To be honest Pooch, I think you may be confusing independent with a lack of principals. Now I absoltuely respect his service and sacrifices to this country. I'm not looking for a President willing to short change his principals. I'm looking for a President, who I can have confidence in, to stick with his (or her) conservative pledges. Just because one bucks with their party, doesn't automatically give them brownie points in my book. I'm a conservative. Worse, I'm a Christian Conservative. My president can buck the party line, all they want, so long as the decisions being made, in that bucking, have a principled conservative foundation.
And there's the problem. I am not confusing Independence with a lack of principles. You are confusing principles with conservatism. John McCain IS a man who is willing to stand up for what he believes is right WHETHER OR NOT it comes from a conservative position. Joe Lieberman is another man of principles, and so is Arlen Specter. If you ask a Democrat they will claim I'm right about Spector and wrong about Lieberman - and a Republican would say just the opposite. Yet the two are cut from the same cloth.
Tim Kaine, here in Virginia, won my vote by recognizing the difference between a principled stand and an inability to compromise. Unfortunately, I won't vote for him again. I've seen what national politics did to Mark Warner. He is not, as Senator, anything like he was as one of the best governors this state ever had. Kaine's burning ambition will not allow him to stay the Virginia Democrat he was.
I know an awful lot of highly principled men - Paul Tsongas comes to mind - who were flaming liberals. I would never cast a vote for him, but I will always respect him.
There are true conservatives of great principle too. Ronald Reagan stands out most in my mind.
But there are many whose principles do not fall in one party or the other. I have no problem with a President who compromises, reaches out to the oppositiion or sees (and applies) the merits of the opposite party. I detest the current deliberate exclusion of the Republican party from Obama's "negotiations" about health care reform. I have lost all respect for the man, and I did have some to start.
No, I'm not looking for a Michael Savage to lead this country, and no, I don't think I'd have any problem with a Condi Rice as President either. I did, at one time support a Colin Powell for president. That would no longer be an option given his recent rhetoric and support of such a leftist, like Obama, to run this country, But as I said before, I have no problem with a President saying "no" to the hard right. McCain however, far too often supported leftist causes/legislation. As much respect I may have for the man, that doesn't bode well for this country, and why Palin gave him a plausble shot at becoming President. Alas, the economy started nose diving right at the end of the campaign, which took any chances he had down as well.
Well, that can hardly be discounted, but I don't think it would have made a difference. I think Obama was preordained in 2004. We just didn't know it at the time. As for Colin Powell, I would support him immediately, even if he ran as a Democrat. I have no problem with Powell distancing himself from the Bush administration or supporting this President. Those are principled stands too. And I respect Colin Powell as a military man a lot more than I do George W. Bush. I never bought that "AWOL" nonsense but if I had to go to war under the leadership of a General, there isn't even a contest.
Bottom line, sirs, is that I do not think one has to be in lockstep with any party to have principles. My principles say there should be no school prayer. My principles say we are not - and were never meant to be - a Christian nation. My principles also say we should be allowed to build manger scenes and crosses in public parks. My principles say two men or two women should never be prohibited from making any contract they want together - and they also say that should exclude marriage. My principles say the Constitution should be the only basis for law in this country - and that it is a living, changeable document that is subject -as all government should be - to the will of the people, be that right or wrong.
My principles say that if the people of a state vote to change their constitution to make gay marriage unrecognized and a court overturns that, it is permissible to take up arms and forceably overthrow that government. They also say that if the people vote to amend a constitution to allow gay marriage and a court overturns it, I would pick up my weapon and fight alongside the gays (though maybe not TOO close!)
Not all ideals are left or right, democrat or republican or libertarian. I've seen the excess of the right and the left, and I have only to imagine (thank God) the excess of the libertarians. I feel like Robert Ludlum: Power concentrated in the hands of one person or group of persons scares me - not matter what their politics. Someone who recognizes that he owes neither allegiance nor his vote to either side is my idea of an American.
