In continuation of my last editorial, I am going to outline John McCain’s platform.

As I said before, these editorials are not meant to make you change your pick for president. They are just to make sure you really understand who/what you’re voting for. It’s your choice, but don’t walk into something this important without thinking about it first.

McCain’s high priorities are the war in Iraq, immigration reform and abortion.

Concerning the war, McCain disagreed with the Bush administration’s management of the war and believed that not enough troops had been sent to support the effort.

He would like to send in more troops to secure strongholds, help rebuild the economy and stop violence in Baghdad by disarming the militias and al-Qaida. He also plans to train the Iraqi Army and position American personnel in Iraqi police units.

As for immigration reform, McCain believes in the necessity of stronger border enforcement but would like to implement a pathway to legal citizenship of illegal immigrants already living in the United States. They would need to learn Etnglish, pay a fine and have clean criminal records in order to be eligible for this plan.

Finally, McCain is pro-life and adoption.

There are other issues that McCain discusses on his platform. For the gay community, he supports civil unions but does not think that they should be given the option of marriage.

His Social Security policies call for reform of America’s entitlement programs. He will not raise taxes to finance Social Security.

As for stem cell research, McCain would continue to fund research, but he opposes the creation of embryos for this purpose.

Some of the bigger issues that McCain discusses are education, energy, health care and the economy. McCain would switch responsibility for the development of academic standards from the federal government to the state. He would like to test teachers and give them merit pay based on their performance on these tests. He supports charter schools and believes in school of choice as a method of creating competition.

He likes the general idea of the No Child Left Behind Act but recognizes that there are areas in which it needs to be improved.

McCain would begin to have the United States become self-reliant on oil supplies. He would support research nationally and internationally to find methods of flexible-fuel vehicles and alcohol fuels made from sugar, corn, switch grass and other sources.

Health care is one of this election’s most important issues.McCain says he would bring down costs by lowering the costs of insurance. Under his leadership all citizens could be in charge of how their money is spent on health care. He would also like to see health care portable from job to job.

Finally, this year’s biggest issue: the economy. McCain plans to lower taxes. He has a pro-growth, pro-jobs outlook on finding a solution. By permanently repealing the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), he would save the average family more than $2,700 per year.

As with the Democratic ticket, it is important to look at McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin. His vice presidential choice was a risky move, but she is meant to appeal to the female voters and she offers a fresh perspective in comparison to McCain’s wise and experienced one.

If you’re still not sure who to vote for, go to www.bostonherald.com and you can line up the candidates issue for issue.