McCain is bad. Obama is worse.
I find this election season manic in so many ways. Watching the Democrats implode in so many ways, not least being the catfight between Hillary & Clinton, Inc. versus Obama, Oprah, and Company, has been a real joy — a treat that only presents itself one election cycle a century. On the other hand, I must always remember that, as Rush Limbaugh reportedly said, we have our own Democrat to vote for: John McCain. That is depresssing.
Highs and lows, lows and highs. Where’s my Prozac?
However, as bad as McCain is, I will hold my nose very tightly and vote for him. Why? Because the next president is almost certain to appoint one, probably two, maybe three U.S. Supreme Court justices. A presidential term is only four years — eight if you count the re-election of an incumbent, which may not happen with McCain given his age. However, a Supreme Court appointment is for life. And the nations High Court has usurped so much authority over policy that we need to ensure conservative judges make it to the bench. Hence, the following is persuasive on behalf of McCain:
“Senators Obama and Clinton have very different ideas from my own. They are both lawyers themselves, and don’t seem to mind at all when fundamental questions of social policy are preemptively decided by judges instead of by the people and their elected representatives”
McCain will reaasure conservatives he’ll appoint strict constructionist judges who as he says will apply the constitution rather than create new law in their courts.
“My nominees will understand that there are clear limits to the scope of judicial power, and clear limits to the scope of federal power.”
[snip]
He calls Roberts and Alito models for the kind of judges he’d nominate, and rips Clinton and Obama for having voted against both!
“Somehow, by Senator Obama’s standard, even Judge Roberts didn’t measure up. And neither did Justice Samuel Alito. Apparently, nobody quite fits the bill except for an elite group of activist judges, lawyers, and law professors who think they know wisdom when they see it — and they see it only in each other.”
While McCain expresses respect for the federal bench his disdain for activist judges as arrogant and dangerous is most pointed.
“Some federal judges operate by fiat, shrugging off generations of legal wisdom and precedent while expecting their own opinions to go unquestioned. Only their favorite precedents are to be considered “settled law,” and everything else is fair game.”
[snip]
“Always hanging in the air over these tense confirmation battles is the suspicion that maybe, just maybe, a nominee for the Court will dare to be faithful to the clear intentions of the framers and to the actual meaning of the Constitution. And then no tactic of abuse or delay is out of bounds,”
Caveat: I don’t trust McCain any farther than I can throw a bus at him. So this may be all campaign promise and no substance. I’ll believe it when I see it. Still, there’s no question what kind of judges Hillary or Obama would appoint, so our best hope, however thin, is McCain.
Here’s hoping (and drinking — a lot!)
H/t Drew M at Ace of Spades.