Mr. John McCain has a choice to make according to an article in The New York Times.
He will be employing the services of fellow republican, President Bush, to help raise funds for his campaign and to make him attractive to conservatives. The choice he has to make is how strongly he wants to be tied to the President.
Senator McCain must perform a balancing act. He needs the President’s help and it would be unwise not to accept that help. However, it may also be unwise to let the President help too much.
Polls show that only 30% of voters approve the job President Bush is doing as president and even among Republicans his rating has dropped to 66%.
While becoming chummy with the President might get McCain more of the conservative vote, it would almost certainly alienate independents and Democrats.
The public can expect to see President Bush appear alone in support of John McCain, but the McCain camp is not eager to create a strong tie to the President.
What McCain must do is retain the votes he already is assured and do his best to pull away some of the independent vote and maybe even some less devoted Democrats.
Mr. McCain is in a delicate situation. Democrats are quick to link McCain and the President, essentially indicating that a vote for McCain is a vote for a third term for President Bush.
Mr. McCain’s advisors are quick to point out that he will only be campaigning for the things that Mr. McCain believes in.
That is a little hard to swallow as it seems the entire Bush family is standing up in support for him. Former President Bush endorsed Senator McCain just today here in Texas.
It is difficult to believe that there will not be some political back scratching later should McCain get the nomination.
One could argue that it does not matter much whether McCain ties himself to the President or not. Voters are apparently tired of the job that the current president is doing and it would seem obvious that to make a great change the pendulum must swing the other way and put a Democrat in office as a Republican would likely not make the changes that are being looked for.
The bottom line is that President Bush is campaigning for John McCain so they have similar political ideologies. However strong McCain makes that tie to the President will not matter so long as there is a tie there at all.

A Gap in Readiness

I was appalled to read in this article about the state of our reserve forces.
There is an “apalling gap” in the readiness of the forces who would be called upon to respond to attacks on U.S. soil.
According to a congressional commission report recently released the National Guard and Reserve forces are not sufficiently trained and prepared to answer the demands of a domestic crisis.
Not only do they lack training and personnel, there is also a lack of $48 billion in equipment.
This is a dangerous situation for the United States to be in. Should there be an attack on U.S. soil, be it biological, chemical or nuclear, the National Guard and Reserve forces are unprepared and insufficiently trained to respond in a manner likely to resolve the problem.
It is clear what needs to be done. Reserve and National Guard forces need to be trained in the same manner as active duty troops. They must be kept ‘at the ready’ and with the same resources as the troops overseas.
Since September 11 many reserve troops have served overseas so we know that they are necessary.
A strong reserve is also necessary to prevent the necessity of a draft which no one wants.
One thing is clear - if something is not done it leaves the U.S. unable to defend itself in the case of an attack on our own soil.