A Conservative Case for Hillary Clinton

The title may seem like an oxymoron, but I will explain my reasoning in this article. Ideally I'd vote for Mitt Romney for his executive experience and pragmatic business sense, or Ron Paul for his fiscal conservatism and commitment to constitutional orthodoxy. But realistically, only Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton have any chance of gaining the White House this year. From a pragmatic standpoint, Hillary Clinton may be the least objectionable of the lot.

John McCain is More Liberal than Hillary Clinton

As I discussed in an earlier editorial (How Mitt Romney Changed My Mind), McCain is a Republican-barely. He combines the worst aspects of both parties, liberal domestic policies with spendthrift interventionist foreign policy. Supporters of McCain's conservative credentials point to his 83% rating with the American Conservative Union. Those figures are distorted because they span a 30+ year career. If you look at his recent record, the numbers would be very different. McCain once said that running against Hillary Clinton would be a love fest since they had such respect for each other. With McCain's views on gun control, campaign finance reform, and immigration, McCain and Hillary Clinton are ideologically similar, with McCain tilting slightly to the left. If not for the war, McCain would be a Democrat.

Hillary Clinton is preferable to Barack Obama

Hillary Clinton is a party-line liberal, but she doesn't pretend to be anything else. You know what you're getting: high taxes and socialized healthcare. Hillary Clinton may be wrong, but at least she's consistently wrong. Clinton's supporters are reasonable. They tend to vote on issues over rhetoric, substance over style, content over presentation. Hillary Clinton's supporters don't treat her like the second coming of the Messiah.