The cover of the September 1st edition of the conservative National Review magazine features a picture of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. The majority of its fifty-five pages analyzes where Obama stands on issues important to its conservative base.

The magazine essentially argues that Obama is a left leaning ideologue that will leave America vulnerable to its enemies. It contains essays depicting Obama as being extreme left on taxes, abortion, racial preferences and health care. For good measure, they even throw in an essay by Rob Long that suggests that Obama may be “too cool to be president.”

Not to be outdone, over the next few posts I will provide a synopsis of John McCain’s stances on the same issues. Since he has recently reinvented himself as a “change agent” my instinct suspects that we will soon find that he is a hard right wolf wrapping himself in moderate sheep’s clothing.

The first issue for inspection is Racial Preferences.

How “Quota” became an expletive:

For nearly a generation the concept of racial quotas, a subset of the greater rubric of Affirmative Action, has been one of the most polarizing issues in American politics. Curiously, this year it has almost been a non-issue as Obama has sought to highlight what unites us as opposed to divisive issues.

The term Affirmative Action was first contemplated in an executive order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson who sought to eliminate discrimination in Federal contracting. This vague term soon morphed into other areas and by 1972, Blacks had gained access to a number of prestigious schools, scholarships and programs that had been previously off limits.

While the program had and has had great success, almost from the outset there was a split among Black beneficiaries as to its effectiveness. For example, Colin Powell, though a Republican, openly expresses his support for Affirmative Action and admits that it helped him in both his military and political careers. Conversely, Clarence Thomas, in his book “My Grandfather’s Son---A Memoir”, describes becoming embittered upon learning that he was an affirmative action admit to Yale University. To this day, Thomas continues to believe that such programs stigmatizes Blacks and creates the appearance of inferiority.

Numerical quotas were ultimately rejected as unconstitutional in 1978 when the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Bakke vs. University of California Board of Regents. While the Bakke decision banned quotas, the Court left Affirmative-Action programs intact.

Under Presidents Reagan and Bush, Affirmative-Action programs were either limited or out right eliminated in certain instances. During the late 1990’s California businessman Ward Connerley, who is Black, led successful petition drives to eliminate race-based preferences in California and several other states.

So where does McCain stand on this issue?

While McCain often prides himself on “straight talk”, he has been a notorious flip flopper on civil rights issues, particularly Black civil rights issues. McCain first drew the enmity of Blacks by opposing a Federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King in 1986, a move that he has since apologized for many times. In 2000, during his first presidential race, McCain initially supported removing the Confederate Battle Flag from atop the South Carolina statehouse, only to reverse field during the Republican Primary by calling the Stars and Bars a “symbol of heritage.” Later that year, McCain reversed field again and supported removing the flag, stating that his previous support of the flag was an example of his “sacrifice of principle for personal ambition.”

As to the specific issue, in an Arizona Daily Star article published this past July, Howard Fischer wrote: “In a 1998 speech in Washington, McCain said he opposes all sorts of ballot initiatives aimed at dismantling affirmative action programs.” Fischer quoted McCain as saying “Rather than engage in divisive ballot initiatives, we must have a dialogue of cooperation and mutual efforts together to provide for every child in America to fulfill their expectations” Fischer went on to note that later that year, McCain said that he did not “support race-based quotas for hiring or other programs.”

In explaining the obvious flip flop, Arizona State Senator Scott Bumgaard, who proposed the 1998 measure said:
"Ten years ago John McCain was trying to reach out to minorities, to voters who wouldn't typically vote for a Republican," Bumgaard added "Although those goals were laudable, in doing so he abandoned his conservative base, and since conservatives tend to vote — and he's in need of building a stronger base right now — it seems to me that he's returning to his core."

It has been well documented this year that McCain has placed his “personal ambition over principle” by pandering to a conservative base that views him as a moderate. However, with evidence that he has vacillated on issues, voters must ask where he would stand if put to the test on racial preferences?

I am not quite certain that it even really matters. One of the benefits and burdens of Obama’s candidacy is that whites in both parties now point to his success as proof that race no longer matters. It can certainly be argued that such thinking fails to account for the fact that 99 out of 100 US Senators are white, 8 of the 9 Supreme Court justices are white, and only 63 of the 435 members of Congress identify themselves as Black or Hispanic.

This does not even begin to address the lack of diversity in corporate America, academia or newsrooms across our country. During the recent political convention season, neither the cable news shows nor the major networks had a Black or Latino anchor.

Yet, the very powerful counter argument is that Blacks, Latinos, and white women currently have more access to wealth and power than any other time in our nation’s history. Still, with research suggesting that there remains an educational and economic gap in America, most center-left politicians will continue to support measures to improve equal access to the disadvantaged of all races and both genders.

Digressing, McCain, already having sewn up the Republican presidential nomination, still praised Ward Connelly’s dubious “Arizona Civil Rights Initiative” to eliminate racial preferences. So there you have it, McCain is opposed to preferential treatment. Further proof can be found in McCain’s oft-stated remarks that, if elected, he would appoint conservative Supreme Court justices in the mold of Thomas, Samuel Alito and John Roberts. If that occurs, expect to see more Court decisions lamenting “reverse discrimination” while placing severe strictures on programs that even remotely implicate race.

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