U.S. Senate (Rep.): McCain has vitality, experience - The Arizona Republic

Jul. 25, 2010

Nothing about our rationale for supporting John McCain has changed from our judgments of the recent past.

McCain today is as energetic and enthusiastic an opponent of wasteful federal spending as he was in 1986 when he first was elected to the U.S. Senate. He remains an ardent advocate for the nation's defense, a duty that was sorely tested in the darkest days of the Iraq war, when McCain stood virtually alone in defense of the "surge."

We also believe, still, that John McCain would have guided his nation responsibly and honorably had he been elected president in 2008.

For those reasons and many more, we support McCain in his primary bid for U.S. Senate.

Conservative "tea party" candidate Jim Deakin, a Navy veteran like McCain, is an earnest political newcomer whose libertarian underpinnings are admirable. But he needs seasoning.

J.D. Hayworth, a former congressman and talk-show host, is not the answer that Republicans who chafe at McCain's record seek. In the end, the question is, "Is Hayworth Senate material?" And, in the end, the answer is clearly no.

The ground upon which McCain must campaign is rumbling with sentiments hostile to the sort of immigration reform he once championed. We get that. We cannot appreciate, however, the wholesale rejection now of those ideas.

McCain may be returned to the Senate. We support his candidacy thus far.