In 2000, the Kalamazoo Gazette endorsed U.S. Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential primary.
|
|
 |
|
More Endorsements for John McCain
Watch our TV Ad "Michigan Endorsed"
Detroit Free Press
Detroit News
Tampa Bay Tribune
The State (SC)
New Hampshire Union-Leader
|
 |
|
Join the growing momentum...
Join our MI team for Victory!
Donate Online
See why John McCain will win
Join the McCain team
| |
 |
 |
|
We described him as intelligent and independent, outspoken and straightforward.
Eight years later, those words still accurately describe McCain.
That's why we recommend that those who cast ballots in Tuesday's Republican presidential primary vote for McCain.
Because of the messed-up nature of the Democratic presidential primary this year, we expect more participation in the GOP election. Independent voters who otherwise would have been tossing a coin over which partisan ballot to choose, are more likely to vote in the Republican primary. Democrats who don't see any point in voting in their own primary will most likely cross over -- if only to make some mischief and vote for someone truly unelectable in November, like Ron Paul.
McCain is our pick, in part, because we believe he would be the best standard-bearer for the GOP in November. He would have the broadest appeal in a general election.
But more important, we believe he would be the better president of those running in the Republican field.
The former Vietnam War prisoner of war knows about enduring adversity in a way that none of the other candidates could possibly know. He certainly has more experience in foreign policy matters than the others. He knows how to work with both Republicans and Democrats.
We believe he is the most likely to return America to the moral high ground in international relations, having called for an end to the torture of terror suspects and the closing of the prison at Guantanamo Bay.
He has made mistakes, for example, getting too close to the ''Keating Five'' in the savings and loan scandal of the 1990s. But he has been open about his mistakes and appears to have learned from them.
Of course, we can't get behind his every policy proposal, including one he uttered last week in Michigan in which he called for federal payments to compensate for wage losses by older workers forced into lower-paying jobs. That idea is a clunker that sounds suspiciously like yet another entitlement program.
Other front-runners in the GOP primary have fine qualities.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is likable and expresses what appears to be a genuine concern for struggling middle- and lower-income families in America. But he lacks critical foreign policy experience. And he is playing the faith card a bit too often for our comfort, especially in his race with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Mormon.
Romney has gleaming credentials as a businessman, but we are concerned at the 180 degrees some of his positions have turned -- especially on social issues -- since he became a candidate for president.
We have no crystal ball. It's too early to even begin to guess what kind of cabinet and vice president McCain would pick. If we knew whom the candidates would pick to help them run the country, that would make the choice much easier.
But going with what we know, McCain is the best choice.
In 2000, Michigan Republican primary voters decided McCain was the right candidate for them.
We believe he continues to be the right candidate today.
Read the Kalamazoo Gazette online here.