Assessing John McCain

GMU law prof Illya Somin has some excellent analysis assessing John McCain:

In two insightful posts, University of San Diego law professor Michael Rappaport argues that John McCain is very bad on a wide range of policy issues and that pro-limited government conservatives might well be better off with a Democratic candidate winning this fall than with a President McCain.

I agree with most of the points Michael makes in his first post. On two of the issues he raises (immigration and torture/interrogation) my position is much closer to McCain's than Michael's is. I also give McCain great credit for opposing Bush's 2003 Medicare prescription drug plan - the biggest of all the Bush Administration's domestic policy boondoggles. He was one of only nine GOP senators to buck the administration on that issue.

I therefore give McCain higher grades on policy than Michael does. Nonetheless, the overall picture Michael paints is far from a positive one. McCain seems less of a big government conservative than Bush has turned out to be. But the difference is more one of degree than kind. On judges, I agree with Michael's suspicions that McCain might appoint moderate to liberal "stealth" nominees to the Supreme Court in order to preserve his beloved McCain-Feingold campaign finance restrictions. I'm not certain about that, but it's a real possibility.

...even aside from McCain's strengths and weaknesses as an individual, there are great benefits to having a divided government. As I argue here and here, it's one of the best ways of limiting the growth of government power. Since the Democrats are almost certain to retain control of both houses of Congress and Mitt Romney has almost no chance of winning the general election, John McCain may be the only hope for maintaining divided government in 2008.

As I've written before, I find it difficult to favor any of the candidates at this point, but I am certainly in favor of a divided government.  Part of the problem during much of the Bush presidency has been that the Republicans controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches of government.  When either party gets "full control" of both branches, they tend to spend like drunken sailors.  I agree with Professor Rowley who once said that a split government with a Democratic Congress and Republican President is probably best.

Despite my reservations about him, if McCain is the only hope for keeping the government split, he just might be worth voting for...