Old Man Joe Hallett of The Columbus Dispatch reports on John McCain’s visit to Columbus:

Sen. John McCain beamed himself into the fourth year of his would-be Republican presidency yesterday and looked back at a mostly concluded Iraq war, a captured or killed Osama bin Laden and a robust economy.

Speaking to a Columbus Metropolitan Club audience of 500 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, McCain presented an extensive list of problems he said he must solve to be considered a successful president. By setting benchmarks for a first term, McCain also established guideposts for opponents to mark if he fails.

But McCain was unfazed, saying voters need to know what the presidential candidates will do so they can be held accountable.

“It is important that the candidates who seek to lead the country after the Bush administration define their objectives and what they plan to achieve, not with vague language but with clarity,” he said in the 28-minute speech.

At times critical of President Bush without mentioning his name, McCain appeared to be looking ahead at an Ohio-centered general-election battle with a conciliatory message.

And the squishes over at the Franklin County GOP liked it… uh, because it is their job to say so:

“It was a good speech for Ohio,” said Brad Sinnott, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party central committee. “It emphasized problem-solving, not partisanship.

I was at the speech yesterday hoping that maybe I’ve been too hard on John McCain. Sure, he is wrong on many issues important to conservatives, but I suppose it’s better than having a dedicated Liberation Theologist in the White House.

One goof McCain made was his talk about conservative justices… He said he will appoint originalist justices who will enforce the law:

“Scores of judges have been confirmed to the federal district and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, who understand that they were not sent there to write our laws but to enforce them and make sure they are consistent with the Constitution.”

When he said that, I started to imagine Justice Souter personally enforcing Kelo v. City of New London and kicking people off of their private property. I suppose this is just poor wording, and I shouldn’t make a fuss about it.

It was interesting to see how quickly he moved in and out of his liberal environmental agenda. Here is the relevant paragraph:

“The United States is well on the way to independence from foreign sources of oil; progress that has not only begun to alleviate the environmental threat posed from climate change, but has greatly improved our security as well. A cap and trade system has been implemented, spurring great innovation in the development of green technologies and alternative energy sources. Clean coal technology has advanced considerably with federal assistance. Construction has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a streamlined regulatory process.”

As Greg Mankiw of Harvard University pointed out on his blog about a year ago, the theorem of this silly cap-and-trade idea is:

Cap-and-trade = Carbon tax + Corporate welfare.

That is to say, the cap, by artificially raising prices by turning CO2 emissions into an artificially scarce endeavor, not only puts the burden on consumers but that “tax” is directly rebated to current CO2 emitters.

I don’t think CO2 is pollution- We exhale it, it’s needed for photosynthesis, and carbon is needed for life to exist. But if McCain wanted to sell conservatives on this and was genuine in his concern for the environment, he would simply support a tax on CO2 emissions… Which I’d probably support since it is a consumption tax which could be used for a massive cut in corporate tax rates and income tax rates. Plus, to make the greenies happy, it would function as a Pigou tax and discourage CO2 emissions.

And on the topic of cutting down on emissions, since taxing something discourages it’s activity, then why is John McCain supporting an elimination of the gas tax? That alone shows me how truly insincere McCain is about saving us from insane predictions of CERTAIN DOOM by Al Gore and others who have financial interests in those shady carbon-neutral indulgences schemes.

McCain’s campaign is also selling biodegradable t-shirts and organic cotton hats. First of all, are t-shirts really overflowing in our landfills? Do these t-shirts slowly erode as you wear them? I’m sorry, but if anyone truly buys into this sort of nonsense, they have a serious vanity problem and should be reminded that God has not chosen them to come to Earth and save the human species from itself.

I would also love to know if his cap-and-trade proposal is helping his fundraising. A group called Environmental Defense is hiring lobbyists– including former RNC Chairman Kel Mehlman– in hopes of pushing the Lieberman cap-and-trade bill with enough votes to withstand President Bush’s veto pen. There is big money in this endeavor coming from somewhere, and it would be fascinating for some smart reporter to get to the bottom of it.

Sinnott’s comments really do sum up McCain’s speech: “It emphasized problem-solving, not partisanship.” And that sums up exactly what I don’t like about John McCain. America needs MORE partisanship, not less. When there are only two parties in America, and only one side supports cutting taxes and defeating Islamic radicals, there should be no compromising with the liberal looters on the other side of the isle. Instead of bi-partisanship, the goal should be to defeat the left, because the left is wrong for America and liberal policies, when enacted, inflict great damage upon society.

Plus, I don’t want a “problem solver” to be my party’s standard bearer. I want to have an inconsequential, unnoticeable Coolidge-like President who understands that the true “problem solvers” are the American people, and not government bureaucrats. And as conservatives always point out, the solutions governments implement to solve problems are usually worse than the problems they were supposed to correct!

McCain’s speech reinforced to me that he is not a conservative, and has no interest in even attempting to sound conservative on many key issues.

I am not impressed with John McCain, and I can’t imagine voting for this guy in November.