Investor's Business Daily. . .

. . .ran an editorial on February 15 that should give any recalcitrant conservative a nudge toward John McCain. As a bastion of free trade, IBD trains a keen eye toward developments in Latin America, and is rightfully alarmed at the rise in radical left sentiment there.

The editorial notes the very different attitudes engendered by Obama and McCain among radical leftist reactionaries in our hemisphere, and sums the situation up thusly:

Show us a candidate's friends, and we'll show who he is. Obama has vowed as president to kaffeeklatsch with America's enemies, no strings attached, and strongmen everywhere are planning to take advantage. McCain, by contrast, has proved he'll stand up for democracy and the U.S.

One of these men is more representative of America's long-held values. As messianic campaign rallies cloud the scene, let's hope voters will notice which one.

It has always been up to conservatives to stand against communist tyranny. We certainly can't count on our ever-leftward-lurching Democratic Congress to do so, much less with a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton occupying the White House.

But, in John McCain, we have a man whose anti-communist, pro-democracy credentials are unquestioned and unrivaled. To spend the next eight months wallowing the funk that seems to pervade the segments of the right that would normally be the vanguard against the communist resurgence in Latin America and elsewhere in the world seems to be the most self-destructive urge imaginable.

Given the opportunities we have created in Iraq, and the challenges we face within our own hemisphere, now is not the time to walk out on freedom.