THE PALM BEACH POST ENDORSES JOHN MCCAIN FOR PRESIDENT

"[T]he best choice for GOP voters is a former POW who might have been the Republican nominee eight years ago if he hadn't been the target of a low-road attack in the South Carolina primary on behalf of George W. Bush. The Post recommends John McCain for Republicans in the state's Jan. 29 primary. ... Sen. McCain's most important attribute is his willingness to follow where his conscience leads him ... More than any GOP candidate, Sen. McCain can improve the country's reputation around the world. ... Among the Republicans, he is the best prepared to take it." -- The Palm Beach Post

Florida Primary: Republicans: McCain
Editorial
The Palm Beach Post
January 20, 2008

Republicans never will have a more eclectic collection of biographies to choose from than in Florida's presidential primary.

There is a guitar-playing Arkansas preacher, an actor, a former New York mayor, a former Massachusetts governor who ran an Olympics in Utah, and a libertarian Texas obstetrician who wants to abolish the IRS and replace it with nothing.

But the best choice for GOP voters is a former POW who might have been the Republican nominee eight years ago if he hadn't been the target of a low-road attack in the South Carolina primary on behalf of George W. Bush. The Post recommends John McCain for Republicans in the state's Jan. 29 primary.

Sen. McCain calls his campaign bus The Straight Talk Express, and we'll start with some straight talk of our own. We disagree with Sen. McCain on some big issues. He has been an unwavering supporter of President Bush's disastrous adventurism in Iraq, calling in December 2001 for Iraq to be the next post-9/11 target. Yet Sen. McCain did not "stay the course." Early and often, he criticized the war's mismanagement and called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as defense secretary. His demand for more troops led to the "surge" that reduced violence, if belatedly.
While Sen. McCain opposes abortion rights, he correctly believes that the government should pay for research on embryonic stem cells. While he supported the Bush tax cuts, he called for spending offsets and the elimination of budget "earmarks" -- pork-barrel projects.

Sen. McCain's most important attribute is his willingness to follow where his conscience leads him, even across the aisle. He worked with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to pass campaign-finance reform and collaborated with Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., on immigration. Like most Arizonans, he understands that the nation needs a comprehensive approach to immigration that not only tightens borders but deals pragmatically with the 12 million illegal immigrants already here.

In just a few months, Sen. McCain has gone from front-runner to finished and back again. One reason, as he admits, is that Iraq has gone from lousy to merely bad. Another may be that GOP voters have sized up the other candidates.

Rudy Giuliani has built his campaign around success in Florida and has some appealing ideas for Floridians -- such as his call for national disaster insurance and reform of immigration policy. His judgment is less appealing. He wanted his former police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, to be director of homeland security. Mr. Kerik was charged last fall with crimes that could send him to prison for 142 years. Mr. Giuliani said he made "a mistake in not checking him out more carefully." After 9/11, he made New York provide security for his mother. His mother?

Mike Huckabee responded to Benazir Bhutto's assassination in Pakistan by calling for a border fence with Mexico to keep out Pakistanis. Mr. Huckabee seems amenable to co-mingling his Baptist religious beliefs with the Constitution, and he calls his FAIR tax "family-friendly." Not if it would impose a 30 percent sales tax.

The once-pro-choice Mitt Romney, who as governor of Massachusetts instituted health-care reform, might be a good choice. But he's been vacillating on every issue, running away from what could make him attractive to a wider range of voters.

Fred Thompson wasn't even the best district attorney on Law & Order, and a vote for libertarian Ron Paul, 72, is an expression of frustration and little else.

More than any GOP candidate, Sen. McCain can improve the country's reputation around the world. He opposes the administration's position on torture and its treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. At 71, he is the second-oldest candidate seeking the presidency. Among the Republicans, he is the best prepared to take it.

Read The Palm Beach Post Editorial Endorsing John McCain For President