The American Spectator

br> — Doug Olexy br> Reading, Pennsylvania /p>

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.

p>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. br> — Carroll Melton /p>

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.

p>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.