I will not vote for McCain (or Huckabee)!

There it is. I have said it. I would rather see a Democrat in the White House (not with my vote, though) than vote for either of these two. Here is why:
McCain will sign McCain/Kennedy, if it were to come to his desk. He has said he would. This immigration bill was a travesty that President Bush should have never supported. The fact that McCain spoke with such disdain, and perpetuated the myth that those of us who opposed his bill were anti-immigration and racist xenophobes only solidifies in my mind that he doesn't deserve my vote.
McCain gave us McCain/Feingold, a law that helped to rob such groups as those who are pro-life and pro-gun rights of their 1st amendment right to free speech in letting people know how their incumbent representatives in Washington stand on those issues.
McCain considered the possibility of running as John Kerry's running mate in 2004. Enough said.
McCain formed the Gang of 14 that permitted the Democrat minority to block votes on conservative justices to federal courts.
McCain voted both times against the Bush tax cuts. I don't believe his current reasoning that it was because they weren't coupled with spending cuts. At the time, he sounded just like Clinton, Obama, and Edwards, objecting to the tax cuts because they would only benefit the rich - typical class warfare rhetoric.
McCain wants to shut down the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention facility, presumably relocating these homicidal maniacs to United States soil, where the ACLU will have a greater ability to get them constitutional protections they are not entitled to.
McCain voted for Ruth Bader Ginsburg's confirmation. He feels that Justice Alito is too conservative. And now you really expect me to believe that he will appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court? Sorry, I'm not buying it.
McCain is perhaps even more liberal on environmental policies than even Clinton or Obama.
McCain opposes drilling in ANWR.
He is not the consistent conservative he paints himself as. In 2007, now that he has a shot at the nomination, he thinks that Roe v. Wade should be overturned. However, in 1999 he said we would not support the repeal of Roe v. Wade. In addition, his support of embryonic stem cell research hardly makes him a stalwart pro-life champion.
Let's not forget his role in the Keating 5 scandal, because you know the Democrats won't. Back then he wasn't so opposed to taking soft money.
The only area I agree with McCain on is the war. But let's face it. If Hillary wins the election, she is going to do whatever is going to help her the most, regardless of what she has promised up until now. Not a single one of her policy positions has remained firm since she started this race. If Iraq is going well when she took office, she would no sooner withdraw troops and risk being blamed for stealing defeat from the jaws of victory than shoot herself in the head. And if things go south on her, then 2012 should be a cake walk. The country will be able to see once and for all why it is that Republicans claim that Democrats are weak on defense. I don't think breaking down at negotiations is going to impress Ahmadinejad as much as it did with those saps in New Hampshire.

And let's not forget the spoiler, Mike Huckabee. Other than his evangelical Christian credentials, it is amazing that so many people view this man as the standard bearer of the conservative cause, especially considering how much water he is now carrying for McCain. With the exception of Giuliani, I can't think of anybody that has kissed up to McCain more in the last little while. Huckabee can't win, and he knows it. Does it seem odd to anybody else that Huckabee is running a campaign against Romney, the guy who is in 2nd place, rather than against McCain, the frontrunner? It was McCain that bumped him out in South Carolina, not Romney. Huckabee has run a vicious attack against Romney, slurring his religion, and now is running a campaign to split the conservative vote so that the nomination will go to McCain, hoping that he might get a juicy position in a McCain presidency, maybe even as a running mate, that could then propel him to the top spot later on. I don't believe that McCain will kill the Republican party, I believe that Huckabee will.

Now I am not going to argue that Romney is the most conservative guy out there, or that he is the legitimate heir to the Reagan legacy. I do believe that he will be more conservative than Bush, whereas McCain will be more liberal than Bush. I do believe that Romney is the more capable in terms of economic policy. Romney was not always as conservative as he now seems. But I would rather have a candidate that once seemed more liberal, but lately has become more conservative, as opposed to a man who used to be more conservative, but lately has become more liberal. And I certainly wouldn't vote for a man who has been, and remains, liberal, but who says, "Vote for me, because I'm a Christian."

Romney is the person who needs to win the nomination. Nobody else will get my vote. It won't kill the Republican party if McCain wins. We will be back to where we were in 1976. It will be a good opportunity to purge the party of RINOs. We have finally jettisoned people like Lincoln Chafee. Maybe the silver lining in all of this is that if McCain wins the nomination, we will at least not have him in the Senate anymore.