Why I'll be caucusing for Mitt Romney

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth on the part of conservative elites at the prospect of John McCain being the GOP nominee for the presidential race this year. They cite things like McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, and the proposed McCain-Kennedy immigration and Lieberman-McCain anti-global warming bills. In a nutshell, he is accused of not being conservative enough for the Republican party.

It seems, however, that a plurality of the Republican party disagree with the the opinion shapers of talk radio, the blogosphere, and some print media.

Well, I won't be so presumptious as to say that the unwashed masses of the Republican party are wrong and that the deep thinkers at the top have got it right. However, I'll be caucusing for Mitt Romney on Tuesday. Here's why:

When I think of John McCain, I think of this video where he gleefully sings into a mic: "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb, bomb Iran." A few months ago, I heard John McCain using Abu Ghraib as a campaign talking point. I wish I could find the quote, but it was in the context that such things would not happen under his administration. Finally, a Republican congressman from California was praising John McCain last week on Hugh Hewitt's radio show. He was talking about how although he disagreed with McCain on many things, McCain's credentials for the War on Terror overrode all else. This congressman talked about McCain's anger and that he wanted an angry president to sit across the table from our enemies.

Well, I do not.

I do not want an angry president making rash decisions about sending in troops. It seems to me that it is likely to get soldiers needlessly killed.

I do not want a president who uses a one night shift in a stressed out military prison as a talking point. There is no "integrity" in gaining favor with those who have used that scandal to try to bring down the administration's efforts in the War on Terror.

I do not want a president who has such a tin-ear that he does not find anything wrong with publicly joking about bombing a country.

My son is currently part-time Army National Guard. His enlistment is up in October. For a while, it seemed that he would not be reenlisting after ten-years in full-time and part-time service, including one year serving in Iraq. As the time gets closer, he's reassessing the benefits of being in the Guard, and even contemplating going back to full-time service.

I am very interested in who will be our Commander-in-Chief. Mitt Romney has a record of achievements. John McCain is seen as a hero because he spent five years in a prisoner of war camp. Well, I had an uncle who was a prisoner of war. He marched in one of the death marches in Nazi Germany. My uncle was an unsung hero. That did not make him qualified to be President.

I believe that it's going to take more to win the War on Terror than simply killing the enemy, somthing that John McCain seems all too eager to do. It's going to take strategy, a "can-do" attitude, and can I even say - a Godly spirit. That sounds more like Mitt Romney to me.

So, I will be caucusing for Mitt Romney on Tuesday night.