While I'm Thinking About It

In other news, I haven't listened to any Right Wing Talk Radio in two days. It feels nice.

You may have noticed, from recent postings, that I have a certain tendency to fall somewhere right of center in my political thought processes. You would be correct, although most of the time my first reaction to anything tends to be "A pox on both your houses."

I remember eight years ago. Reporters of all types fawning over McCain while riding the Straight Talk Express. Even up until probably May of this year, he was print media's preferred Republican candidate for the nomination. See, for example, The New York Times or The Oregonian and their respective endorsements. I've been wondering from the start, were they so gung-ho for him because they thought he would do the best job if elected, or was it because they figured he'd be the easiest to beat?

I especially like the NYT's endorsement. When McCain works with Democrats, it's because "he has the character to stand on principle." If he does something bona fide conservative, then it's a "tactical pander to the right." How dare the man might let his principles lead him to do things the staff of a great metropolitan newspaper might disagree with?

Hey, here's an example of sticking to his guns: Obama decided to become the first candidate since 1976 to forego public financing for his general election campaign, and then went on the receive record-setting amounts of money, apparently not entirely legally.

Darn it, this is supposed to be a pro-McCain posting, not another anti-Obama rant!

Oh, right, the example. Obama reneged on his "I'll take public financing if McCain does" promise after McCain decided to take the public money. McCain stayed with the public financing program anyway. And he is willing to take unpopular stands, including the McCain/Feingold campaign finance reform bill that became law and the McCain/Kennedy immigration reform bill that did not. So you have to give him credit for that.

I dunno. I think the biggest reason I'm having trouble mustering much enthusiasm is because, thanks to the front-loaded nature of this year's primary season, McCain's nomination was all wrapped up by the time I got my turn as an Oregonian.