CR Nation

My choice for president surprised even me. I will be casting my vote for John McCain.

I always knew that John McCain was a good conservative. For many years, he seemed to be the only voice fighting earmarks and wasteful government spending. In a Congress addicted to pork-barrel spending, McCain often stood alone among his colleagues.

John McCain has always been one of the strongest supporters of the war in Iraq, because he understands that this is a war America must win. But he has not simply cheered from the safety of his Senate office; McCain has repeatedly traveled to Iraq to glimpse the situation firsthand, and encourage the troops.

And John McCain has voted in favor of every restriction on abortion and for every strict constructionist judge, and supports defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

It is when John McCain disagrees with our movement that causes conservatives to pause. A long laundry list of complaints could be drafted without much difficulty: immigration, torture, global warming, and the worst of all, campaign finance reform. Yet these are not the maneuvers of a calculated politician, for every one of those positions has made his candidacy more difficult. Currying the media’s favor was thought to be McCain’s motivation; I thought so myself for quite some time. Then he earned the media’s scorn with his unwavering support of the troop surge in Iraq, and my theory was disproven.

I believe that John McCain does what he thinks is right for the country, and that is why he is independent, a maverick. He didn’t work with the Democrats on issues like immigration and global warming because he wanted to alienate his own party; McCain saw a problem, and he wanted to find a solution. Same with his opposition to the president’s Iraq strategy; it wasn’t so that he could score political points, but so the best approach could be implemented.

And it is that statesmanship that I admire most about John McCain. When everyone in the media and most of the politicians in Washington were calling for troop reductions, McCain said that we needed troop increases. When his campaign began to falter and the media blamed the war, McCain said that he would rather win a war than win the presidency. I think he meant that, too.

John McCain has served the United States of America his entire life. He suffered severe torture and abuse for almost seven years in captivity in Vietnam. He could have been released at the very start, because his father was an admiral. But McCain chose to stay. He returned home with honor and went to Washington a decade later, where he has served for a quarter-century.

John McCain loves this country, and I believe that he will do what is best for America. Not for himself. Not for his party. But for America. That is why I will be voting for John McCain.