20080531 “Is McCain the new Goldwater” by Delmarva Dealings

Is McCain the new Goldwater by Delmarva Dealings

June 6^th, 2008

As I was trying to do some file maintenance – and put away everything from last week’s columns and get ready for another Sisyphisian exercise in writing another three columns for next week – I was once again taken by a post by Cato, May 31, 2008, over at Delmarva Dealings: Is John McCain the New Goldwater?

I have done a good bit of research on Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater and I’m not inclined to see Arizona Sen. John McCain as the next “Goldwater,” with one caveat – Senator McCain, like Senator Goldwater, is well known as a principled public servant who has had very few, if any, “election campaign conversions.”

Nevertheless, it is my view, whether or not Senator McCain is our next president – and I certainly hope that he is – history will be very kind to him as it has been with Mr. Buckley, President Reagan, and Senator Goldwater.

Senator McCain, who is the presumptive Republican candidate for president in this fall’s election, certainly has earned the adjective, “maverick,” and has no concept of political expediency.

And he is certainly not running for President George W. Bush’s third term.

As an aside, I appreciated a recent AP article which quoted Senator McCain:

“You will hear from my opponent's campaign in every speech, every interview, every press release that I'm running for President Bush's third term," McCain said. "You will hear every policy of the president described as the Bush-McCain policy. Why does Senator Obama believe it's so important to repeat that idea over and over again? Because he knows it's very difficult to get Americans to believe something they know is false."

For the younger readers in our midst, Senator Goldwater was first elected to the U. S. Senate in 1952. History may know him best by way of his 1964 campaign for the presidency against the political juggernaut, known as Lyndon Johnson.

Although he lost the election, he is remembered by history, as are William F. Buckley and President Ronald Reagan, as the gold standard for advocating less government, strong national defense, disciplined federal spending and reigning-in federal social welfare programs that do not facilitate personal responsibility or empowerment. Senator Goldwater retired in 1986.

I well understood “Cato’s” comment:

In Quin Hillyer’s excellent piece in the American Spectator, we are treated to a rare objective piece on McCain from a conservative POV. As I have previously noted, just not as eloquently, McCain has been a principled politician most, if not all, of his career.

I certainly don’t agree with the Senator on everything…

[…]

He’s right on a great many more issues. He also appears to be an honorable man.

Read (or hopefully re-read) Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative.

While McCain may be weak on excessive government regulation, his record AND rhetoric are much in line with this true blue print of American conservative thought. Rather than risk someone without a true record, but instead one who panders to a philosophy in which they do no believe, McCain can be the bridge that we need from the Bush years back to that shining city.

Read Delmarva Dealings’ entire post here: Is John McCain the New Goldwater?

Thanks for calling “Quin Hillyer’s excellent piece in the American Spectator,” to our attention. And suggesting that we (re) read Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative.

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20080531 “Is McCain the new Goldwater” by Delmarva Dealings