I will apologize in advance for the lengthy blog post.  This is a topic that simply cannot be skimmed over in a paragraph.  Please take the time to read all of it.  America faces a gravely important election in 2008, the results of which cannot be left to chance.  As of now, John McCain appears to have a substantial advantage over Mitt Romney, but the fight is far from over.  If conservatives rally behind Romney, there’s no reason why he cannot accrue enough success in the Super Tuesday primaries next week to keep his hopes for nomination alive.  Speaking for myself (and not necessarily for the other Voice of Liberty Podcasters,) I wish to clearly state that I support the nomination of Mitt Romney.  It follows that I do not support the nomination of John McCain – the only other viable remaining potential candidate – and I wanted to consolidate my rationale and present a case why I will not vote for Senator McCain, and more importantly why all other Republicans should choose to withhold their votes for him as well.  I will present a litany of reasons why honest conservatives cannot vote for John McCain.  Any one of them should prove enough to dissuade conservatives from voting for him, but I will present many.

1. Senator McCain co-authored the now infamous McCain-Feingold legislation, which has had the effect of suppressing free speech, making it unconstitutional.  This is not the action of a conservative man.  It would be redundant for me to get into further detail on this topic – it has been exhaustively covered elsewhere.

2. McCain co-authored last year’s McCain-Kennedy legislation, which would have granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.  McCain claims that now he has “heard the people,” and understands that they want the border closed before any other immigration-oriented legislation is considered.  Unfortunately for him, his language is very revealing – he has stated on numerous occasions that securing the border first is “what the people want,” rather than conceding that it’s simply what ought to happen.  It’s abundantly clear that it’s not what he wants.  His proposed solution allows the governors of border states to certify the security of the border.  This cynically injects politics into what ought to otherwise be a very objective measurement.  Believe me when I tell you that I don’t want liberal Arizona governor Janet Napolitano being the one to decide whether the Arizona border is secure.  And probably the most egregious demonstration of the pretense of McCain’s alleged about-face on immigration is his choice to enlist for his campaign a “Hispanic Outreach Director” by the name of Juan Hernandez.  Dr. Hernandez has said, “We must not only have a free flow of goods and services, but also start working for a free flow of people.”  Hernandez is perceived by many as an open-borders advocate, and McCain shows us his true colors by bringing him into the McCain campaign.  This is not the action of a conservative.

3. McCain has recently “seen the light” on other issues as well.  In unquestioning deference to the liberal environmental movement, McCain co-authored the McCain-Lieberman act, a Kyoto-type measure that would have a profoundly negative impact on the US economy.  Aside from the obvious difficulties caused specifically by this legislation, it also clearly demonstrates McCain’s affinity for governmental control over markets.  This is not a conservative position.

4. Recent news cycles have seen McCain defending allegations that he once mentioned that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was “too conservative” for him.  As of Thursday, January 30th, the initial allegation made by John Fund of the Wall Street Journal has been corroborated by columnist Robert Novak.  For conservatives who respect the sanctity of life, the nomination of Supreme Court justices will be a very important issue during the next presidential term, during which we may see as many as two justices retire.  And aside from the sanctity of life issue, the US simply cannot afford to have activist judges legislating from the bench.  This is a mechanism of the left, which when defeated at the ballot box, must find an end run to foist its progressive agenda on Americans.  And McCain, who spawned the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold legislation, has zero credibility when he publicly states that he supports constructivist judges.  Again – he demonstrates that he is not a conservative.

5. Senator McCain has recently been quoted as saying that he “fought for patriotism, not profit” in a cynical ploy to distinguish himself as a military hero while denigrating his opponent, Mitt Romney.  The unstated, but very real implication of this statement is that somehow working hard to earn a profit is not an honorable activity, or at the very least that military service is somehow more honorable.  McCain said in the CNN debate on January 30th, “There are some greedy people on Wall Street who need to be punished.”  What did he mean by this?  Is capitalism a sin for which people should be punished?  The defense of our nation relies on the brave men and women of our armed services, but they utilize equipment, technology, and infrastructure that are produced by a profit-motivated capitalist system.  Additionally, McCain has said that he voted against President Bush’s tax cuts because they favored the wealthy.  The facts on the ground have proven that those tax cuts have favored all Americans by incentivizing profit.  Is John McCain saying that the wealthy should be saddled with higher taxes than everyone else?  McCain’s statements suggest that he doesn’t fully support the notion of capitalism.  This is not a conservative position.

6. John McCain claims to be the candidate with the strongest experience and position regarding national defense.  I’ll grant that John McCain served very honorably in the Viet Nam war, and suffered terrible torture at the hands of his captors.  In my estimation, however, it is the very fact that he was tortured that has misfortunately robbed him of any sense of objectivity in such matters.  He has said that waterboarding should not be used by the US government as a mechanism for extracting information from enemy combatants because it doesn’t work.  He’s flatly wrong about that.  The US government has documentation of the information plied from enemy combatants directly as a result of waterboarding.  Moreover, he opposes waterboarding on the grounds that it is torture.  When McCain was actually tortured in Viet Nam, the intention was not information extraction – it was sadism, plain and simple.  As a man who has been tortured, he has lost any sense of objectivity about the subject, and rightfully has a strong and visceral emotional reaction to it.  Invariably, liberals have been known to exploit McCain’s misguided thoughts on waterboarding by touting him as a qualified expert due to his experience with torture.  Sadly, he is wrong about this topic.  I believe that his horrifying memories of his incarceration also color his consideration regarding the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.  He has proposed that Gitmo be closed, a potential result of which would be the re-designation of its prisoners as being entitled to the same protections of the US Constitution that apply to honest, hard-working American citizens.  For all his bluster about being the strongest national security candidate, John McCain clearly is not.

7. It is argued that Mitt Romney would have a struggle on his hands to win the general election next fall against either of the two remaining potential Democrat candidates, and I will grant that it is likely true.  But as a rationale for the defeat of Romney in deference to John McCain, this is pure pabulum.  McCain would struggle every bit as much in what is shaping up to be a tough fight for the White House.  If, for instance, Barack Obama is nominated, the American electorate will rightly perceive a young, optimistic agent of change versus an old, cynical Washington insider.  McCain has stuck his finger in the eye of conservatives so many times now that they simply won’t be there in November to help him overcome this perception.  McCain, the self-described maverick who is nearly as liberal as a Republican can be, has perennially been the darling of the left-dominated mainstream media, and they have been working hard to help him get nominated.  But upon his nomination, they would throw him under the bus – deferring unquestioningly to the Democrat nominee.  Anyone who believes otherwise is a fool.  Much of McCain’s primary success has resulted from liberal mischief-makers, moderates, and libertarian malcontents, who – like the liberal press – will have long ago abandoned the senator come November.  There is talk that McCain would potentially choose Mike Huckabee as a running mate, in a quid pro quo for Huckabee’s continued siphoning of Romney votes through the primary season.  Huckabee is another candidate who naturally leans left on numerous issues, and his choice as a vice-presidential running mate would make McCain even more unelectable by further alienating the conservative base (with the notable exception of evangelical conservatives.)  My final point regarding the electability of John McCain is that he has managed to anger a number of influential talk radio hosts, and also many of us within the blogosphere.  I can imagine that McCain believes that he can either kiss and make up or that the mainstream media will help carry him across the finish line in the fall, but neither of those things will happen.  Conservative talkers, by and large, are principled, and don’t sell out.  The best example is Rush Limbaugh.  Rush doesn’t object to McCain’s nomination because McCain isn’t nice to him – it’s because McCain does not support conservative principles.

8. John McCain is not a conservative, plain and simple.  According to National Journal, McCain’s composite conservative rating has sunk from a high of 89.2 in 1994 to lows of 51.7, 59.2, and 56.7, in 2004, 2005, and 2006, respectively.  McCain wasn’t rated in 2007, because he missed too many votes, but clearly his conservative rating has flagged over the years, and appears to continue heading south.  McCain has developed a reputation of reaching across the aisle to find compromise with Democrats.  Senator McCain’s history seems to indicate that he has a welcome and open seat on the other side of the aisle, and he’s not afraid to occupy it from time to time.

Mitt Romney is the kind of guy who tries to reason his way out of a bar fight.  John McCain is the kind of guy who goes straight for the kidney punch and a kick to the groin.  And you can argue that you want an SOB fighting Islamism in the coming years, and I would agree – but I’d rather have a conservative SOB – or failing that – a largely conservative manager with demonstrable success who examines data and makes rational, carefully considered decisions.  Romney is a mild-mannered Mormon, and McCain is a cantankerous, foul-mouthed, Navy man who has acknowledged extramarital activity.  He just doesn’t come across to me as a decent fellow.  Even now that he’s the clear front-runner, he shows no charm or class – he continues to poke his finger in the eye of the GOP.  In 1996, we nominated a guy because “it was his turn” rather than a winning conservative candidate.  Here we go again – but this time our candidate is not a bonafide conservative like in 1996.  And to be sure, Mitt Romney is not the perfect conservative candidate either, but he would be vastly superior to John McCain as president of the United States.  And as of today, the writing is on the wall – Romney is the only man remaining between John McCain and the GOP nomination and I believe I’ve made a cogent case for McCain to be rejected – I’ll be voting for Romney next Tuesday.