Claremont Conservative Returns and Endorses John McCain

Surprise!

After several days of painting an apartment and doing nothing but listening to talk radio, working out (yes, I work out now), and reading Thomas Sowell, I think it's time to deliver a bold prediction.

John McCain will be the next President of the United States.

I'm not too pleased about this fact, but that doesn't make me any less likely from believing it is is true. Lord knows I have a lot of disdain for some of his kookier ideas. (Just what exactly does he mean when he says "serve a cause larger than yourself"?)

But John McCain is the last best hope we have of stopping this country from voting purely on symbolism instead of principle. Sure, it would be nice to have a black face representing this country abroad, but the same old "tax the rich, sanctify the minorities, and hide from the enemies" approach of Jimmy Carter does not become a new message when it is delivered by a younger, better looking biracial man whose modest paper trail makes you wonder just what you're getting with your side of hope and promised racial reconciliation. (Liberals, of course, abandon this race argument when it comes to discussing Dr. Rice, who has been to more countries than Obama or Bush has as Secretary of State.)

Of course, I happen to think race is so twentieth century and ought to remain a vestige of a bygone era, much the same way witch doctors and other irrational ideas do not stand the tests of time. My progressive friends have failed to understand that we do not transcend race by voting solely on the basis of it. We transcend race by judging a man on the content of his character. And from where I'm looking, Barack's character needs work.

Barack Obama has stood by his racist pastor until the winds changed. He has stood with a former terrorist and fugitive, with a convicted slum lord who happens to be his neighbor and money man, and with a wife whose view of America is as an agent of evil, not of good.

Barack wants to meet with our enemies, but not with our boys in uniform. He says he stand for hope, but there is nothing hopeful about gutting NAFTA or sitting down to chat without preconditions with some of the most evil men our country opposes.

Perhaps it's all the more fitting then, when we compare what little Obama stands for, with all that McCain has stood up for, that I vote for the man who spent much of his youth lying on his back, crippled, because though his arm broke so much he could no longer use it, he never stopped believing that America doesn't need hope or change. It has legions of both.