The American Spectator

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Tyrrell on McCain

By Robert Stacy McCain on 6.26.08 @ 5:39PM

Something that we ought to do more of here, perhaps, is encourage AmSpec Online readers to get their hands on the actual ink-and-paper American Spectator magazine. (Of course, you can click here to subscribe now for the low, low price of $19.95 a year.)

Whether you subscribe now, or drop by a nearby bookstore or magazine stand soon, however, I would urge online readers not to miss the special July/August double edition of the American Spectator. Among the excellent worthwhile articles is "Captain McCain," R. Emmett Tyrrell's five-page argument for why conservatives should support the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. On a quick read, one passage stands out:

My admiration [Tyrrell writes] has endured through our disagreements over such things as immigration, campaign finance, and now global warming. Taking one issue with another, McCain is a conservative and a man of honor.
Then, too, he is always good company, quick to laugh, quick with an irreverent joke, but fundamentally serious. With John one can disagree but remain a friend. In this, friendship with John has been simliar to my old friendship with Ronald Reagan -- though when I disagreed with Reagan I was always wrong. . . .

Having never had the chance to meet the distant relation I call Crazy Cousin John, I can't comment on his personal qualities, and so his political aptitude to anger and dismay conservatives is foremost in my mind. Yet I think that Tyrrell has made about the best argument that could be made in the senator's behalf, bolstering his own views by citing the endorsements of such eminent conservatives as Ted Olson, Grover Norquist, and John Lehman.

Even if you're among those who've sworn solemn oaths never to vote for John McCain under any circumstance -- they could waterboard me at Gitmo and I'd never break -- you owe it to yourself to read Tyrrell's eloquent appeal. Subscribe now, to be sure you don't miss it.

Frankly, the longer I look at the Obama campaign, the more time I spend practicing Morse code, just in case. By November, at least I'll be able to blink: "T-O-R-T-U-R-E."

topics:
John McCain, Global Warming, Books, NATO, Immigration