Posted on Wed, Jan. 16, 2008 S.C. voters who want the president who replaces George W. Bush next January to be a Republican have little option but to support Sen. John McCain in Saturday's S.C. GOP primary.
The gentleman has broad appeal to the independent voters who decide every presidential election. For that reason, he well may be the only Republican candidate who could win in November, bucking the national pro-Democratic tide wrought by the failures of the Bush administration and the previous Republican Congresses.
More important, McCain, R-Ariz., would be a competent president. He understands that America must root its foreign policy in robust diplomacy and vigorous, well-trained, well-deployed military forces. He understands that federal spending restraint is the key to relieving the economic misery of the American middle class, that massive new open-ended entitlement programs would be a mistake. And he knows how to work across party lines to forge compromises that work well for the American people. He could be successful from Day 1 in office.
The other Republican candidates would have difficulty prevailing in a general election and, presidentially speaking, are unknown quantities.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has strong values credentials and experience as a government chief executive. But vigorous pursuit of his economic policy - scrapping the income tax for a national sales tax - would divert political energy away from the more pressing need: reining in spending to fend off recession, reduce the deficit and ease pressure for tax increases. And why gamble that Huckabee could overcome his lack of foreign-policy knowledge?
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney grounds his case for the presidency in business acumen. But his shift in position on values issues such as gay marriage and abortion could haunt him - and the GOP - in the general election campaign. And as with Huckabee, his lack of foreign policy experience invites dangerous missteps.
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani advocates the same neoconservative foreign policy positions that made such a hash of the Iraq war. And while his executive experience as mayor could translate into a talent for federal administration, he seems, at times, politically inept. He has, in effect, made himself a nonstarter.
Former Tennessee Sen. and TV actor Fred Thompson says the things conservatives love to hear. But it's hard to see how he could connect with enough voters to win the presidency - and hard to imagine how he would comport himself as president.
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is so far outside the modern Republican mainstream that he's virtually unelectable. And an unlikely Paul presidency could be disastrous if the gentleman is really serious about returning to the pre-World War II isolationist conservative foreign policy of old. In a globalist world, America has no choice but be globally engaged - though not in wars of uncertain outcome.
S.C. voters were unkind to McCain in his 2000 presidential run. This time, they can - and should - anoint him the Republican establishment candidate, in hope that GOP voters in the big states holding primaries Jan. 29 and Feb. 5 will cement the deal. McCain represents their best hope of retaining the presidency and retaining a sane political balance in Washington.
He earns The Sun News
recommendation.
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