Right. McCain is plenty conservative - especially in his temperament.
That doesn’t mean I as a conservative don’t have disagreements with him - I certainly do. As an example, I think he did not take First Amendment principles sufficiently into consideration when crafting campaign-finance reform.
Still, we know enough about both men to know that they will piss us off in fairly predictable ways - and I would be far more pissed off by decisions by an Obama administration than a McCain one, in all likelihood. Expecting perfect bliss from either man is a false hope, as it is from any politician.
If you want other reasons, I have always supported this conflict and believe we should see it through, so that aspect of it shouldn’t be surprising. As for the GI Bill issue, that was a legitimate debate between people who wanted to vest benefits quickly and people who wanted to vest them over time as an aid to retention.
I’d like to say that there were people of goodwill on both sides of that one, but given the way opponents of the Webb proposal were savaged for their opinion, I cannot give some proponents of the proposal that much credit.
I am really undecided. When I look at Mccain I try to see if he really is the guy from 2000 I liked who has just put on a mask to fool the neo-cons to win the election. Or if he has actually become that guy.
There are 5-6 months until the election; I do actually have hope that things will have settled down to the point where it’s a discussion about whether we still have just 5,000 guys there sitting around. If it does then Iraq is moot, if it doesn’t(admittedly the vast probability), then the actual circumstances, and who I think is better to handle them is a factor.
Obama’s economic plan seems really huge government on first read. I’ll have to get a chance to read more of it, but first look did not seem good to me.
I am also really scared of any President in these activist-judge days possibly having a filibuster proof chance at supreme court nomination. McCain is possible as a gridlock vote for me.
I am kind of surprised at the Obama being against the 2nd Amendment notion.
I am not sure I have heard him speak to that point (of course could have missed it).
Were I to guess I think he would be for more restrictions on guns. That said, and as has been noted here in other threads, democrats are not drinking from that poison well again anytime soon and will avoid the issue in a big way. Add to that the next president has plenty to keep him busy and I do not see 2nd Amendment issues appearing on anyone’s radar for a long time. Finally, I understand the SCOTUS will be ruling on a 2nd Amendment case soon which will likely lock it in stone as is even more.
In short, whatever your reasons for worrying about Obama, I really think 2nd Amendment concerns shouldn’t be one of them.
You shouldn’t be surprised. He has a history in this area, especially as a state legislator. And while I think calling him anti-Second Amendment might be stretching it, it isn’t stretching it very far at all. He has been very supportive of gun control in the past - including very intrusive controls.
Now, you might be right that this won’t be a priority for him - but I don’t know that for certain, and neither do you. So if gun owners have doubts about the guy on this issue, it probably is for good reason, and Obama might be well advised to clarify his position on this.
I don’t believe Obama has repudiated his support for a ban on all semi-automatics.
Not that I would expect that he would, as long as he can avoid the issue. Better to leave it undiscussed if possible. If he affirms the position, he pisses off gun owners, and makes his statements about the Second Amendment sound pretty hypocritical. If he repudiates it, he pisses off the gun-control crowd and makes himself look like a flip-flopper.
He has clarified it. Again and again. For example, in a 2008 Politico interview just before the Potomac primaries, he differentiated the two prevalent gun cultures: law abiding citizens who use guns for hunting, sportsmanship, and self protection; as opposed to thugs who use guns to commit crimes. He favors only the sort of controls that will limit lawful gun ownership to people with no history of violent crime or mental illness. Even a libertarian would support this. A person who commits violent crime has no rights, and a person who is incapable of giving meaningful consent cannot rightly formulate an ownership contract.
Well, I found this cite that talks about Obama’s positions on gun control. I have to say that it’s a bit soft as a lot of what he says, while articulate, doesn’t actually nail his positions down. However, on the one you are asking I think it’s a bit more plain:
He hasn’t clarified it much - he just makes some reassuring noises to gun owners while not changing any of his previous positions - like castigating Bush for not renewing the ludicrous “assault weapons” ban and advocating a ban, as Shodan noted, on all forms of semiautomatic weapons.
He also continues to support the DC handgun ban. Now, none of these bans have any kind of violent crime or mental illness provisions, so when Obama makes noises in that area, you should understand that I’m not convinced of his sincerity.
I went around and around with (IIRC) Shayna on this one. Obama said he supported a semi-automatic ban back when he was running for state Senate, ten or eleven years ago. AFAIK, he has never repudiated this, although I have heard allegations that he said one of his aides filled out the form where he said it.
Like I said, it would be dumb for Obama to clarify his position if he can get away with some general waffling.
I fully plan to vote for Obama, even if he adds someone I dislike.
However, as I mentioned in the Obama location thread and multiple times over the years I like and respect McCain. I finally decided to vote for nearly any Dem over any Republican this year as I want the Republican out of power and to take time to regroup and move away from the religious right and the Bush disgraces of economic, domestic spying and foreign policy.
I still believe this country and world would have been far better of if McCain had won in 2000. But now he is 8 years older, we have disgraced ourselves as a country and the Supreme Court has moved too far to the right. So while I still like McCain, Obama is an easy choice for me.
This is the first election where I actually do like and respect both candidates. It is very refreshing. Usually it really has been the lesser of two evil or an Independent candidate for me. My vote for Reagan in 1984 was the only vote I casted for a presidential candidate I actually liked.
BTW: I voted for McCain in the NJ Primary and then officially left the Republican Party. I am now an independent for the first year I voted at age 18.
To those that say McCain is not a true conservative, I do not understand. He idolized Barry Goldwater. He is at heart a fiscal conservative and a hawk. Until recently he dismissed the Theo-cons, but I suspect and hope he is only paying lip service to them now. I think he is more of a Republican than most of these current Theo-Cons and Neo-Cons in office today. The party changed dramatically in the last 28 years. McCain is close to what a conservative Republican looked like before Reagan brought the Theo-crats and Dixiecrats into the Republican party.
Jim (Bring back the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and even Ike!)
As for what “conservative” actually means in America nowadays, I tried to present as exhaustive an analysis as possible in this post, to which I occasionally link as here, and nobody to date has criticized the analysis or suggested any additions to the list, FWIW.
Yep, that’s a big one for me. I’m highly skeptical of his economic policies and his overall socialist leanings, but I want to see the Iraq war and these stupid domestic spying and secret torture programs ended as soon as possible. I also love his strong personality, his ambition, and his ability to motivate. If it weren’t for his complete hostility to my right to bear arms, I would be clamoring to vote for him.
As it is, though, I’m gonna sit this one out. McCain’s no better.
