better than just mindless masses) at the expense of individuals and corporate interests that had the most (economically) at stake in the political process.  The most offensive provision of the bill (the pre-election soft money advertising ban) has been all but struck down by the Supreme Court.  The bill's emphasis on transparency has on the other hand been welcome. I suspect that one day we may all come to view the bill and the notion behind it as an unfortunate case of overreaching, though the Republic is unlikely to suffer a crisis of Gracchan proportions as a result.

And finally, there is the issue of “water boarding” suspected terrorists.  Given his experiences, we can hardly blame Senator McCain for his opposition to harsh interrogation techniques, and this is not likely to be a make-or-break issue for most Republicans.  But perhaps, just perhaps, we can persuade a President McCain to adopt a “don’t ask/don’t tell” compromise on this one.  It worked so well for Clinton’s Army. 

There is no one in this year's presidential race whose record of service to our country compares with John McCain's.  No one else shares a 24-year long record of legislative consistency that has been right about 90% of the time, while being able to work effectively with Democrats.  There is no one else that consistently outpolls every leading Democratic contender.  It's hard to do better than John McCain.  It's very easy to do a lot worse.