The Problem with John McCain
by Melanie Morgan
Posted 02/04/2008 ET

Many of my fellow talk-show hosts and conservative friends such as Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin are deeply disturbed by the possibility that Senator John McCain may become the next presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Our dislike of Senator McCain’s positions is real and visceral.

Just a few of their comments are enough to illustrate the depth of our feelings toward McCain:

Levin: "... I have to say that I fear a McCain candidacy. He would be an exceedingly poor choice as the Republican nominee for president."

Malkin: “He is an expert at filibustering and he is an expert at crooked talk. He talks a smooth game about how, of course, he supports our immigration laws but at the same time he had served as a Mexican cabinet official under Vicente Fox where he worked diligently to do nothing but undermine sovereignty and our laws."

Coulter: “Republicans who vote for McCain are trying to be cute, like the Democrats were four years ago by voting for the ‘pragmatic’ candidate, Vietnam vet John Kerry. This will turn out to be precisely as clever a gambit as nominating Kerry was, the brilliance of which was revealed on Election Day 2004."

You get the idea.

We conservatives will find it exceedingly difficult to motor to the polls if McCain is the nominee. We appreciate his valor, service and honor as the only Presidential candidate who served in the U.S. military. He fought valiantly for the United States in Vietnam, an unpopular war, and stayed strong under brutal attack by our enemies. Sen. McCain is a true wartime hero whom we will never forget. But that does not entitle Sen. McCain to our trust or support in his run for the presidency.

But, as we learned with former Sen. Bob Dole, the American people want more than a war hero to lead our country. We need somebody who is level-headed on the big issues: immigration, the war against radical Muslim jihadists, (which goes far beyond the “surgeâ€