John McCain looks out at America and likes what he sees:
Republican John McCain's game plan for beating Democrat Barack Obama rests on one huge assumption: Despite an unpopular war, an uncertain economy and the GOP's beleaguered status, the country still leans more to the right than to the left.
You should lean that way, too, John; it's fun! We get to make fun of liberals and make them cry.
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McCain never leaned right, but he never leaned left, either. On the other hand, when he ran in 2000, he promoted "straight talk", and of late, his positions (and those of Senator Clinton) have been changing faster than March weather.
If it's dizzy for us, perhaps it's even dizzier for John, so let's go through the basics. The right is conservative. That's a philosophy that says we protect and preserve those practices that have served us well, and we move cautiously to change them.
Conservatives believe in a strong military to avoid war. They do NOT want to fight wars, especially not unpopular ones.
Conservatives believe in a strong economy, by having a stable tax code, and consistant regulations, so that businesses can figure out how to maximize profit while operating in a socially-acceptable manner.
They believe in small government, and paying bills as they come due, instead of borrowing heavily to finance a war that's supposedly going to be paid for with Iraqi oil.
And they believe in individual responsibility and the individual freedoms necessary for that, by an unflinching support of the Bill of Rights, every last one of them.
The GOP isn't beleaguered because the public has changed its ideas on conservative principles. The GOP is beleaguered because the GOP seems to have abandoned every principle it once had.
Ronald Reagan said that he didn't leave the Democratic Party, that the Democratic Party left him. At this point, there are many of us who feel the Republican Party has left us. And it doesn't look like John McCain is going to do anything to correct that.