WSJ Considers "How Right is McCain?"

In The Wall Street Journal today, Pete DuPontexamines the question, “How Right is McCain?”

Some of McCain’s key conservative stances:
· Determined to finish the job in Iraq and stand tough on Iran
· Supports building nuclear power plants – a great source of clean energy
· Supports individual social security accounts
· Opposes HillaryCare/RomneyCare/etc
· Supports school choice and vouchers
· Wants to end agriculture subsidies, including ethanol, because they are an impediment to free markets (considering that there is now evidence that the production of ethanol actually releases more carbon into the atmosphere than is saved by burning ethanol over gas, it is seriously time to stand up to the flyover states and end these subsidies)
· Supports eliminating the alternative minimum tax and reform the tax code, and make the Bush tax cuts permanent
· Supports free trade

DuPont concludes that McCain is “mostly conservative” – but is that enough?

McCain-Feingold was a horrible piece of legislation and McCain’s anti-pharma rhetoric causes me serious concern, but considering the anti-market, populist economic views of Clinton, Obama and Huckabee, McCain’s strong background on many conservative issues makes him by far the best option for conservatives and I am confident that he would be a strong leader and a great president.

As for the conservative outcry over McCain’s candidacy, I think that it is important to put things into perspective – is McCain really worse for the conservative cause than Bush’s compassionate conservatism?