A McCain Conversation, Continued

A friend has been posting his thoughts about the current presidential primary race, and he recently responded to one of my comments on his blog. I then was going to write such a long additional comment that I thought I would just add my comment as a post on my blog, perhaps to momentarily silence the tinning, persistent voice that rings in the dark back of my head: Post more, post more, else Jess D. will start to hurt you.

*****
In reply to http://cdasay.blogspot.com/2008/02/more-on-mccain.html
Despite this post's (what I would consider to be a) distinct mischaracterization of my previous comment, I think these are good answers. I think you are right to weigh heavily McCain's foreign policy (the lack of checks is a serious issue), though I still think that for the long-term good of the country, the possibility of Supreme Court appointments should outweigh almost every other presidential vote consideration, all things being equal. This election, however, they may not be equal, as you say, because McCain may well nominate justices who are fairly ideologically similar to whom the Democrats would nominate (Senate review considered), so perhaps foreign policy deserves overweighting, since the judicial nomination issue might be fairly moot.

Note: This isn't to say that, in any way, I think that if I were only going on the possibility of SC nominees, I would vote for McCain. I have so few clear thoughts about him. At this point, my presidential race score card reads something like this:

Clinton: 1 vote (because, according to an online quiz, my stances on the issues match hers the best of the current candidates' (I know--who knew?))

Obama: 2 votes (2/3 vote each because he makes me feel good when I hear him speak, because people I know who knew him say he really is wise and kind and intelligent, and because his wife appears to be a rockstar)

McCain: 0 votes (because I have, as of yet, heard of no reason I should vote for him--oh wait, maybe 1/2 vote; maybe I don't hate his immigration policies, at least as they were recounted to me), so maybe McCain: 1/2 vote

You'll notice these votes aren't necessarily cast for substantive reasons. I am still working on having intelligent, reasoned opinions about these things. No matter what the Founding Fathers may have hoped, this is a surprisingly difficult thing for some of us to do. Oh, the weighty burdens of democracy. Our own, modern American noblesse oblige.