Green Bay Press-Gazette Endorses John McCain

"Now, another collapse, this time in the mortgage industry, has led to even greater economic uncertainty on election eve. It's no time to repeat past mistakes; this time voters must choose the candidate with the experience to lead us through the storm. The Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial board endorses John McCain for president." -- Green Bay Press-Gazette

"Press-Gazette Endorses John McCain For President"
Editorial
Green Bay Press-Gazette
October 24, 2008

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Eight years ago on the eve of the presidential election, the economy was reeling from the collapse of the dot-com market. A recession either loomed or had already begun. The nation's voters had a chance to choose a moderate Arizona senator as their new president, but he didn't advance past the Republican primaries.

Now, another collapse, this time in the mortgage industry, has led to even greater economic uncertainty on election eve. It's no time to repeat past mistakes; this time voters must choose the candidate with the experience to lead us through the storm.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette editorial board endorses John McCain for president.

There is nothing automatic or routine about this decision, even though this newspaper has usually picked the Republican candidate in recent decades. Our choice follows literally hours of the most heartfelt and deep discussions to accompany an endorsement in many years. In Barack Obama, the Democratic Party has its most compelling nominee in memory.

Strip away the politics, which seem to get nastier with every election cycle, and McCain is correct about Obama: "I have to tell you he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

In point of fact, both candidates are decent men who don't deserve the sordid attacks that have been launched against their records, their beliefs and their very characters. Sweep away the chaff, however, and the edge must go to McCain's long record of working for change and reaching across the aisle to achieve important results.

A senator since 1987, McCain was a major author of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. He opposed President Clinton's military intervention in Somalia, and he joined Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold in working for campaign finance reform.

He was one of only two Republican senators to vote against the 2001 tax cuts favored by President Bush, although he reversed that stance in 2006 when the cuts were extended -- noting accurately that opposing the extension was the same as raising taxes.

McCain led a group of 14 moderate senators who preserved the ability of senators to filibuster judicial nominees, but only in "extraordinary circumstances." Far from foiling the nomination of conservative judges, the compromise aided the confirmation votes for Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

Whatever one thinks of the Iraq war, there is no doubt that the troop surge of 2007 achieved its goals of reducing violence and American casualties there, and McCain supported that action from the beginning, even when many senators and presidential candidates were resisting the idea.
McCain also stood for the ideal that America does not condone or endorse torture, and he has questioned the long confinement of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. We are disappointed that he has backed away from those principled positions during the campaign and fervently hope he will revisit them once in office.

These positions reflect McCain's understanding of the President's solemn authority to commit troops to battle. Certainly McCain's personal biography -- in the military and Congress -- gives him the edge when it comes to the matter of national security. And what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, is one of the most compelling reasons that John McCain is the more attractive candidate.
"I'm not running for president to be somebody, but to do something; to do the hard but necessary things, not the easy and needless things," McCain said as he launched his campaign in April 2007, reflecting the philosophy he has followed for two decades in Washington.

Sen. Obama may one day be able to point to a similar record of achievement, but the plain fact is that he has served barely more than half of one term in the Senate. He is an eloquent speaker with great promise as a future leader.

But we also see in McCain someone who shares the bedrock positions of the Press-Gazette -- that the government that governs least governs best, that the best tax relief occurs when government spends less, that the American dream is within reach to anyone willing to put in the necessary hard work and commitment.

And that, finally, is why we support John McCain for president.

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