My bet is that John McCain will be less conservative in office than he is when campaigning, when he needs the far right to turn out for him. He has to pander to the religious right now, but I’m hoping that should he be elected he will really tell them where to go. We know he has no real love for them.

I also suspect Obama will be less “liberal” on economic policy than he is when campaigning against Clinton–but in this case I by “liberal” I mean supporting a government command economy, and not being this type of liberal would be a good thing. Obama has already shown himself to be less of a fan of a command economy, and he will be more free to express such views when not engaged in a Democratic primary campaign.

I don’t take seriously the exact statements of any candidate with regards to what they will do in Iraq as the situation on the ground will change everything. Diplomacy, both within Iraq and with neighbors, will also play a big part and a candidate cannot say for certain what the outcome of such diplomacy will be until initiated. Surrogates for both Clinton and Obama have basically admitted that they may wind up changing their plans once in office.

What is important with regards to Iraq is that the candidate understand why going into Iraq was a mistake and understand the harm which comes from remaining there. I would only trust such a candidate to get us out–although I have no idea as to how many months this will take. Of the three, Obama is the only one who has shown sufficient understanding of the problem to give me any confidence they will come up with a solution once in office that will get us out of there.

I won’t vote for John McCain come hell or high water. However, i think that i would be more comfortable with him than with Clinton.

I could at least hope that, without the pressure of pandering to the base, he might actually return to his maverick roots…the “I almost went Democratic, once.” John McCain.

Clinton will almost assuredly govern from the right on social issues and write government checks that her economic populism can’t cash.

Never mind having to deal with, “Well, I misspoke when i said that withdrawal from Iraq was definite and regardless of the current situation.”