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McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Endorses John McCain

November 02, 2008

"John McCain is fiercely independent. And he makes no apologies for the principles he holds dear, even if they be at odds with the traditional party base. But he has never wavered in his core belief of what Republicanism (with a capital 'R') and republicanism (with a lower-case 'r') are all about: Small government. Fiscal discipline. Low taxes. A strong defense. And a judiciary that does not legislate from the bench. Compared with Barack Obama's long and dangerous statist laundry list of the ever more expansive role government should play in our lives, John McCain sums it up quite succinctly, quite effectively and quite nicely, thank you." -- Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"For President: Elect John McCain"

Editorial

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
November 2, 2008

The late British philosopher Bertrand Russell once opined that passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy for most boys and girls. "It involves no effort of independent thought and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils."

Yet Mr. Russell warned that the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. "It causes men to seek a leader and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position."

Welcome to the 2008 presidential race. This nation's liberal elite and its predominantly liberal media have anointed as the next president Democrat Barack Obama, 47, the junior senator of Illinois.

The liberal tutorial is that Sen. Obama is a visionary, a man of hope, if not the political equivalent of the Second Coming. And a plurality of the student body appears to accept this at face value. But Obama has sparse political experience, no executive experience, no leadership experience, really, and woefully little experience at much of anything.

That is, other than rationalizing quite leftist and collectivist views that include everything from the worst of command economics -- sure to turn recession into depression -- to perverting the U.S. Constitution by making it and the Supreme Court some kind of rule-of-law relative social re-engineering tool.

Talk about manifest danger.

The only truly experienced leader in this race -- the gentleman whose resume actually is worthy of the phrase -- is John McCain, 72, war hero, former congressman and longtime U.S. senator of Arizona.

We first endorsed Mr. McCain for president in February, long before we knew Sen. Obama would be the Democrat nominee. But our words then are even more apropos now.

John McCain is fiercely independent. And he makes no apologies for the principles he holds dear, even if they be at odds with the traditional party base. But he has never wavered in his core belief of what Republicanism (with a capital "R") and republicanism (with a lower-case "r") are all about:

Small government. Fiscal discipline. Low taxes. A strong defense. And a judiciary that does not legislate from the bench.

Compared with Barack Obama's long and dangerous statist laundry list of the ever more expansive role government should play in our lives, John McCain sums it up quite succinctly, quite effectively and quite nicely, thank you.

Indeed, we have differences that are more than quibbles with some of Sen. McCain's positions. We stridently disagree with his campaign finance and immigration "reform" efforts. And we've told him so face to face.

But it being, as once was written, a golden rule that one should never judge men by their opinions but rather by what their opinions make of them, it would be imprudent of us to allow our respectful differences to preclude our support.

Thus, we again today wholeheartedly endorse John McCain for president of the United States. For it really is time to stand up and fight.

ReadThe Editorial

John McCain, McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Endorses John McCain Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/291797

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