May 23, 2008
John Hawkins : "Why I Will No Longer Support John McCain For President"
Posted at RightWingNews:
I will defend John McCain when I think he deserves to be defended, excoriate Barack Obama and/or Hillary Clinton at every opportunity, and I will continue to stand behind the sort of Republican candidates who actually deserve conservative support. But, what I will not do is vote for John McCain in November.For the record, I'm not in the same place as Mr. Hawkins. I can't stand John McCain, but I haven't totally ruled out voting for him in November. I also haven't totally ruled out not voting for him.
What I HAVE ruled out is being cajoled onto (or off of) the McCain bandwagon by the hysterical scare tactics and "sky is falling" rhetoric employed by far too many McCain supporters. Much like the Ron Paul fanatics we've all learned to know and love, many McCainiacs and other die-hard GOP fanatics are more than happy to berate, ridicule and insult any conservative or independent who refuses to leap on board for their man immediately and without question. There may be people who respond positively to that sort of thing, but I don't know any.
UPDATE: Ace isn't happy at all:
This is the nasty edge of McCain's conception of himself as impeccably righteous -- he believes he's so above the rest of us in terms of honesty and integrity he can also decide what constitutes a lie and what constitutes bad behavior and what represents a broken promise. As in, his mind, his presidency is absolutely indispensible to America, tiny deceptions like this are not merely excusable, but downright imperative, and thus justified.Or perhaps it's simpler: John McCain is unfailingly honorable; if he acts in a way that seems to be dishonorable, you must be perceiving it incorrectly, because John McCain is unfailingly honorable.
In fact, I imagine he conceives that there's a great deal of integrity in his "having the guts" to tell the conservative troglodytes what they needed to hear in order to secure the nomination.
Back to the point, I haven't yet gotten to the point that Mr. Hawkins has, but I respect his decision along with that of anyone else who has decided that the costs of a McCain presidency would likely outweigh the benefits. I also respect the decisions of those who've determined that the benefits of a McCain presidency likely would outweigh the costs. I suspect there are folks in both groups who can respect a voter who's still waiting to hear what McCain says and does over the next five months before deciding.
The rest of y'all can bite me.
In other news, Team McCain told Jim Geraghty to pay no attention to what the old man said, Macsmind is troubled, while Michelle says "I told you so."
