Monday, July 7, 2008

Saving Sullivan's (Political) Soul

And now, dear readers, we come to the case of one Andrew Sullivan (WIKI profile). As his Wiki indicates, he HAS BEEN an Obama supporter. This is the same person who still admires Margaret Thatcher (NOTE: Not judging that, here). Regular Dish readers know that he favors entitlement reform, smaller government, and something of a flat tax, not exactly liberal ideas.

Now, given my support for Obama, I should welcome his potential support. In a sense, I do, but I tend to feel folks should vote for the person who most closely follows their views. Now, a quick comparison:

John McCain On The Issues

Barack Obama On The Issues

Now, who do you think most closely resembles Andrew Sullivan (other than gay rights)? NOT Obama.

Recently, Sullivan went thru some mental jujitsu to justify his lack of an endorsement (now) for McCain. THIS on fiscal conservatism. He likes what McCain says, but doesn't believe him? By that standard, vote for no one!

On Iraq, where Andrew repudiated his fervent, neo-conish support for the war, but now admits that, on some level, the surge worked, we find THIS. Elsewhere (can't find it), he says that differences on Iraq between are decreasing.

On most of domestic policy, he ought to favor McCain (wishful thinking, notwithstanding*). Foreign policy is a tougher call, given how Iraq sobered many, like Andrew. In theory, McCain should be different from Bush (Climate Change, for one**) in this arena. Of course, different might mean "crazier than Bush," ala Abe Greenwald. If we assume he won't be a total neo-con idiot (to be fair, there's a case to be made that he WILL), then, for his own good, I suggest Andrew look at everything and... Endorse McCain.

Why do I say this? In my mind, if you end up not supporting the candidate with whom you are in agreement more because of the traits of the other person, you'll regret it. Because while I'm convinced Barack Obama can be a great president, I'm a liberal. For Andrew's conservatism, however, McCain is his best bet.

One more note. If the GOP nominee were Romney or Giuliani, I'd skip this post altogether. Why? Well, Romney's a dishonest hack and Rudy, uhh, SCARES THE BEJEEBUS out of me, and others. Within the GOP at least, McCain is neither (though his foreign policy makes this liberal nervous).

Postscript. Earlier today, I thought he was coming around to his more natural place with these two*** posts. Later on, though, that seemed not to be the case.

*I'm agnostic on Soc. Security myself.

**Effing Hilarious.

RNC on climate change: Man, we suck!

***Andrew clarified his (seeming) support for the ad HERE.

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