I forget which one it was (it's been awhile since college), but I do remember my professor saying that it was either Eisenhower or Nixon who regretted one of his Supreme Court choices because the justice turned out to be a leftie when he actually got on the bench and started making rulings.

As a result, that argument doesn't have that much weight with me.  You are welcome to try to convince me that I should "embrace the straight talk express", but it's going to take a lot more than the "conservative judge" argument to close the deal for me.

I haven't been convinced that I should "suck it up" to vote for him like I "sucked it up" to vote for Bush in 2004.    

I know...to you, I'm a "whiner" and I should "suck it up" for the party, but I can't in good conscience vote for the guy.

Also, calling me names because my opinion is different than yours only makes me more committed to my current position.  That is not the way to win "my heart and mind", if that is what you are seeking to do.  

Please explain to me why should I vote for someone who sounds like Granholm - only in drag?  

That's totally the impression I got when he was up here campaigning talking about how jobs aren't coming back (duh - we already know that)and we should turn into a bunch of greenies (as part of the wave of the future). And oh - we can't forget retraining workers.....

I was waiting for him to get the blond wig and pantsuit because that is what I saw when I saw and heard him talk.  An older, crankier version of Granholm.  

I'm really not impressed and his rhetoric is the "same old thing" we've been hearing from Granholm for years now. Sounds like a Republican who wants to turn the party into the Democrat-lite party.

I'm concerned about his rhetoric when he says that we should stay in Iraq for the next 100+ years - because I am going to have a baby boy in a few weeks and I really don't want to see my son stuck in the middle of war zone his uncle fought in years ago.  (My brother did his tour in 2003-2004).  

I'm happy that McCain actually gets that there is a problem over there, but do we want and can we really afford to have that kind of long-lasting committment?  

Honestly, I haven't been happy with any of my choices this election cycle, but McCain has always been at the top of my "I will not vote for him" list.  It will take a lot more than the "conservative judge" argument to convince me that he should move out of that #1 position.

"...a statesman like Limbaugh."

"...A former Arizona rodeo beauty queen and daughter of a millionaire Phoenix businessman, Cindy McCain was 25 when she met her future husband at a cocktail party in Hawaii. John McCain was a 43-year-old naval liaison officer travelling with a congressional delegation, his sights already set on a political career.

He was also still married to his first wife Carol, although the couple had recently separated. Carol later attributed the breakdown of the marriage to "John turning 40 and wanting to be 25 again". McCain fell like a brick for Cindy, who was the heir to a brewery distribution business worth millions. For several years afterwards the McCains endured Washington gossip that he had dumped his first wife - who had been crippled in a car accident - in favour of a trophy bride to enhance his political ambitions.

It was in the late 1980s, after a series of miscarriages and giving birth to three children, that Cindy developed spinal problems and was prescribed painkillers after surgery. Her husband and family had no idea she was secretly taking pills stolen from a charity she had created called the American Voluntary Medical Team, which sent mobile surgical units to war zones. When <u>federal agents began to investigate</u> gaps in the charity's records, Cindy telephoned her husband, a senator in Washington, and confessed.

She admitted at the time that the 1994 episode had "nearly destroyed both of us". But she underwent treatment and attended meetings of Narcotics Anonymous as part of a deal with prosecutors who dropped charges. ..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3295472.ece

"We do not consider him a conservative at all," says Rob Haney, a Republican Party chairman in McCain's home district. The candidate's bus, the Straight Talk Express, should be renamed, Haney says: "We call it the Forked Tongue Express around here. He'll lie about anything."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/01/AR2008020103260_pf.html

I agree with Rob Haney and if the Republican electorate is backing these qualities in a candidate for '08.

Then Yes! "Screw you guys, I'm going home".

I have to admit though, it is looking more and more like a write-in vote is the way to go for me (should Romney lose.)

I truly believe that eventually all things that go awry must be confronted because they do not veer back into correctness on their own.  I fear that a vote for McCain is an endorsement for a meandering Republican Party--one I don't recognize any more.  If McCain were to win the election and served his term(s), his presidency will be the unfortunate springboard from which our next candidate must jump.  It will be even farther to the left than Bush's.  I don't see how voting McCain will give conservatives any long term relief.

I have two choices with my vote.  I can say enough is enough and draw a line in the sand with it, or I can succumb to the centrist forces within the Republican party.