PICKERING SUPPORTS MCCAIN AS COMMANDER IN CHIEF

ABC News online had an excellent op-ed piece by Rep. Chip Pickering of Mississippi on why John McCain should be the next commander in chief. Pickering, a strong conservative, supports McCain’s election efforts. The article was an excellent summary of why McCain should be our next President, and not just to lead our military.

Most people agree with McCain’s qualifications to be commander in chief. Pickering’s article covered more than just John’s military qualifications. One example of interest that the article points out was that it was McCain’s ability to broker the “Gang of 14” compromise, something that a lot of conservatives criticize John on, that allowed Congress to start approving federal district and appeals court nominations. Chip correctly pointed out that this compromise “paved the way for the approval of John Roberts and Sam Alito to the Supreme Court” and that “without McCain's leadership in the Senate, we could easily have seen the Democrats filibuster these two nominees and might not have their conservative intellect and strict constructionism on the court today.” This is a great reason why people need to go beyond a specific action (Gang of 14 compromise) and take a broader view of why a good leader will compromise to achieve a broader objective.

I recommend this op-ed piece as an excellent summary on why conservatives should support McCain’s candidacy for the republican nomination in 2008.

NEW UNH POLL

A recent University of New Hampshire poll for WMUR-TV in Manchester leads with the fact that Giuliani's net favorability rating was 56 percent versus McCain’s 32 percent. Romney was in third at 26 percent. This somewhat surprised me given earlier polls that showed McCain and Giuliani much closer. Then I noticed the followup statement that said for likely primary voters McCain and Giuliani were tied at about 27 percent, followed by Romney at 13 percent and Gingrich at 9 percent.

The article justifies the lead with the favorability factor in that this far in advance of an election the professionals look at that versus who the person would likely vote for. That may be the case in the past but Giuliani has not even declared. When he does, his more liberal social views would likely impact his ability to capture conservative republican primary voters.