Why I am Not Voting for John McCain

With John McCain’s recent rise in the polls and primary victory in New Hampshire, I have been forced to take a closer look at his candidacy for President. I have never been a supporter of him, but do not hate him either. Let me get the obligatory “He is an honorable man and served his country well both in the military and the government” out of the way. All of this is true, but is not nearly a good enough reason for me to support him for President. The following are the reasons that I have chosen not to support John McCain in the Republican Presidential primary.

The first reason that I am not supporting him for President is the most obvious, his age. Few political pundits are willing to admit it, but this is a major disadvantage in a general election for him. In American politics, we are always looking to elect the “next generation” of leadership. Senator McCain, would be a step towards electing the previous generation. President George W. Bush was born in 1946. Senator McCain was born in 1936. This means that Senator McCain will be 10 years older than the current president on the day that he would take office. Even more striking is that he is 25 years older than Barak Obama, 17 years older than John Edwards and 11 years older than Hillary Clinton.

The second reason that I am not supporting John McCain for president is his position on immigration. McCain has not been a strong supporter of securing our borders. Although the recent immigration bill he tried to pass did include a component of securing the borders, that was not what it came to be know for. It became known for being an “Amnesty Bill”. Whether or not you believe it was amnesty does not matter. McCain was not able to argue effectively to the American people that this bill was the right course of action. What makes us think that as President he will have any more success?

The third reason I am not supporting John McCain is that he has never been a strong proponent of tax cuts and fiscal discipline. McCain did not vote for President Bush’s tax cuts and still says that he would not vote for them. McCain does get some credit for his being against “pork barrel” spending, but this issue also shows McCain’s lack of being able to influence Washington as earmarking is still prevalent in government budgets.

A forth reason I am not supporting John McCain is that he has never been strong pro-life advocate. McCain will argue that he has a pro-life voting record and that may be true, but he has never conveyed that it is an important part of his political life.

The fifth reason that I am not supporting John McCain is his work on campaign finance reform. I believe that if it was up to John McCain we would have total public financing of elections. He has worked to limit the money that individuals and groups can spend in support of an issue or candidate. His famed McCain-Feingold bill is opposed by just about every important voice in the conservative movement as an attack on free speech.

The 6th and final reason that I will give in this article is perhaps the least purely logical reason, but still it is important. I believe that John McCain will “surprise” conservatives with something major that he does if he is elected president. McCain has been too willing to compromise conservative principles in the name of showing bipartisanship or progress for a specific issue. The McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill and the failed immigration bill and are both examples of this trait. Neither bill is based on American conservative philosophies.

I have not made my final decision yet on who I will vote for in the primary, although I am leaning toward a certain candidate. Connecticut votes on February 5th, so I will need to wait and see which candidates make it to that date before making my final decision.

This one is for Shadowmom

...although she would also have coordinated her purse, coffee cup, and earrings. At least.

Kucinich seeks NH recount

In what is sure to be a purely public-relations move, Dennis Kucinich has asked for a recount of the NH democratic primary to "ensure every vote is counted." Why do I say it is pure PR? He admits that he expected it will change nothing.

Democrat Dennis Kucinich, who won less than 2 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary, said Thursday he wants a recount to ensure that all ballots in his party's contest were counted. The Ohio congressman cited "serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors" about the integrity of Tuesday results.
Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said Kucinich is entitled to a statewide recount. But, under New Hampshire law, Kucinich will have to pay for it. Scanlan said he had "every confidence" the results are accurate.

In a letter dated Thursday, Kucinich said he does not expect significant changes in his vote total, but wants assurance that "100 percent of the voters had 100 percent of their votes counted."

It would be interesting to see one of the front-runers offer to pay for the recount, as an expression of their confidence in the system. But I really expect to see either (1) they'll ignore this or (2) Ron Paul will offer to use his excess funds to pay for the recount.

"Weekend at Bernies" as street theater

Sometimes crime is a social problem related to poverty, education, or perceived injustice. Sometimes, it is a problem related to stupidity. I saw a local news report about this, and the witness could hardly keep from laughing.

When Virgilio Cintron, 66, died at his apartment recently, his roommate and a friend saw an opportunity to cash his $355 check, the police said.
They did not go about it the easy way, the police said, choosing a ruse that resembled the plot of "Weekend at Bernie's," a film about two young men who prop up their dead employer to pretend that he is alive...The roommate, James P. O'Hare, and his friend, David J. Dalaia, both 65 and unemployed, placed Cintron's body in the chair and wheeled it around the corner Tuesday afternoon, the police said. The men parked the chair with the corpse in front of Pay-O-Matic, a check-cashing business that Cintron had patronized...The two men started to bring the chair inside, but it was too late. Their sidewalk procession had already attracted the stares of passers-by who were startled by the sight of the body flopping from side to side as the two men tried to prop it up, the police said...A police detective eating at a nearby restaurant saw the crowd and notified police. Police officers and an ambulance arrived as the two men were trying to maneuver the corpse and chair into the check-cashing office.

Somehow, I doubt this one is going to be made into another George Clooney, Brad Pitt caper movie. Sigh.

I am SO glad I am not a pollster

Kerry endorses Obama

Not sure how happy Obama will be with this. Is the endorsement of last cycle's big loser really all that valuable? Still, an endorsement is an endorsement when you are in a tough battle. And if it leads other folks to also endorse you (like perhaps VP Al Gore) then it may make a bigger difference.

Then again, if John Kerry is endorsing you, can you really say you are "the candidate of change?"

OLPC skepticism grows

I have been a big fan of the One-Laptop-Per-Child program. I love the idea of empowering third world learning with cheap computing power, and the idea of what kinds of creativity can be unleashed by bringing a rugged computing device to places where the average "computer" previously was an abacus. There were a number of skeptics up-front - mostly those who believed it was useless to give a computer to a child who was uncertain where her next meal was coming from. But that chorus mostly faded away before the excitement of many developing nations about a new way to educate children without having to buy obsolete textbooks.

I bought an OLPC on the Give1Get1 program and received it shortly after the New Year. I have been playing with the device for about a week now, and am starting to have doubts. It is not that it is low-powered - I expected that - but that the OLPC program has forgotten a number of things including easy-to-use documentation and a focus on a bug-free experience. I am finding the machine crashes very easily (it won't even load the Wikipedia article on Fred Thompson without crashing), and the docs that supporting sites are as slow as the machine itself. I am starting to wonder if the skeptics are right. My remaining hope remains in the fact that what I received is essentially a beta and that fixes and updates will be coming quickly.

I am still hopeful, but starting to truly wonder if the long-term legacy of OLPC will not the XO-1, but the many competitors it has forced into the marketplace, like the highly-popular Asus Eeepc.