So how exactly did we get John McCain as the Republican nominee? Weren’t all those guys on the stage a few months ago all trying to "out-Reagan" one another? True, conservatives vote in the primaries, so that is the audience they were gunning for, but still, couldn’t we have expected someone a bit more conservative?

The answer is simple, we felt the need to defend President Bush. If you look at the presidency of this man, it is simply not filled with too many conservative benchmarks. In many ways we probably would have been better off with an Al Gore administration for four years. Trust me, he would not have lasted eight.

Think about it, could even a liberal like Gore messed up the use of the military any worse than Bush. Feel that reflex, to defend Bush? That is what I am talking about. Yes, we need to win in Iraq. But let’s not go back and redefine the goals. We went in as a preemptive strike against a threat to national security. We did NOT go in to liberate the people from an evil dictator.

Liberals like to go back and redefine the goals of fiascos such as the war on poverty, we should not get sucked in to doing the same thing.

We are there, we need to win, we know that. Even the Democratic presidential candidates know we can’t pull out now. But we have been there for six years now! Think about that! We have spent trillions with a "T"! Even if you are able to rationalize us going into Iraq, and that is actually not too difficult, you simply cannot say that the Bush administration has done anywhere near a competent job of prosecuting this war effort. The surge proves that.

American military might has always been predicated on a simple philosophy - go in with overwhelming force. But Donald Rumsfeld didn’t do that and Bush followed his lead. We tried to get in and get out with a minimum of manpower. This was one of so very many mistakes that need not be listed here.

But we have to defend Bush.

No Child Left Behind and the creation of an entirely new branch of the government - that of Homeland Security - have seen an increase in federal domestic spending that is simply unprecedented in the history of this country. Yea, the tax cuts were good and the number once again show they increased federal intake. But the spending has been out of control.

Bush did not veto a single bill in his first term. Think about that. Every single spending bill, heck, every single bill period that came across his desk was signed into law.

The Republicans did what fallible humans do in power, they sought to keep it. They sought to buy the votes of their constituents instead of doing what they were elected to do - get the federal government in check and secure this country.

But we feel the need to defend Bush.

Here’s where it leads to McCain. For some reason the media continue to portray the Bush administration as conservative. Probably because W is so religious. Who knows? No matter that the record indicates otherwise. Liberals hate him with a passion that is breathtaking to behold, so he must be conservative.

So, how do we react? Go with the "moderate." thus, John McCain - author of the power-grabbing first-amendment smashing McCain-Feingold finance reform bill. All but assuring maximum retention in Washington. Just wait until we have to defend this guy.