Would I vote for Barack or McCain?

Although I would prefer to vote for Hillary in November, my position has been that I will vote for whichever candidate is more centrist. I had expected both Barack and McCain to veer sharply to center after their respective primary campaigns were over, making it a real horse race as to who I would vote for, but so far I haven't see McCain move towards center at all, and he may in fact be moving a little further to the right. He still seems too happy with the U.S. being in Iraq. His daily emails have made appeals to conservatives and conservative values. The most recent email was a rant against "judicial activism" and calls for "judges who strictly interpret the Constitution." Another recent email referred to "conservative principles." I am sorry, but these are not efforts to reach toward the center where a lot of us are.

In short, if the election were held today, I would not be able to vote for John McCain. Sure, a lot can change between now and November, but he is currently still not even pointed in the "right" direction.

OTOH, his recent right-wing appeals may amount to simple pandering in an effort to raise campaign contributions. I suppose that if I were in his shoes, I actually would also focus on the conservatives right now since they will be much less likely to contribute later in the campaign when McCain does start taking a more centrist position in the actual campaign. We will see. For now, I would have to vote "No" for McCain.

That does not mean that Barack will get a free pass, but I think I already sense that he is a bit more centrist than his appeals to the left-wing of the Democratic party lets on.

-- Jack Krupansky