Trenton Times: GOP Primary: McCain


Op-Ed By Editorial , Trenton Times

January 28, 2008

Trenton Times (NJ): GOP Primary: McCain

Editorial

Now that New Jersey has a real voice in the primary process, we'd like to become part of the chorus. We're endorsing candi dates for the Garden State's Feb. 5 contest -- one of 23 across the country that day that will go a long way toward determining the presidential nominees.

Yesterday, we considered the Democrats; today, we focus on the Republican slate.

There's an enormous amount of experience among the candidates: Mike Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas; Mitt Romney headed multimil lion-dollar business concerns before governing Massachu setts; Rudy Giuliani, of course, was the mayor of New York City at its most trying time.

But it's the experience of Sen. John McCain, who has wholeheartedly devoted more than 25 years as a legislator, that seems the most relevant for the job at hand. And that's why we're backing him to become the GOP's presidential nominee.

We disagree entirely with some of his positions, most particularly his insistence on continuing the war in Iraq and his vow to overturn Roe vs. Wade, but we're encouraged by his tendency to follow his conscience and not the polls on the most pressing issues.

Shellacked by then-candi date George W. Bush in the 2000 primaries, and written off by many this time around, he's demonstrated his stub bornness, independence and resilience along the campaign trail and in his long career.

Those qualities -- mined, perhaps, during his captivity as a prisoner of war in Vietnam -- have informed his political persona in ways that have made him a formidable adversary and secured his reputation as a maverick.

Most notable among his political accomplishments is co-sponsorship of a bill to regulate campaign finances. The McCain-Feingold law bans unlimited contributions of "soft" money to political par ties and restricts "issue ads." The thrust of that law, and the bipartisan way in which it was accomplished, bode well for the transparency in government that Sen. McCain has vowed to establish in the murky wake of Mr. Bush.

On issues ranging from global warming to free trade, Sen. McCain has exhibited the same independent streak and endeavored to forge alliances across the aisle to achieve progress on those fronts. While advocating a more secure border with Mexico, Sen. McCain believes in providing those immigrants here illegally with a path toward citizenship.

He early recognized the economic folly of Mr. Bush's billion-dollar tax cuts, and was one of only two Republicans in the Senate to stand up against them. He has the practical approach of a comparison shopper when it comes to federal spending and has been eloquent in his opposition to earmarks and pork-barrel projects.

Sen. McCain seems to have a clear vision of what is right and what is wrong, and he has never shied away from expressing that determination. He's blunt, bluff and morally precise. And he stands head and shoulders above his Republican rivals.

Trenton Times (NJ): GOP Primary: McCain