MCCAIN HEARTS BUSH

McCain cheerleads for Bush during Southern Republican Leadership Conference.

Listen, my independent friends who think John McCain is an acceptable compromise between voting Democrat and voting Republican. John McCain is an opportunist who thinks George Bush is right on nearly all the issues; he just believes he'll be more effective at implementing policy. Where McCain disagrees with Dubya, his principles are flexible enough to allow him to knuckle under as long as he's satisfied that the impression is left that he's a tough maverick (case in point: the U.S. use of torture). If you're unhappy with Bush policy, you'll be unhappy with John McCain. And personally, he's mean as a snake and nearly as sly -- is that the sort of man you want to be president? Oh, I forgot, that's right, it is -- you voted for Bush/Cheney in 2000 and 2004.

On one side, Senator John McCain of Arizona offered a full embrace of a president he has quarreled with over the years — Mr. Bush defeated him for the presidential nomination in an acrid campaign in 2000 — as he urged Republicans to rally around Mr. Bush in a difficult time and to focus on the midterm elections ahead.

"We must keep our presidential ambitions a distant second to standing with the president of the United States," Mr. McCain said.
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The extent of Mr. McCain's embrace of Mr. Bush was striking, and Republicans here suggested it reflected two political facts: that he needed to reassure conservatives of his loyalty to Mr. Bush, and that, at this point, he was in a strong enough position in this field to have flexibility in presenting himself.

Mr. McCain went so far as to condemn the collapse of the port deal, saying that Congress had served Mr. Bush poorly by not permitting a 45-day review of security concerns, though he did not mention that the deal was sunk by fellow Republicans.

"The president deserved better," Mr. McCain said.

Mr. McCain praised the president for his failed effort to rewrite the Social Security system, said he supported the decision to go into Iraq and blistered at critics who suggested the White House had fabricated evidence of unconventional weapons in Iraq to justify the invasion.

"Anybody who says the president of the United States is lying about weapons of mass destruction is lying," Mr. McCain said.

Tags: John McCain, president Bush, Southern Republican Leadership Conference