I probably can’t vote for McCain

Recently I have been toying with the idea of voting for John McCain if it became a McCain-Clinton general election. As much as I may like John McCain’s apparent straight talk, some of his recent positions seem like major flip-flops and others seem dangerous.

I will continue to gauge McCain, but I have to say that fiscal conservatives like myself are disappointed that he has taken a tax and spend position to governance like the Bush administration. In general, he is moving closer to being a continuation of the Bush Administration. Very disappointing compared to the man who campaigned in 2000.

Here is where I see him on key policy issues:

1. Foreign Policy: Gut it out in Iraq, play brinkmanship with Iran. While I was opposed to the war in Iraq, I was willing to be convinced about staying on given the right tactical argument for maintaining a limited presence without a timetable. Now, McCain’s “100 years” quote is being distorted out of all context by the Democrats. But his position on Iraq shows him to be inflexible and likely to stay the course. That’s not encouraging. Even less encouraging is his hawkish stance on Iran. While Iran was always a bigger threat than Iraq to begin with, the U.S. can ill afford to attack a third Muslim nation in its quest for hegemony, pre-emption or whatever mindless excuse we might use.

2. Civil Liberties: I am not aware that McCain has any inclination of repealing or rolling back the Patriot Act, which is a huge curb on U.S. Civil Liberties.

3. Economic Policies: Continued under-regulation. No support for homeowners. McCain defends the laissez-faire approach. Fair enough. But, this is a major crisis and laissez-faire was inappropriate for 1929. It’s in appropriate for 2008.

4. Taxes and Budget: Maintain the tax cuts for the wealthy. While I agree with the premise that lower taxes are beneficial, I am not a proponent of massive deficit spending. Moreover, if anyone needs a tax cut, it would be the middle class. Again, McCain seems to be moving into Bush territory here, a real flip flop for the former fiscal conservative.

McCain is in a tough position because he is trying to solidify his base in order to get out the vote if Obama is the Democratic nominee (he doesn’t need to worry if Clinton is the nominee because the base will be energized to defeat her.). But, in so doing, he risks alienating moderate and swing voters who liked the John McCain of 2000 a lot more than the John McCain of 2008.