I’ve gotten several emails like this:

For what it’s worth, McCain opposed the Kyoto treaty and voted against it. His position now (along with Sen. Lieberman) on a cap and trade concept is NOT that much differenent from what the president has floated. Also, it’s true he voted against the president’s tax cut but if one reads his floor statement on why you’ll find two reasons that put him quite a distance from the liberal tag Mr. Levin pins on him. He said in a nutshell that he’d support a $500 million tax cut and use the remaining surplus for large defense increases, funding the transition to private retirement accounts, and deficit reduction. No democrat opposed the cuts for these reasons. In addition, it is true that Sen. McCain voted against ANWR. However, he’s a big supporter of more nuclear power plants, which by a huge margin, would due more for America’s energy security than ANWR (though, I do support drilling there). He also opposed the biggest new entitliment since LBJ, the drug bill. He argued that the expense would be huge in the outyears and that any bill should be targeted. Look, there are things that McCain has deviated on but a fair look at his record shows a much more complicated picture. Thank you.
ps: on Iraq, North Korea and a few other places, he’s been right on target with his critique

Me: I really don’t want to turn the corner over to a debating society about McCain, but Bush’s position on Medicare is not a lodestar for anybody here. I think virtually everybody at NR/NRO opposed Bush’s plan (apologies if I’m mischaracterizing anybody’s position). I don’t think McCain’s all bad by any means, but if memory serves, McCain’s alternative plan for prescription drugs was tantamount to price controls. He’s a very big regulator. And, apologies to the Bull Moose, but it should disquiet conservatives that any would-be standard-bearer fashions himself an heir to Teddy Roosevelt, particularly the later T.R. and even more especially on domestic affairs. America needs the New Nationalism like it needs lot more cat five hurricanes.