Integrity starts at home. If you care more about the party than the country, vote for McCain. Party politics has done, and continues to do a great deal of damage to our country. As a conservative, I resent being associated with Bush, McCain, the Iraq War, Homophobes or the Right Wing spin machine run by psychotic Neo Cons and cult-like free trade opportunists like those of; The Weekly Standard; the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), etc., etc.

You act like McCain won fair and square. Please?!?! He only won because Democrats voted for him while he conspired with Huckabee to split the vote. Then Huckabee who saw the conservative disgust, betrayed him to see if he could run the table on the remaining states and take the nomination for himself. These guys are 2 peas in a pod. Niether can be trusted.

Hence, the problem with your argument is the pathetic daddy like and condescending attitude you and others make this argument with. You won’t be successful in rallying the conservative base this way. In any case, lets look at it from the other perspective. McCain and his pals in the establishment played the insider tricks, got McCain nominated with a paltry portion of the vote with the help of a lot of Democrats and independants and the only reason he is getting barely a majority now is because its already decided. Then you pontificate about the stupidity of our lack of coalescence around this hypocrite. Let me ask YOU the question you should have asked yourselves prior to foisting this open borders jerk on us using the Democrat voters. Maybe we’ll just sit it out this time. Will that make YOU feel better? After all, whats the difference if he sells us out like he has repeatedly already. The only difference is that the conservatives will be blamed for the damage that ensues if he is the one who does it. I may very well plug my nose and vote for this lesser of 2 evils but I don’t need your condescending, crap article to scold me about it. You and all the others can take your doomsday prediction and stick it. Its not going to move me. Unless McCain gives some solid assurances of protecting the conservatives from people just like him then HillBama is exactly what you’ll get. So stop telling US to get in line and start working on McCain because the only way that guy will get elected is to get in line with us!
By the way, you guys once again miss the greatest issue. The single greatest issue is NOT Iraq. It is immigration, that is what is so infuriating about all of this, for what good is it to be strong on the war if you throw the front door open, let millions upon millions in and thus destroy us from within. Then the Iraq war will be a fringe issue at best compared to what we are dealing with down the road. In Europe they are already being blackmailed by the overwhelming influx of immigrants and we are on our way the same direction if we don’t do something about it. RINOs snuck thier guyin while we were sleeping. Now they better figure out a way for us to feel safe supporting thier guy and telling us we’re being stubborn won’t get you or them anywhere. The ball is in McCain’s court.
One things is for sure though. We had better figure out the process by which Democrats chose our nominee for us and CHANGE it.

Someone wrote recently about the ‘McCain Derangement Syndrome’ and I absolutely agreed with the phrase, altho I disagree with the definition. The derangement lies with the elitist sub-cultural in this country who use their power and wealth to manipulate public opinion and the very course of the nation itself. The level of manipulation going on in this election is so overt and so blatant that those involved have completely lost control – which is a good thing.

Take yourself for instance. You come across as a combat vet who supports the basic principles that have made this country great; and then you use up what little influence you may have gained from this among those you label as conservatives, to attempt to stampede the conservative base into giving up all their principles of right and wrong.

Morally bankrupt lackeys have no idea what it is to hold principles above all else. This country survived Carter, it survived Clinton, it will probably survive Obama. Our country’s strength lies in the force of those principles we hold dear, which you tell us we must surrender; to cast them aside and sanction the candidacy of a traitor, a liar, a paid crook, a man who tears up and cries when he hugs one of his former captors who he claims buttstroked and bayoneted him… A man who turns purple with rage and strides out onto the Senate meeting floor to breate the families of POWs… A man who turns purple with rage and demands that the Secret Service arrest an honored Vietnam veteran for protesting the visit of a North Vietnamese government official…

So, yes, we all need to do ‘What’s Best for America’. We need to stand firm to those principles which have made her great, and say: ‘No John, Hell NO!!’

David W. Lincoln :

Mike Huckabee has a plan to get money into the United States, and it is called the fair tax.

While I have other problems with Huckabee, I like the Fair Tax. The only problem is that it would need an accompanying Constitutional Amendment disallowing the income tax from coming back. Otherwise, we will end up with the Fair Tax, and then some time down the road, an income tax on top of it. It would probably start out the same way this income tax started out – as a voluntary tax!

But, if he could assure people that there would only be the Fair Tax, then I like it a lot.

Why not check with your dad as to how the Reform Party was treated by the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. For the way you lectured those who have reservations – it is word for word the same treatment dished out by those who backed the Reform Party of Canada on the Canadian side of the Canada/US border.

It wasn’t the fault of small “c” Conservatives that their expectations were not met, because they saw how thoughtful policies work in each State capital, and frankly those inside the Beltway did a poor job of transplanting good ideas that was the “Contract with America”.

Mike Huckabee has a plan to get money into the United States, and it is called the fair tax. Lord knows it is needed, because of the sub-prime mortgage mess and other unsavoury matters which have affected the economy and Wall Street.

Plus, there is the matter of strangulation by red tape. At least Huckabee is addressing it.

For there are roughly 24 States left to hold a caucus or primary: where is the harm in reducing the number of states which would only have a rubber stamp effect on the final result?

I am tired of whiny social conservatives. I have nothing in common with them. They have run the Republican Party for the last 8-10 years and clearly their lip service to fiscal conservatism was just that – lip service. The Republicans became more addicted to pork than the Democrats.

Maybe it’s time to dissolve this marriage of convenience. Anybody ready to start a party based on social libertarianisn, free markets, end to all government subsidies and a strong defense?

In the mean time, I am an adult and will vote for McCain. He has 2 things going for him: his history as a foe of big spending (1/2 of fiscal conservatism) and his understanding of defense issues. That’s better than the 0 things going for either Democratic candidate. I agree with those who say domestic policy will not matter if we have a foreign policy that fails to put American interests first. Bolton, Giuliani, Ted Olson, the list goes on – all now endorse McCain for essentially the same reason: he is our last best hope for a strong foreign policy.

These conservaties have been (derisively?) labeled as “moderate conservatives”, and they make up Mccain’s base. Arnold Schwarznegger enjoyed similar support and he won 2 terms in the bluest state of them all.

After reading some of the statements made by ‘real conservatives’ here, I can now PROUDLY label myself as a “moderate conservative”. Sure, I (as a Christian who supports the Iraq war) have certain core values that I expect my candidate to uphold without compromise. We all do. But I also realize that I have to concede something. If a Republican wants to win, he must consider moving slightly to the center, hijack a few democratic agendas, and appeal to the middle ground. Arnold used this strategy to perfection and was reelected after his initiatives bombed hard.

I don’t agree with Mccain 100%. But I’d rather have a president who agrees with most (or at least SOME) of my values than a Dem president, who’s basically against everything I stand for. IF you don’t like some of his ideas, you voice your opposition later. His own party won’t support amnesty bills anyways.

I don’t look down at people who won’t vote for whatever reason, it’s their right. If you don’t care either way, and you’re convinced that neither GOP and DEM candidate deserve the support, why not just stay at home and enjoy your time with the family instead of driving to voting booths to vote for a president you don’t feel passionate about? But if you’re even remotely interested in a GOP victory (it’s the party I can most closely identify with, unitl something better comes up) a united front helps our cause. The democrats have two very charismatic candidates who create a stir everywhere they go. Obama is no John Kerry.

Thanks for confusing sovereignty with welfare. It was very inventive.