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McCain More Conservative Than His Image
The Associated Press
Monday 14 April 2008
Washington - The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes
fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats.
But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative.
The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters
appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just
on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues
that matter to his party's social conservatives.
The four-term Arizona senator, a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee,
criticized the earlier handling of the war but has been a crucial ally in President
Bush's effort to increase and maintain U.S. forces in Iraq.
Besides the war, McCain agrees broadly with Bush and other conservatives on:
- Abortion. McCain promises to appoint judges who, in the mold of Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision
that legalized abortion. McCain's record is not spotless on abortion: He said
once, in 1999, that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. But that amounted
to a blip in an otherwise unbroken record of opposing abortion rights for women.
"I am pro-life and an advocate for the rights of man everywhere in the world,"
McCain told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "Because
to be denied liberty is an offense to nature and nature's Creator."
- Gay rights. McCain opposes gay marriage. True, he does not support a federal
ban on gay marriage on grounds the issue traditionally has been decided by states.
But McCain worked to ban gay marriage in Arizona. He also supports the military's
"don't ask, don't tell" policy, and he opposed legislation to protect gay
people from job discrimination or hate crimes.
"I'm proud to have led an effort in my home state to change our state constitution
and to protect the sanctity of marriage as between a man and woman," he told
CNN in March. "I will continue to advocate for those fundamental principals
of our party and our faith."
- Gun control. McCain voted against a ban on assault-style weapons and for
shielding gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. He did vote in favor of requiring
background checks at gun shows, but in general he sides with the National Rifle
Association in favor of gun rights.
When the Supreme Court held arguments last month on Washington, D.C.'s handgun
ban, McCain said it was "a landmark case for all Americans who believe, as
I do, that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear
arms."
His conservatism could be a problem for McCain - particularly if this November's
contest is as close as recent presidential elections, which were decided by
independent-minded voters in the center of the political spectrum.
But he might avoid this problem to the extent people know him as an independent-minded
politician. And many do view him that way.
"People see him as a centrist. They don't see him as a conservative," said
Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
"In fact, they put him pretty close to themselves, in terms of ideology, and
put President Bush way to the right of themselves," Kohut said.
In a national Pew survey earlier this year, voters placed McCain in the middle,
where they placed themselves, when asked to judge the ideology of Bush and the
presidential candidates. They placed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama
far to the left.
And voters who back Clinton and Obama are open to McCain.
Nearly a third of Clinton supporters said they would back McCain if Obama becomes
the Democratic nominee, and more than a quarter of Obama supporters said they
would back McCain over Clinton, according to Associated Press-Ipsos polling
released Thursday.
Democrats are trying to change the perception of McCain. The Democratic National
Committee insists that McCain's election would amount to a third term for Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney.
"All he offers is four more years of the failed Bush economy, an endless war
in Iraq and shameless hypocrisy on ethics reform," DNC Chairman Howard Dean
said last month.
Whatever the general image of McCain, the Christian right is deeply suspicious
of him despite his many conservative positions. McCain has clashed with its
leaders. He called televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of
intolerance" and has often worked against them.
He pushed to limit the influence of money in politics through campaign finance
reforms that, critics say, stomp on the constitutional right to free speech.
He backs a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which many of his party's
most conservative members oppose.
And he splits from the right over research which extracts stem cells from human
embryos in an effort to develop treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and
a range of other diseases. Conservatives object because human embryos are destroyed;
McCain supports the research.
Polls indicate McCain has the same level of GOP support as Bush had at this
point in 2000. But some insist he still isn't reaching out to rank-and-file
conservatives who are needed to lick envelopes, make phone calls and knock on
doors in states where the election is likely to be close.
On the right and across the political spectrum, McCain's image, rather than
his positions on issues, seems to form people's opinion of him. Indeed, in choosing
presidents, voters often look past issues to character and personality, and
most individual issues are unlikely to mean much.
But one broader issue could figure prominently in November - the tumbling
economy and consequent job losses, home foreclosures and soaring energy prices.
Those could prove troublesome for McCain, and not only because he acknowledges
he's no economic expert.
"We are surely in a time of deep economic insecurity for a majority of the
American people," said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center
for the Study of the American Electorate. "That has always led to two things:
somewhat higher turnout, and votes against the party in power."
"We are also in a deeply unpopular war," Gans said. "Where there are these
differences, and strong differences, they could be in the Democrats' direction."
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