Column: GOP Lost Election Because McCain Is Not True Republican

This story was written by Paul Thompson, The Crimson White

Why do I say that? Well, for a number of reasons. During the primaries, we in the Republican Party had numerous choices, including candidates likeHuckabee, McCain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. After some dropped out, including my original favorite, Fred Thompson, we were left with a three-way race between Huckabee, McCain and Romney. Each candidate had different strengths, though what McCains were we still arent sure.

Huckabee received numerous votes and delegates from the so-called religious right prompting him to think he actually had a chance of winning the general election. What he didnt realize is that he was costing the party the entire election. He should have knownhe could never compete nationally as the favorite son ofbible-thumping religious nuts. Recognizing that, Huckabee should have dropped out and given his delegates to Mitt Romney, who was the only candidate who would have won this election for us.

Instead, Huckabee stayed in and stole votes that would have otherwise gone to Romney, which had the ultimate effect of handing the nomination to one of the partys most liberal members John McCain.

Ive never liked McCain that is, until I was forced to because of he secured the nomination. In fact, I was even published on this very page earlier this year begging voters to keep the nomination from him. He is simply too liberal to be a Republican.

His work to limit the freedom of speech is legendary, a cause near and dear to many Democrats through the so-called Fairness Doctrine. With his work to pass the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act (an act that has gone further to limit political speech than nearly any other), McCain consorted with a senator who had such strong disregard for the safety of the American people that he became the only senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act.

A true Republican would never have even considered working with someone like Feingold, especially not to limit freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. On Thursday,according to a Fox News article, the RNC announced that it was filing two lawsuits challenging McCains not-so-constitutional foray into campaign reform.

RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a memo released Thursday, The Democrats are now being led by a candidate who himself broke his pledge to accept public financing and failed to comply with campaign finance law. Despite this, as happened with the last lawsuit challenging campaign finance restrictions, the Democrat Party will no doubt hypocritically sit on the sidelines while the RNC defends political parties' constitutional rights.

Thats exactly my point, except that McCain sided with liberal Democrats in passing that legislation. After all, his name is attached to the act the RNC has continually challenged since it was adopted in 2002.

Was McCain really the man we wanted to put up to win the election? I mean, I would have taken him over Obama any day, but still, wouldnt it be nice to have an actual conservative run for president on the Republican ticket, or is that just too much to ask?

The real problem on Nov. 4 was that the race wasnt between a liberal and a conservative.

Obama has redefined the word liberal, becoming the most liberal senator in the entire U.S. Senate in less than one term, while McCain was busy working to limit free speech and political association. This was a race between an ultra-liberal and a Democrat in a stolen Republicans suit.

I was shall we say less than pleasd with the outcome of the election, and this is exactly why. To know that we fielded a candidate who moved the entire partys platform left and accordingly left us in shambles is painful.

Some good can come of this debacle, though. What we need to do is redefine ourselves as the part of conservatism and show the American people that we are not the party of John McCain and other moderately Republican Democrats.