Blogs For Victory

What may prove critical to who wins is the number of Democrats who decide not to vote for Obama:

WHILE BARACK OBAMA talks a good game about being able to unite this country, as a former Hillary Clinton supporter who has closely examined both his words and actions, I don’t see it that way at all. I and a growing number of my fellow Democratic elected officials in New Hampshire believe that it is actually John McCain who is best able to bring us together as a country and a people, will inspire a new American unity and patriotism and will push all of us to work together to solve our most pressing challenges at home and abroad.

Given the fact that I am making a difficult decision to cross party lines to support Sen. McCain, I thought it would be useful to explain why I am joining a growing number of Democrats (including three lifelong Democratic state representatives who have endorsed John McCain in just the last month) in this state who are uniting to elect John McCain as our next President. While Obama talks of putting partisan politics aside, the reality is that his record in the U.S. Senate shows he has voted with Democrats 97 percent of the time. He has never once taken on the Democratic Party on even a single issue.

John McCain, on the other hand, has never allowed partisan politics and Washington political scorekeeping to come before the greater good of what is necessary for this nation. I have seen him time after time rise above the political pettiness in Washington politics to get things done for this country to make it more safe, secure and prosperous. He has taken on people in his own party time and time again and has made many in the Republican Party leadership upset – which, I can tell you as a Democrat, first caught my attention and showed that will put country over partisanship.

As a former Hillary supporter, I certainly do not agree with John McCain on everything; but, what I most like most about John McCain is that he has proven continually that we can trust him to do what is right for our country.

Country first, indeed. And this is true – lost in all the hub bub of Campaign ’08 is the fact that GOPers in general and conservatives in particular have long had bones to pick with Senator McCain but aside from a few elitist “wets” (as Maggie Thatcher called them), we’re all swinging enthusiastically behind John McCain. Why is that?

Sarah Palin is a big reason, but the more important reason is that John McCain is someone who has the experience to be President from day one; that John McCain is a man unafraid of taking the hard path in service to our nation as a whole; that John McCain is a sincere patriot who views America as an exceptional place, graced by God with immense wealth and power for the benefit and example of the whole world. Trust me on this one, if McCain wins on Tuesday, on Wednesday we conservatives will start gearing up to do battle with McCain on such issues as global warming and campaign finance reform…and while I’ll be with McCain on it, there will be those on the conservative side who will still want to fuss with McCain on the immigration issue. We are not, you see, supporting McCain out of blind, partisan fury – we are supporting him because he is clearly the better man for the job.

As I’ve said before, I feel an affinity for Barack Obama – he is, after all, the first person of my generation to rise to the top of our political field. He and I disagree on 19 out of 20 issues, but I sense in him a kindred spirit in a lot of ways. I’m hopeful that Obama – now freed from Wright’s poison – will grow in his faith and start to realize that being an economic liberal is a matter of opinion, but being a leftwing fanatic is a matter of exceptionally poor choice. But, for the present, I’d rather have Joe the Plumber in the Oval Office than Barack Obama – at least Joe has been in charge of something in his life other than the advancement of Joe.

Some Democrats see this, too – and understand that while it’d be nice to win the White House, its not worth winning if the man who will hold it is not up to the job. It would not only be bad for America and the world for someone like Obama to win, but also bad for the Democratic party which would bear the brunt of anti-Obama disaffection by 2010.

Country first, fellow Americans – once we secure a government which will do that, then we can get back to our regularly scheduled political arguments.