McCain vs. Guiliani

I responded to RCP's Tom Bevan when he requested e-mails on Rudy vs. John. Here is what I wrote:

The biggest difference I see between the two is integrity. McCain has shown a tendency throughout his career to sell out his party and its leadership whenever the MSM will praise him for it. You are right that both of these guys have a lot of issues where they are on the "wrong side". Where they seem to differ is that Rudy has shown that he has the spine to tell the MSM to go to hell and do what he thinks is right. McCain, the politician, seems likely to "grow" in office under the intense glare of the MSM.

Dafydd sees it the same way in his post.

my objection to McCain is not this or that policy difference; it's his overall character.

The man is untrustworthy;

He stabs friends in the back;


He has a volatile, at times uncontrollable temper;


He holds a grudge longer than Richard Nixon did;


And he believes the absolute, bloody worst about anyone who disagrees with him.

He continually puts John McCain ahead of everything else, including the United States itself. And if elected president, he would likely become our very own version of Bill Clinton.

McCain didn't push McCain-Feingold (the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, BCRA) because he cared anything about "reform," nor did he push it because he hates freedom of speech (he doesn't; he just doesn't care). He pushed it because it aggrandized a fellow named John McCain.

Similarly, he didn't create the "Gang of 14" in order to expedite the judges nominated by President Bush, nor even to throw them under the bus: he did it, without regard to consequences, so that John McCain would again be the first name on the lips of America.

And, he notes, Rudy did a remarkable job as chief executive of a city of over 8 million (a population larger than 40 states) and handled himself extremely well in the crisis following 9/11. In contrast:

John McCain has never run anything but his mouth... and he can't even control that very well, can he?

I wholeheartedly endorse his conclusion:

The primary "values and philosophies" demanded are not found in either man's position on the issues Bevan examines, but rather in both men's characters in a time so fraught with peril. Everything I know, I learned from Zorro, including this: "No man can govern others until he has first learned to govern himself." John McCain cannot even govern himself; I will not trust him with my country.