This article seems appropriate today:

(printed for educational purposes only)

True-blue Conservative By Thomas Oliphant, The Boston Globe October 5, 1999

The big secret to John McCain is that he's 10 times the conservative that President-in-waiting George W. Bush is.

The intellectually lazy governor from Texas is trapped by traditional Republican money politics into playing the game between the 40-yard lines. John McCain, both because he's thought the big issues through and because he is truly independent, can actually move the ball where it counts.

You can see how McCain could reform education and make the conservative dream of vouchers finally have a chance to prove itself. There is no question that McCain's is the only route to a beefed-up military. And tax cuts that matter to people could actually happen on his watch.

The difference is not simply Bush politics versus McCain principle, though that is involved; the difference is also McCain's willingness to fight for the conservative issues and values to which Bush gives such soporific lip service. And that difference flows as naturally from McCain's character as it doesn't from Bush's. It also flows naturally from his stance against moneyed special interests that have nothing to do with conservative goals.

At its core, McCain's potential to be an effective president doesn't come from his advocacy of "soft money" abolition as a "liberal" idea; it comes from his advocacy of clean politics as a liberating force for conservatives.

Take education. It is no accident that Bush has gotten no praise and much derision for his wishy-washy ideas on the public schools. After three years of warnings from Washington to nonperforming schools, the governor suggests a $1,500 voucher as a last resort.

"Big deal" has been the response. From the right's perspective, there's too much Washington, and the voucher is too small to be useful; from the middle, the money is coming out of the public schools' hide and thus makes harder the very reforms it is supposed to stimulate.

Enter McCain. He wants real reform: a three-year national test of a voucher system that would have real value and thus offer real choice. Behind it would be real money: $5.4 billion through the states based on public school population but targeted at the neediest students in the worst schools.

Real money, however, requires real reform. Instead of taking it out of aid to public schools, McCain's idea would end an equivalent amount of tax and direct subsidies that the government here gives each year to producers of sugar, oil, natural gas, and ethanol. What's conservative about those government handouts? Nothing, in McCain's view; parochial and money politics sustain them, period.

Now take tax cuts. Bush supports virtually everything on the GOP congressional wish list, symbolized by that $792 billion monstrosity President Clinton just vetoed, half of which was polluted by special interest business goodies.

McCain made the mistake of voting for it in the Senate, but only out of party loyalty and the view that it wasn't going to become law. In fact, he favors none of the business loopholes, none of which has anything to do with conservative tax policy; all of which have everything to do with campaign contributions.

McCain has proposed expanding the reach of the lowest (15 percent) income tax bracket, as well as capital gains and other tax cuts aimed at people as opposed to special interests. He also fits tax cuts into a responsible budget policy (in direct contrast to Bush); President McCain would earmark 72 percent of the projected, non-Social Security surplus to shoring up Social Security and Medicare, 5 percent to debt reduction and thus fully 23 percent to tax cuts. He's not only a tougher conservative than Bush, he's also politically smarter.

And now take the military. In South Carolina, Bush did the typical Republican wish list - from higher pay to every weapons system dreamed of by every defense contractor to no change in the country's bloated base structure.

Again, McCain is a smarter, tougher conservative, who starts out with twice the credibility. McCain's reforms - higher pay, greater readiness, missile defense, and greater sea-lift capacity - would come at the expense of fat (pork barrel weapons systems and duplicative, unnecessary bases).

When the McCain announcement tour reached the Ronald Reagan Library here last week, Nancy Reagan was in the front row - no accident, I'm told. But McCain's thrilling life story, his independence, his civility, and his principled stand against Pat Buchanan are but the surface attraction.

If conservatives ever pay more serious attention to him, they will realize that McCain can lead them to results Bush's please-everybody bromides can never deliver. He has made "reform" a conservative word.

Thomas Oliphant is a Globe columnist.

This story ran on page A17 of the Boston Globe on 10/05/99.

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), February 24, 2000

Answers

Here are some articles from the MIA-POW page, which appears NOT to be a fan of Senator McCain:

http://www.mia-pow.com/page5.htm

-- Pox on them ALL (death@by.politics), February 24, 2000.

Oliphant is a Liberal. The Boston Globe is Liberal. The Liberals are beating McCain's drum. Why?

-- (nemesis@awol.com), February 24, 2000.

Kristi-the terrible thing about deception is that your decieved and you don't know it. John McCain does not want tax cuts...what he means when he states the he wants to revamp the tax code is that he wants to tax coproations more.

-- open your (eyes@wide.com), February 24, 2000.

Poor Kristi, you swallowed this hook, line and sinker, didn't you?

-- Just Curious (jnmpow@flash.net), February 24, 2000.

Life is not black and white. Good men do bad things, and bad men do good things. A German friend of mine was quite insistent on defending the good Hitler did for Germany. That said, I still believe that character counts, integrity counts, and actions still speak louder than words. Many infamous people have been charismatic. Many shallow liars have known what to say, how to say it, and how to work a crowd. Who is John McCain? I have no definitive answer, and I'm still researching what is 'known' about him. I base my research not on his words, but the trail of his life. The most damning evidence to me is his personal conduct regarding his marital history. It is also very damning that his roommate from the Hanoi Hilton openly stated that he should not become president. There is a reason that so many POW's refuse to endorse McCain. If a man cannot show integrity to his spouse or his comrades in arms under stress and in times of adversity, then WHY should we believe that he will show integrity to strangers, to his constituents? I don't care how wonderful an orator a person is, how smoothly they can deliver jokes, or how many 'right words' they can spew.... SHOW ME THE MONEY..... Show me what counts. Actions....character...

-- Mumsie (shezdremn@aol.com), February 24, 2000.

I think that was very well put. :-)

-- S. Kohl (kohl@hcpd.com), February 24, 2000.

Ellen Goodman, the syndicated Globe columnist is a liberal, but she had a really interesting article about John McCain this week. She points out how he has captured the fancy of the media as well as those disaffected citizens who have not been in politics or are sick of the regular speal. (boy has he)

However, she also points out that he is a highly conservative politician and has never said he wouldn't be. People are enamoured with his knowledge, maturity, charisma, and character developed under duress in Nam. Its one of those be careful what you ask for because you might get it things.

I am personally fascinated to watch all of this unfold. McCain is burying Bradley, my personal favorite, because there is not enough room for two mavericks in this campaign. If it comes down to McCain and Gore, I may be swallowing hard and voting for a Republican for the first time since my Daddy told me how to vote when I was a good little girl. And yes, I am well aware of what I might be getting.

It could well be one of those things where people say: "hey, how much can he get done and how bad can it be..."

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), February 24, 2000.

Nancy... check with the POW's who were there with him as to how well he handled duress.

-- Mumsie (shezdremn@aol.com), February 25, 2000.

McCain = LOTS of money, and even more important POWER for the liberal media.

And they know it .... plus, every time they can do anything to cut, harm, or deface a conservative candidate (as they see Bush) - they collectively take and jump into the bandwagon with their cronies.

Everytine they ploish McCain's badwagon with free publicity and glowing praise, they empty Bush's pocket by forcing more advertising (HEY - more money for media ads!) and reduce the Republican and conservative money available for later campaigning.....against the Democratic candidate they truly favor.

So, it's a win-win-win situation for the media to selfishly and shamelessly promote Mccain - as long as it's at Bush's expense, not at Gore's or Clinton's expense.

---...---...---

This, for example, from today's Media Research Center webb site:

<<"The media is more liberal than the average conservative out there can dream" and "they like John McCain" because "he is right in tune with them," columnist Bob Novak declared Tuesday night during a live midnight ET edition of CNNs Larry King Live hosted by Jeff Greenfield. Pressed about why the "liberal media likes a guy who is pro-life, against federal aid to the arts and pro-defense buildup," Novak answered: "They don't believe he means it on those things."

(Thats the same assessment offered on Crossfire a few weeks ago by Content magazine founder Steve Brill. See the February 11 CyberAlert.)

On the show aired the night of February 22 after the Michigan primary, Novak, in a transcript checked against the videotape by the MRCs Paul Smith, confirmed: "My brothers and sisters in the news media, I'm not just talking about commentators such as are sitting around this table tonight, but I'm talking about reporters as liberal as they can be. The media is more liberal than the average conservative out there can dream. They like John McCain. Why do they like him so much? Because on the things they care about that doesn't show up in the voting records, he is right in tune with them. When he says, We don't want a tax cut for the rich, that doesn't show up in his voting record, but that's liberal propaganda. That's the liberal language."

Host Jeff Greenfield wondered: "I want you to answer a specific question. The liberal media likes a guy who is pro-life, against federal aid to the arts and pro-defense buildup?"

Novak explained: "They don't believe he means it on those things. What they think he means -- for example, let me give you a for example on tax reform. Republican Reagan conservative tax reform is trying to get rid of the system, having a flat tax or a national sales tax. His idea of tax reform is closing tax loopholes for corporations. What tax loopholes for corporations? Well, he's very vague on that. But that kind of talk really fits in to what the media is expecting.">>

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), February 25, 2000.