Election 2008: Where I Currently Stand

The 2008 Presidential Election cycle began with my enthusiastic support for Sen. Sam Brownback's candidacy. Unfortunately, his campaign never caught fire (with Huckabee essentially stealing his thunder), and Sen. Brownback withdrew from the race fairly early on.

Since then, I have been undecided. From a Catholic perspective, none of the remaining GOP contenders could match Sen. Brownback's commitment to a "whole life" approach to public policy. Each had their own problems that kept me from jumping aboard any of their campaigns. As for the Democrat candidates, I don't vote for people who go to Planned Parenthood and brag about how each is more committed to killing the unborn than the other. So, I have just waited to see how things played out, while continuing to blog about where the remaining candidates stood vis-a-vis the issues that I view as most important.

After yesterday's events, I am resigned to the fact that Sen. McCain is going to be the GOP nominee (actually, I had resigned myself to that fact after the Florida primary, and confirmed by the results of Super Tuesday). As you can probably tell from my blogging, I'm not exactly enthused by the prospect. However, I was even less enthused by the prospect of a Romney nomination, so I suppose - to the extent McCain and Romney were the "frontrunners" for the nomination - that things worked out for the better.

But I'm still not particularly happy with having McCain be the nominee. While I recognize that he probably has the best chance of all the GOP contenders to beat the Democrat nominee in a year in which the GOP was always going to have long odds at re-capturing the White House, I also recognize that McCain has a dicey record on two issues of utmost importance to me: ESCR and the appointment of federal judges. He and his surrogates have made noises that McCain is coming around on embryonic stem cells, and McCain has promised to nominate judges in the mold of Roberts and Alito (I'd prefer in the mold of Scalia and Thomas, but Roberts and Alito will do). But I remain unconvinced. In the end, given the intensity of the commitment to Moloch on the other side of the partisan aisle, I will probably hold my nose, say a lot of prayers, and pull the lever for John McCain in November.

But the Ohio primary is still to come. Although the outcome of the nomination is clear, I still have the opportunity to have my say. I will vote for the most pro-life candidate on the ballot. When Ohio votes, I will cast my ballot for either Mike Huckabee or Ron Paul.