A True Believer?

I'm truly enjoying the American Republican presidential primary race, especially now that John McCain has emerged as the certain nominee. It's fun to watch the neo-cons and Fox "News" commentators fall all over themselves denouncing him as not truly conservative.

An organisation called the American Conservative Union compiles statistics on senators' and representatives' voting records and rates members' conservatism based on their votes. John McCain scores more than 82% favourable "conservatism rating." In contrast, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama both score in the single digits.

Actions speak louder than words and the actions of this self-styled "maverick" say conservative almost all the time. He consistently supports the positions of the current administration: a true loyal Bushie.

The cynical me thinks that the far right's harping about McCain is really a ploy to make him palatable to moderate voters in November. The logic being that if reactionary poster children Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter detest him, maybe he's not so bad.

Voter beware! While it's nice to think that McCain takes independent positions and delivers "straight talk," the American electorate needs to exercise caution to avoid falling into the bait-and-switch trap of the 2000 election, when George Bush masqueraded as a mainstream moderate to get elected, then lurched to the right after taking office.

Remember "compassionate conservatism?"