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→Political career
John McCain became the official Republican nominee on September 3 at the Republican National Convention. His running mate is Governor [[Sarah Palin]] of [[Alaska]] and his [[Democrat]] opponent is Senator [[Barack Obama]] of [[Illinois]]. Election day will be on November 4, 2008. After trailing Obama in the national polls, McCain suddenly took the lead after the two conventions, baffling the Democrats who had built their own campaign entirely on attacking President Bush, whom McCain ignored.<ref> The latest poll results are summarized at [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html Real Clear Politics]</ref>
John McCain became the official Republican nominee on September 3 at the Republican National Convention. His running mate is Governor [[Sarah Palin]] of [[Alaska]] and his [[Democrat]] opponent is Senator [[Barack Obama]] of [[Illinois]]. Election day will be on November 4, 2008. After trailing Obama in the national polls, McCain suddenly took the lead after the two conventions, baffling the Democrats who had built their own campaign entirely on attacking President Bush, whom McCain ignored.<ref> The latest poll results are summarized at [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html Real Clear Politics]</ref>
===Criticism===
McCain's political record has been generally conservative, but he has alienated some conservatives on several important issues:
1. Immigration. In 2005-2006, McCain joined with liberal Senator Ted Kennedy to support a sweeping bill that reformed the tangled mass of immigration law, but in some ways was was favorable to illegal aliens. It has not passed.
2. Same-sex marriage. In 2006, McCain joined Democrats and liberal Republicans in voting against the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment to forbid non-traditional marriage. Later, on Hardball, McCain took a Libertarian position, "On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe that people want to have private ceremonies, that's fine." McCain's home state of Arizona was the only state to defeat a marriage referendum (in 2006), as McCain did nothing to support it.
3. "Gang of 14". On May 23, 2005, McCain was part of a group of 14 Senators who blocked the planned "nuclear option" for confirming blocked Republican nominees for the bench. Under this compromise a few judicial nominees were allowed to be confirmed (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor), but others (e.g., Henry Saad) remained blocked and had to withdraw.
4. Campaign finance. McCain advocated campaign finance reform, something opposed by many conservative on Libertarian grounds that it interferes with the right to free speech. In 2002, McCain joined with liberal Democrat Russell Feingold to prohibit independent groups from advertising about a candidate within many weeks of an election. This law prohibits ads that do not even recommend for whom to vote, but merely urge people to contact their representatives concerning a vote that the representatives will make in Congress. A court recently declared this unconstitutional. Further, the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law allows Indian nations (which get nearly all their money from unregulated casinos) to make unlimited political donations, even though political donations by American citizens are strictly limited and political spending by corporations is prohibited.
5. Torture. McCain opposed renewal of the Patriot act on the grounds that it endorses use of torture, something which he opposes based on his experience as a POW in Vietnam. While he eventually removed his opposition to the renewal of the act, he added language to the renewal act prohibiting torture, despite threat of a presidential veto if such language was added. This position alienates many conservatives, who believe that torture is a tool that can and should be used against terrorists.
6. Tax cuts. McCain opposed President George W. Bush's tax cuts, on the argument that cutting taxes without also cutting spending was not actually a tax cut, but was a tax on future generations.
7. Criticism of the religious right. In his unsuccessful campaign in 2000, McCain criticized elements of the religious right in an attempt to attract voters.
8. Embryonic stem cell research. McCain supports embryonic stem cell research as a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership.
9. John McCain, like Gary Hart and John Tower before him, is at the complete mercy of the media. The media could destroy McCain's public reputation based on his role in the Keating Five scandal, and the media can be expected to do so in a general election.
10. An intangible, but a very important one, is the issue of trust. Many people, particularly evangelicals, do not trust McCain. That can be an insurmountable problem for a presidential candidate. However, recently, McCain has attempted to reach out to evangelical leaders to regain their trust. An example was his recent speech at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.
==Domestic Policy==
==Domestic Policy==