Yesterday was Day 1 of the 2008 Republican National Convention, and for the first time in my adult lifetime (here comes my Michele Obama moment), I am disgusted with my beloved Republican Party.  The GOP has shown no guts, no backbone, and frankly no memory.  Out of a knee-jerk, defensive posture, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been relegated to the sidelines.  The president spoke for all of ten minutes via satellite and Cheney is not appearing.  This is based on a fear of perceptions, as an in-person appearance by the president would be touted as out-of-touch Republicans putting politics ahead of the Hurricane Gustav victims.  We are now living in abject fear of what the Democrats and the media say about us, so much so that they are dictating how we actually participate in our own convention? Why on earth would we allow the Democrats and the mainstream media control our convention? I guess this is an attempt to ‘reach across the aisle.’ Who cares if the liberals were to insinuate insensitivity, it’s nothing new.  Instead of acting defensively, we should act on our convictions, then defend ourselves from any scurrilous attacks, explaining that in this technologically-advanced, information age, President Bush can monitor the activities in the Gulf Coast region just fine from Minnesota.  In all fairness, as we are touting bipartisanship these days, much of this credit belongs to Al Gore on this one for inventing the Internet.  Long story short, too much concern here is given to perceptions and not enough concern is given to the conservative base.  The base needs all the concern it can muster these days.

Nonetheless, the GOP faithful loved seeing the ‘unpopular’ commander in chief, short-lived as the appearance may have been. The president was gracious in his endorsement of John McCain, which given McCain’s turncoat history was more than was deserved.  Surprisingly, not much was heard about McCain’s senate record of GOP treachery, as Senator McCain’s record in the United States Senate went largely ignored.  The focus was character as evidenced by Senator McCain’s impeccable Vietnam War heroism.  A United States Senator of 20-plus years is running for president and the convention largely ignores his senatorial career and harkens back 40 years to his military service.  Sound familiar?  “I’m John Kerry and I am reporting for duty.”  That is exactly what the Democrats did during their 2004 convention that nominated John Kerry.  The Democrats had good reason to ignore Kerry’s record in the Senate.  It exposed him as a far-left liberal, not the reasonable Democrat, tough on terror-hawk they were portraying.  Well there is a reason that McCain’s record is being ignored in 2008.  He has only become conservative within the past few months. This used to be known as a “flip flop.” I suppose it all depends on the meaning of the word Maverick.

Succeeding the president’s speech was a moving tribute to President Reagan.  I thought that chutzpah had reached critical mass last week in Denver with the Clinton and Obama speeches, but now I am not so sure.  McCain made the claim in this video that he was a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution.  The spot went further in claiming that Reagan was also called a Maverick just like John McCain.  If Reagan was ever called a Maverick it was because he took on members of his own party, but this was because the GOP in the 1960s and 1970s was controlled by Republicans in Name Only (RINO) LIKE MCCAIN! 

Ronald Reagan defined conservatism and it was his ideological convictions that drove every decision that he made.  One of the themes from McCain’s convention was “Country First.”  Well Ronald Reagan always put his country first, and he didn’t have to abandon his conservative principles to do so, as putting your country first and being conservative were and still are synonymous.  The implication of this phrase is that being bipartisan is putting “Country First”, which in turn implies that being partisan is not putting your “Country First.”  Ronald Reagan didn’t reach across the aisle like McCain, joining forces with liberals to defeat a conservative bill.  Reagan forced Democrats against their will to reach across the aisle and join him, because Reagan sold conservatism to the people, thus bringing Democrats along kicking and screaming.  Because of the Reagan Revolution, many of these blue-dog or Reagan Democrats eventually switched parties and became members of the GOP, kind of like when McCain considered leaving the GOP in 2001, something Ronald Reagan never would have done.  Ronald Reagan never would lament how an across the board tax cut was devoted “too much to the wealthiest Americans,” as McCain said in 2001.  In every election he ran, Ronald Reagan sought conservatives to vote for him.  While he sought the votes of Democrats and independents, the focus was always fixated on growing the conservative pie, not just pandering to the left to win an election.  Reagan never would have devised a campaign strategy that circumvented his own party by openly imploring left-minded Democrats and independents to cross-over as McCain did unsuccessfully in 2000 against then Governor Bush and again in 2008, this time successfully with the help of Mike Huckabee.  Ronald Reagan never would have formed the Gang of 14, thus hampering President Bush’s ability to nominate the strict constructionist judges to the federal bench, as John McCain did in 2005.  Ronald Reagan never would have presented a $500 billion tobacco regulation bill along with a $1.10 per pack tax increase as John McCain did in the late 1990s.  Ronald Reagan never would have denounced the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, let alone unequivocally vouch for John Kerry’s qualifications to be commander in chief, and certainly would never remotely consider being his Vice Presidential nominee.  Guess who did?  That’s right!  The Maverick John McCain!  In fact, I think Ronald Reagan would have immediately denounced the Kerry VP rumors, not let them linger for months.  Ronald Reagan never would have assaulted the First Amendment with campaign finance reform, one of John McCain’s greatest hits.  Ronald Reagan never would have referred to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance,” as John McCain did during the 2000 primary.  Ronald Reagan never would have joined forces with a Democrat (Joe Lieberman) to propose a bill to cap carbon emissions and allow pollution credits to be traded on the open market, predicated upon the faulty assumption that global warming exists and that it can be controlled by human activity, as McCain did in 2003.  Ronald Reagan understood that human life is sacred and never would have supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, as is John McCain’s position.  Ronald Reagan understood evil and would never have taken steps that appeased political correctness while weakening our ability to wage the War on Terror, such as closing Guantanamo Bay and supporting a ban on torture, as have been John McCain’s stances.  Independence from foreign oil and our national security would be higher priorities than the caribou in the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge to Ronald Reagan.  Not so for the maverick John McCain.  Lastly a quote from the Maverick, "I think we would be making a terrible mistake to go back to the '80s, where we cut all of those taxes and all of a sudden now we've got a debt that we've got to pay on an annual basis that is bigger than the amount that we spend on defense,” said John McCain in December 2004.

To be fair, Senator McCain has been echoing conservatism for the most part during this campaign, albeit in direct contrast to his many statements and votes in the past.  I certainly hope and pray that this continues and that McCain governs the way he is campaigning.

After the Reagan tribute, Fred Thompson stepped up to the podium and belted out full-fledged support for John McCain.  Thompson attacked Obama-Biden with an enthusiastic gusto that was non-existent in his primary run.  Unfortunately if Thompson would have spoken remotely like this during the primary we wouldn’t be where are today, racking our brains for reasons to support John McCain. 

In conclusion, I am voting for McCain-Palin in November because as frustrated as I am, at the end of the day we must put Country First!  The best thing that could happen to the Republican Party would be to lose this election.  It would stand as a tough lesson for Republicans that running a campaign as Democrat-Light is a recipe for disaster and does not advance conservatism.  The Republican Party does need a wake-up call.  We do need a whole heckuva lot of soul searching, but not supporting McCain is tantamount to a vote for Obama.  And whatever McCain is, he will surely do the right thing (for the most part) in defending America.  Can the same be said of Barack?  And whoever McCain nominates to the Supreme Court and the federal bench, we know his selections will contrast favorably with those of Obama. So despite my mountain of misgivings, this November, my vote is for McCain-Palin, because I will put the Country First and the Republican Party second.