The war, spending cuts, and NO new entitlement programs. What’s to disagree with?

S.C. voters who want the president who replaces George W. Bush next January to be a Republican have little option but to support Sen. John McCain in Saturday’s S.C. GOP primary. The gentleman has broad appeal to the independent voters who decide every presidential election. For that reason, he well may be the only Republican candidate who could win in November, bucking the national pro-Democratic tide wrought by the failures of the Bush administration and the previous Republican Congresses.

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More important, McCain, R-Ariz., would be a competent president. He understands that America must root its foreign policy in robust diplomacy and vigorous, well-trained, well-deployed military forces. He understands that federal spending restraint is the key to relieving the economic misery of the American middle class, that massive new open-ended entitlement programs would be a mistake. And he knows how to work across party lines to forge compromises that work well for the American people. He could be successful from Day 1 in office.

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The other Republican candidates would have difficulty prevailing in a general election and, presidentially speaking, are unknown quantities.