Monday, February 04, 2008

A McCain Better Than a Bush?   [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

Former Republican Senate aide Manuel Miranda is sending around his endorsement of McCain. He ends it saying:

a McCain presidency would revitalize the conservative movement, and the values voters movement, too often coopted by this White House into silence, without losing the hope of restoring the Constitution and the Supreme Court to the American people.

In other words, social conservatives will do better under a president who doesn't care about social issues than one who does, but sometimes strays on issues. I think this may, in fact, be a calculation on the minds of conservative voters. I think it's wrong. But it's out there.

And I think it suggests Peggy Noonan was onto something in her column too weeks ago about Bush-fatigue demoralization. I don't blame W. But I think that's where some conservatives who think a lot about these things are.

That said, I would humbly encourage conservatives not to take "values voters" into "victim voters" territory by punishing the more conservative candidate for the shortcomings of a president who will be remembered for making some key historically important decisions. One who in the end, did deliver some great and abiding conservative successes (Alito and Roberts! I said...in the end!).

02/04 12:12 PMShare