The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Gang of 140

1.28.08 @ 12:02AM

YOU, SIR, ARE NO RONALD REAGAN
Re: Peter J. Wallison's Reagan and McCain:

Did John McCain III offer you a job picking tomatoes at his ranchero at $50 per hour?
-- Burton Hollabaugh
Marion, Indiana

You successfully articulated everything I wanted to say but didn't have the literary gifts to do so!! I'm a Pennsylvania Republican who has voted for the likes of Sam Rohrer, Arlen Specter (regrettably) and Rick Santorum.

I love and embrace McCain, when the rest of this hypocritical group called the "base" has rejected him!! My brother is in manufacturing (the industry everyone said was done in America about 10-15 yrs ago).

He tells me there's no recession on his part -- and his industry is actually the one here in America that MAKES STUFF TO BE SOLD OVERSEAS!!

Let "Ken Doll" Romney crow as much as he wants about his resume w/ Bain Capital. He's John Kerry but with a Red suit on. McCain is the only one w/ the gravitas to be first and foremost "COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF"! Thank you for that article.
-- Doug Olexy
Reading, Pennsylvania

You are correct. McCain is so similar to Reagan it is staggering. It takes no effort to imagine Ronald Reagan slandering the Swift Boat activists as "dishonest and dishonorable," deriding the Bush across-the-board tax cuts as "only for the rich," legitimizing the filibustering of judicial nominees as a member of the Gang of 14, crusading against Guantanamo, favoring re-importation of drugs from Canada, opposing free speech in political campaigns, opposing drilling in ANWR, and favoring conferring veto rights to Mexico on building a border fence in our country.

I did not make any of this up -- it came right out of John McVain's mouth. The only bigger blowhard in the Senate is Teddy Kennedy, but he is probably on scotch most of the time.

Keep wasting your time trying to push this fairy tale. It will only prevent you from backing a genuine conservative candidate. Perhaps that is your objective. I am not buying it. I wouldn't even rent it.
-- Carroll Melton

Nice try, Pete, but I'll take McCain's mother's views about her son over your comparisons to President Reagan any day, anytime! That is truly Straight Talk!

President Reagan believed in upholding the Constitution. He never put limits on free speech (McCain-Feingold); he never pushed for a gang of 14 to change voting rules for judges; he was against any future amnesty for illegals; he was in favor of cutting taxes.

All this was sort of an eighties updated version of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms.

My mom always said to me, "You'll always be known by the company you keep." Hanging out with Senator Chappaquiddick (Kennedy), Senator Speech Therapist (Feingold), Senator Leftwing Independent (Lieberman) and Senator Swift Boat tells me more about Senator NY Times Endorsee McCain than any points you postulate in your column.

Sure, he talks tough on the war in Iraq, and rightly so. But, I fear McCain suffers from a Walter Mitty fantasy: he is hoping for a chance to lead a fight and so retire memories of the Hanoi Hilton. McCain, I believe, is a backward-looking small man seeking personal redemption for a perceived failure in a past war. He will never get my vote.
-- Wolf Terner
Fair lawn, New Jersey

Hmm, authentic, eh? Right. But, you see, there's that immigration thing. Once burned, twice shy. John McCain? No way, Jose!
-- Mike Showalter
Austin, Texas

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Education, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Business, Earmarks, Social Security, Religion, Environment, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, Supreme Court, Military, Iraq, NATO, Socialism, Communism, Conservatism, Immigration, Energy