By Tammy Bruce
Radio Talk Show Host/FOX News Political Contributor

Why are Independent Conservatives still extremely wary of John McCain? Every day he has a chance to retreat from proving to Democrats he’s worthy of their vote and instead remember what gave Ronald Reagan the biggest electoral victory in the history of the United States–Authentic Conservatism.

Instead, McCain’s current pandering to liberals (for example, the importance of giving the climate a hug) gives us something that would make the “Teds” (Senators Stevens and Kennedy) beam with pride–an International Bridge to Nowhere, replete with a fully taxed carbon footprint. But you know what the really pathetic thing is? Barack Obama is even worse.

With the economy understandably topping the list of issues of concern to the American people, we Independent Conservatives don’t trust McCain because, at his core, he’s a liberal.

McCain’s desire to prove his Democrat bona fides trumps not only his oft-stated commitment to smaller government, but exposes his lack of a basic understanding of Mother Nature herself. Not knowing how to say Ahmadinejad’s name is one thing; believing nature is subservient to mankind is silly and more importantly, debunked.

His most blatant liberal pirouette on the issue was tucked into his speech two weeks go about nuclear security. He feels so strongly about saving the climate from pesky human activity, it was the first thing he mentioned: “…There is such a thing as good international citizenship, and America must be a good citizen of the world—leading the way to address the danger of global warming and preserve our environment, strengthening existing international institutions and helping to build new ones…”

The last time I checked, our ‘good international citizenship’ can be visited in the form of American graves at Normandy, as well as those marked and unmarked throughout Europe, Asia, and most recently our liberation of 53 million Afghans and Iraqis from the boot of Islamist totalitarianism.

McCain now has two pet projects that require the creation of huge entitlement programs–for everyone except Americans. On top of wanting the U.S. to be the employment agency for everyone in Mexico, he backs the “strengthening” of the United Nations (read: more money to corrupt leftists who canoodle with tyrants) and wants more leftist internationalists reaching into our pockets and telling us how to live our lives. Hey, with the success of biofuels, who can blame him? With a few more ideas like that from morally superior liberals perhaps so many people will die eating dirt biscuits the temperature will go up only 2 degrees in the next hundred years instead of the dreaded four!