McCain Tries to Win The European Primaries

London, England must have moved its presidential primary up like California because John McCain seems to be making a pitch to win their votes in this article in the Sunday Times. He doesn't want us to be "ugly Americans", so he has some proposals to make us acceptable once again to the great European hordes:

But Sen McCain has also consistently criticised the handling of the war by the Bush administration, and has led efforts in the Senate to end torture and extrajudicial treatment of terror suspects.

In a sign that he wants to distance himself from the president - to whom he lost in an ugly campaign in 2000 - Sen McCain outlined a series of measures to roll back Bush policies and counter the "ugly American" image.

"I would immediately close Guantanamo Bay, move all the prisoners to Fort Leavenworth (an army base in Kansas) and truly expedite the judicial proceedings in their cases," he said. "I would reaffirm my commitment to address the issue of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. I know how important this is in Europe in particular."

So, McCain will end torture, even though there's never been any evidence that true torture is used as a standard practice (I'm sorry, but waterboarding, sleep deprivation, or hot/cold quarters does not constitute torture). He wants to bring some of the world's worst killers from their haven in Cuba where they can't hurt anybody, to a prison in the middle of Kansas where the potential for harm to Americans is not only greater, but the terrorists could find themselves eligible for all kinds of new legal rights as well. And, he wants to cripple our economy in order to placate Europeans whose own record on greenhouse gas emission is less than stellar. Is he running for the president of the United States or the European Union?

Screw Europe. If they don't like what we do, they're welcome to defend themselves the next time the fascists or commies come calling. It is not the job of the American president to pander to the emotional needs of foreigners.

You'd think the Europeans were members of the press the way McCain plays up to them.

This is precisely why John McCain will not be the GOP nominee - he appears to be more concerned about issues the Republican base simply doesn't care about, and less interested in the issues important to conservatives.