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McCain best man for White House

By:

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Tested by time, John McCain has shown the character, commitment and judgment necessary to be an effective president.

Almost all presidential campaigns are special historical events. But even by that lofty standard, the 2008 race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain has been special.

By the time it's over, this country will have either elected its first black president (Obama) or its first female vice president (McCain running mate Sarah Palin). Each presidential candidate trod a long, sometimes rocky road to his party's nomination, with severe economic setbacks (the subprime mortgage crisis) and international intrigue (Russia's invasion of neighboring Georgia and the war on terror) dictating campaign debate.

Both McCain and Obama are impressive, likable candidates. There's no getting around the fact that Obama, who's low-key, smart and articulate, makes a great impression. His gentlemanly demeanor is a particularly attractive feature of his political personality.

McCain's image is less polished, but there's no doubting his personal courage, depth of character, integrity and commitment to public service. It's been his life story, personified by undeniable gallantry while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam. That's one of the reasons The News-Gazette is endorsing McCain for president. But there are others.

It's a dangerous world, and McCain has far more experience and has displayed better judgment than Obama in foreign affairs. Indeed, the Democratic candidate's naivete on these issues is so striking that his own vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, recently said "it will not be six months before the world tests this guy. ... we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

Unsuccessful Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton asked during the primary campaign who Americans would prefer to have answer the White House phone at 3 a.m. when there's trouble brewing, and our answer is McCain.

Biden's prediction of trouble, of course, is just his informed speculation. But look at a real issue, the flawed handling of the war in Iraq. McCain urged a change in strategy for months, ultimately backing Gen. David Petraeus' surge plan that has turned the war from quagmire to near victory. Obama preferred to leave Iraq in defeat and stubbornly refused for months to acknowledge the success of the surge, finally suggesting it had succeeded "beyond anyone's wildest dreams." Well, the surge wasn't successful beyond Petraeus' and McCain's wildest dreams. They backed it for good reason.

The world, of course, is full of dangerous actors – North Korea, Iran, Russia to name just a few. Who is better prepared to deal with them? Obviously, it's McCain, not a recent graduate of the Illinois State Senate and the Chicago political machine.

Here's another reason. McCain would be a check on what surely will be a Democratic Congress. Americans, for good reason, like divided government because the extremes in each party can be held in check. With Obama as president, Democratic liberals in Congress will have a field day pushing through an ambitious, expensive social welfare agenda that will be disastrous for the country and invite the same kind of political backlash generated by the excesses of President Lyndon Johnson's administration after the 1964 election.

The economy, obviously, is the biggest issue facing most Americans, and understandably so. People are increasingly nervous because of the fallout from the subprime housing mortgage crisis and its rippling effect throughout the economy.

It seems certain this country is in the beginning stages of a recession, and it's a basic tenet of economics that raising taxes in hard economic times only prolongs the misery. Yet Obama is promising tax increases to fund his plan to "spread the wealth around." For political reasons, he's promising to limit tax hikes to those who make more than $250,000 a year. But that's about as credible as President Clinton's campaign promise of a middle-class tax cut, a plan Clinton dropped almost immediately after he was elected.

McCain is not as well versed on economics as he is in other policy issues, but his instincts are sound. He's opposed to the increases in marginal tax rates, capital gains and dividends that Obama has proposed. Further, he's proposed lowering corporate tax rates to the same level as other countries in order to spur more investment and hiring.

No candidate, unfortunately, comes without flaws, and McCain has his share. He's been myopic on the subject of campaign finance reform, the best example being the McCain-Feingold campaign finance legislation. The solution to the problem of campaign finance is full disclosure, not passing loophole-filled legislation that tries to limit spending. This campaign is the perfect example of McCain's mistaken stance. He's being buried under hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign donations to Obama, many of which Obama refuses to disclose. McCain also has the tendency to be preachy on issues about which he feels strongly, failing to acknowledge that others may have meritorious arguments, too. That contributes to his hot image, which does not always contrast well with Obama.

But McCain is clearly our choice. He's devoted his life to this country and paid in blood for his devotion. McCain is the man we want in charge, not only to forestall the immediate international crisis Biden confidently forecasts Obama will face but also to address the innumerable, unknown challenges of the next four years.