McCain Campaign Press Release - "In Case You Missed It": Detroit News Endorses John McCain

" He is both tested and tempered by his extensive political and military experience. But more than anything else, McCain stands out for being his own man, driven by principle and not afraid to challenge the status quo. He has been among the Senate's most independent members, repeatedly eschewing ideology to work across the aisle for bipartisan agreements. He has been willing to buck his own party, as he did in leading the push for campaign finance reform, and to rise above political gamesmanship, as he did in negotiating a compromise that broke the judicial nominee logjam. He is nearly alone in the Senate in refusing to thrust his hands into the earmark pork barrel. And he has been right on the most pressing issues of the day, from climate change to immigration." -- Detroit News

"McCain Best Choice For Uncertain Times"

Editorial

Detroit News
October 23, 2008

The 21st century is not even a decade old and yet already the hope for an era of peace and prosperity that greeted its dawning has been squandered. It is a challenge and opportunity for the man who succeeds President Bush.

Financial markets that rose to incredible heights without an ethical foundation have brought the economy to the brink of collapse. Tyrants emboldened by the often heavy-handed and inept foreign policy of the Bush administration have established rogue regimes in every corner of the world to threaten U.S. interests and security.

During these perilous times, the nation needs an experienced, proven leader in the White House. Sen. John McCain is best equipped for the job.

The Republican presidential candidate has the character, pragmatism and independence necessary to lead a united America past our poisonous partisan divisions and into a more civil and productive future.

We readily acknowledge that McCain has run a distressingly ineffective presidential campaign. He has failed to find his voice on the campaign trail, rarely revealing the appealing personal characteristics and refreshing political views that caused us to endorse him in Michigan's Republican primary in January.

His selection of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin as his running-mate also gives us pause. Palin is a promising governor and has excited the Republican base, but she is clearly not prepared for the role she was chosen to play and is costing McCain support he might have expected from undecided voters who harbor doubts about the seasoning of Democrat Barack Obama.

But America's knowledge of John McCain goes well beyond the presidential candidate. We've known the Arizona senator for 26 years of stellar service in Congress, and before that as a war hero who endured with courage the unspeakable horrors of a North Vietnamese prison camp.

He is both tested and tempered by his extensive political and military experience. But more than anything else, McCain stands out for being his own man, driven by principle and not afraid to challenge the status quo.

He has been among the Senate's most independent members, repeatedly eschewing ideology to work across the aisle for bipartisan agreements. He has been willing to buck his own party, as he did in leading the push for campaign finance reform, and to rise above political gamesmanship, as he did in negotiating a compromise that broke the judicial nominee logjam. He is nearly alone in the Senate in refusing to thrust his hands into the earmark pork barrel.

And he has been right on the most pressing issues of the day, from climate change to immigration.

Had Congress listened to McCain's warning in 2005 about the dangers of the exploding sub-prime mortgage market, the financial crisis choking the nation today might be less severe. Had the Bush administration heeded McCain's plea for a troop surge earlier in the Iraq War, more of America's soldiers might now be home.

In choosing McCain, we do not ignore the profound significance of Sen. Obama's candidacy. His place atop the Democratic ticket represents a dramatic leap forward for diversity in the national leadership. He has brought an inspiring message of change and hope to American politics and has been unflappable on the campaign trail.

He is a man of tremendous ability who will surely continue to play a vital national role.

But if he wins this election, he will enter the White House as the most inexperienced president since Herbert Hoover in 1928. His proposals reflect the Democratic Party's big-spending orthodoxy. Conservative estimates place the price tag for his new programs at nearly $350 billion a year, and yet he vows even more middle class tax cuts.

Obama would raise taxes on investors and costs for job creators at a time when America needs more investment and jobs.

By contrast, McCain vows to freeze spending while he scours the budget for areas where it can be cut. Though his opponents deride a spending freeze as a simplistic response, we must take a breather from the Bush-era spending spree that has increased the size of government by 50 percent during the past eight years.

McCain has a well-earned reputation as a spending hawk. Although he now supports making them permanent, he opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 because they were not matched by off-setting spending cuts. Again, had McCain prevailed, the nation would have had the economic growth the tax cuts helped produce without the appalling deficits the spending generated. If elected, we hope he hews to his original stance that tax cuts and spending cuts should go hand-in-hand.

Though economic concerns are understandably dominating the nation's attention, it can't be forgotten that the world remains a very dangerous place. Within the next year, the new president will have to make difficult decisions about how to answer Iran's push toward nuclear capability. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez continues to agitate in South America, Vladimir Putin appears determined to remove Russia from the league of democratic nations and North Korea is ever volatile.

The next president will be charged with stabilizing Iraq so American troops can leave that country in good conscience. He will also have to find an answer for Afghanistan that doesn't bog down America in another long conflict or provoke Pakistan, a tenuous and nuclear armed ally.

McCain may lack the inspirational qualities of his opponent, but if this were a blind audition judged solely on the resumes of the two candidates, he would win decisively.

John McCain has what it takes to lead America in these very uncertain times.

Read The Editorial