I’m going with McCain. Not because I think he’s most beatable, for that I’d still favor Romney. I’d also say that Romney has shown himself to be more of a pragmatist and a pretty effective governor in Massachusetts. And it’s not just because I trust McCain more overall, he is actively lying about Romney’s record on Iraq. Similarly, I expect I will not be pleased by his VP choice, but that’s probably true of any of the Republicans.
Instead, I’m playing true to type of being a radical on torture. Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney like most of the Republican party condones torture. I’m still a tad annoyed with McCain for accepting a watered down bill, but he’s no different than a lot of the Democrats in that regard. He has stayed firm on that issue.
I was inspired to this realization by Attorney General Mukasey who won’t offer legal explanations, even in a closed session, of how CIA interrogation techniques are lawful. He similarly holds that the legality of waterboarding depends on the circumstance which doesn’t square with the laws on torture.
Anyhow, here’s Mukasey’s letter (via Balkinization)
Reasonable people can disagree, and have disagreed, about these matters.
Well, I suppose that’s true, if your definition of "reasonable people" includes war criminals.
Enough. America has an ill-advised but also long and rich tradition of warmongering. It’s important to oppose that tradition, but it’s there. The same is not true of torture at the national level (although slavery and lynching both certainly had aspects of torture). We can survive another guy who loves militarism too much, we have before. I am not willing to accept the possibility of a second American president laying down a torture policy. That said, I’m going to be vehemently supporting the Democratic candidate regardless of the winner.
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