McCain Surge

by Rich Lowry - January 4th, 2008 - National Reivew Online

[John] McCain was a standard Reaganite Republican, who then ran as a raging populist in the 2000 primaries, then lurched so far left in reaction to Bush’s victory over him that John Kerry seriously wooed him to join the Democratic ticket in 2004.

McCain opposed the Bush tax cuts and worked with Democrats on nearly everything. “It is no exaggeration to say that [John McCain] has co-sponsored virtually the entire domestic agenda of the Democratic Party,” Jonathan Chait wrote for the liberal New Republic in 2002.

Exactly what McCain is today is going to be the next debate in the Republican Party. Bob Steinburg, writer of a Conservatives Viewpoint, recently predicted McCain's victory. You can read his logic here, along with my reaction.

My opposition to McCain remains. He is not a conservative. He is not even a populist. He is an opportunist who has contempt for the Republican base. The lazy self indulgence that led him to finish at the bottom of his class at Annapolis has not ended. The personal courage he showed when a POW in Vietnam has forever earned him my admiration as a patriot. His arrogant disdain for understanding the basis of our freedoms has forever assured he will have to be opposed by a pretty contemptible opponent before I can hold my nose and vote for him. The one thing assured is that amnesty for illegals will be high on his agenda. He will have to be the lesser of two evils, and for John McCain, that will take some real evil. He frightens me.