A candidate who Gets It

The only one of the "Big 3" GOP candidates--Giuliani, McCain, Romney--I could see myself voting for in the Republican primary is John McCain. He's by far the most comfortable of the three on abortion, and his recent speech on energy policy indicates that he clearly understands the only real alternative course of action to Al Gore et al's suicidal vision of wrecking the global economy (not to mention the only feasible course of action, period):

There's no doubt it's an enormous challenge. But is it too big a challenge for America to tackle; this great country that has never before confronted a problem it couldn't solve? No, it is not. No people have ever been better innovators and problem solvers than Americans. It is in our national DNA to see challenges as opportunities; to conquer problems beyond the expectation of an admiring world. America, relying as always on the industry and imagination of a free people, and the power and innovation of free markets, is capable of overcoming any challenge from within and without our borders. Our enemies believe we're too weak to overcome our dependence on foreign oil. Even some of our allies think we're no longer the world's most visionary, most capable country or committed to the advancement of mankind. I think we know better than that. I think we know who we are and what we can do. Now, let's remind the world.

...

The strategy I propose won't be another grab bag of handouts to this or that industry and a full employment act for lobbyists. It will promote the diversification and conservation of our energy sources that will in sufficient time break the dominance of oil in our transportation sector just as we diversified away from oil use in electric power generation thirty years ago; and substantially reduce the impact of our energy consumption on the planet. It will rely on the genius and technological prowess of American industry and science. Government must set achievable goals, but the markets should be free to produce the means. And those means are within our reach.

Read the whole thing.

I'm not wholly sold on McCain--his trampling of the First Amendment alongside Feingold, in particular, is a major stumbling block--but he's a far better choice than Giuliani or Romney will ever be.

--Shack