My (unexpected) endorsement of John McCain

I have touched on the current American presidential primaries in a previous blog and expressed my preference for Republican candidate Ron Paul. Although many "paulites" refuse to endorse Senator McCain and have decided to vote for a 3rd party candidate, I have decided to come out and endorse him.

The reasons are multiple and sometimes complex. I would normally refuse to hold my nose and support a candidate which does not hold many of my views and with whom I disagree but I think that with the current situation, we have no other choice but John McCain.

Here are the main reasons:

1) Although I wish that americans would inform themselves sufficiently and realize that in a democracy or republic, the people are ultimately the ones to decide, regardless of all the media's manipulation and favoritism. I do not believe there is any chance of an independant or third party candidate winning the 2008 election. For that reason, with the choices on both sides, I would much rather see a left-leaning conservative than two liberals, one being way far on the left, the other running as a tag-team campaign with her ex-president husband. John McCain has a long standing record that allows us to evaluate and predict how he will act as a president. Although I do not believe that he will reduce the size of government as I would like to see, I think McCain would be much better for the finances of the United States than a democratic presidency would. He has good experience with military crisis and although I disagree with his opinions on the middle east, I believe that out of the three possible candidates right now, he is the most competent on the subject. He also was the only candidate (apart from Ron Paul) to condemn the use of torture.

2) John McCain gets things done. Although I might disagree with some of his bills and projects, I cannot deny that John McCain has always found a way to get things done in a timely fashion, even if that included reaching across the isle to democrats who shared his views. This kind of politics and the apparent absence of partisanship is what Washington needs to be more efficient.

3) Although a long time supporter of Ron Paul. I believe the paulites should support McCain for the election while at the same time working within the GOP to broaden the spectre of the Ron Paul Revolution. That means to slowly take over the party by getting Ron Paul republicans elected in various positions within the party, giving a much better chance to the next libertarian leaning candidate to actually win the nomination.

So there you have it. I didn't expect it myself, but I have to support Senator McCain based on these reasons (and a few more that would take too long to write about). I don't know, maybe I have lost my convictions, maybe I have fallen to political apathy. Regardless, I will be supporting John McCain for the 2008 election.