In what way is McCain so moderate? Except for in a few things, such as campaign finance reform and immigration issues, McCain is very conservative, especially in the 'major' issues this election cycle, such as the war, iraq, and the economy. In terms of the war, he is probably the most hawkish candidate running right now. This is all a stark contrast to Obama, which is why I was wondering why his choice boiled down to those two.
In terms of the war, sure they are very different. But that's hardly my number one issue. A major thing I want to see in my lifetime is a decrease in the bureaucracy of the federal government that prevents things from ever actually getting done. McCain has a record of attempting to do things along these lines and Obama definitely talks the talk and I believe him.
Regarding major issues...
Abortion... no president will ever do anything major to change this and that's probably for the best. I don't know why the media turns this into a semi-major issue every election year. It detracts from what actually needs to be talked about.
Economy... I'm definitely into the whole "decreased government spending" thing. So I like the tax cuts that McCain extended (but didn't originally support) and in general, I like conservative economic policy (conservative in economic terms, not in political terms). But some limitations need to be set up immediately with regard to the sub-prime mortgage sector.
Taxes... Obama gets the edge. I like his ideas for making major changes to the tax code compared to other candidates call for the Fair Tax. The Fair Tax doesn't seem realistic to me. Too easily exploitable.
Immigration... McCain and Obama have similar ideas here but differ in their execution. Increased border security is a good thing, of course, but to what extent? Ultimately, I think there's still too much uncertainty regarding what will work and what won't. But I like allowing a path to citizenship for some current illegal immigrants, which both support.
Health-care... I like many of the specific plans laid out by McCain (malpractice reform #1, among others) and some of the more general plans laid out by Obama (federal insurance option, among others). McCain's seems a lot more realistic in the short term, like making major changes to the system rather than a huge overhaul.
The War in Iraq... I've stated my opinions on this already, but to reiterate, I'm with McCain on this one. I'm not sure the reasons for us being there are the best, but we're there now. And all the democrats who talk big about pulling out early I think are going to find out that the logistics behind this are more difficult than they realize. There's definitely more involved in this than what can be seen on the surface. So whoever gets voted in, I think we'll be there for a while.
EDIT: Oh, I forgot to mention one issue I actually do care about... Social Security. It needs to be fixed. Obama as far as I know, has no plan to change this. I like the idea of actually using the money as planned instead of using it as just another way to allow more outrageous government spending, so I'm pro-allowing-people-to-use-some-of-their-tax-money-to-put-into-retirement-funds. If that's a word.
So as you can see, it's not a black and white type of thing. There are things I like and things I don't like, as is possible when you don't blindly follow what your party says like a sheep (not that any of you are, I'm only saying).
One of my favorite polls I've seen in recent history that shows the stupidity of party loyalty went down like this. The pollster describes a bill as Bush-backed or Clinton-backed. "How do you feel about the Bush-backed plan to eliminate blah blah blah?" In the case of republicans, 90% agreed and 10% disagreed. In the case of democrats, 10% agreed and 90% disagreed. Can you guess what happened when they changed the question to "How do you feel about the Clinton-backed plan to eliminate blah blah blah?" Exactly the opposite. 10% agreement by republicans and 90% agreement by democrats. This is what's wrong with politics today.
My point is, just because McCain and Obama might seem different in some ways, a lot of their similarities are ignored because of the minutia of perceived party differences. Not that they're exactly the same but they're not all that different. I see major change in the future if either of them get elected.