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 What Will McCain Do Now?Posted on Feb 7, 2008By Joe Conason The revival of John McCain’s presidential candidacy, now expected to carry him through to his party’s nomination, can be interpreted as either proof of the judgment of Republican primary voters or evidence of the paucity of alternative choices. Certainly, it confirms the wisdom of betting against the predictions of the national press corps, which produced so many sorrowful postmortems on his campaign. Very soon, if not instantly, the same pundits who wrote off McCain’s chances will be assuring us that the recent has-been is now an electoral juggernaut. They will describe him as resplendent in political valor, reforming zeal and militant patriotism, and of course brimming with “straight talk.” Of such shiny publicity has the Arizona senator’s image been built over the past decade or so. What remains to be seen is whether his admirable image will withstand fresh scrutiny, if and when he becomes the presumptive nominee—and how independents, Democrats and conservative Republicans will respond to an updated portrait of him. The price of his victory may well be measured in principles dropped, and in positions flipped and flopped. He has quietly walked away from his former allies on campaign finance reform. He has run away from his own immigration reform legislation. He has sold away the commitment to economic fairness and fiscal discipline that once led him to oppose the skewed Bush tax cuts. On at least one issue, however, he remains absolutely consistent. As he said not long ago, he favors dispatching generations of American soldiers to Iraq for a hundred years or more, while spending trillions of borrowed dollars not only on that war, but others to come in unspecified countries. “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” is the mindless motto of the McCain foreign policy. In an election year when voters say they are demanding change from the failures and follies of the Bush years, this political profile could create serious problems for any candidate. For McCain, the dangers may be even greater, because while he resolutely upholds an unpopular war, he has forfeited the single issue that could most easily inflame the Republican base as well as many independents. Any other Republican running against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama would quickly put the Democrats on the defensive over their refusal to promise that millions of undocumented workers and their families will be deported someday soon, or ever. Any other Republican would be able to portray the Democratic Party as advocates of unrestricted immigration and “amnesty” for immigrants who have entered the United States illegally. It is simple to conjure a negative ad showing dark, frightening foreigners, with a script bemoaning lost jobs, rising crime and welfare costs, even the threat of terrorism. Stimulating fear has become a tradition in American elections. But McCain cannot benefit from that kind of demagogic commercial. After all, he was for amnesty before he was against it, as his conservative critics might put it. And as much as he may now wish to pretend that the issue is moot, his name remains on the reform bill sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy. Advisers to McCain may plan to mount a different brand of fear-based attack, much as former White House adviser Karl Rove did so successfully during the 2002 and 2004 elections. That campaign would feature ads assaulting the Democrats as disloyal and timid, for daring to voice even the mildest objection to the Bush administration’s surveillance and torture policies. Dramatic commercials might steal a page from television, with a president trying to decide how to interrogate a suspect who knows where to find the nuclear suitcase bomb. Could we count on a Democrat to authorize the waterboarding in time? Yet that scary scenario won’t work for McCain, either, because he has stood forthrightly against torture, to the great dismay of many detractors in his own party. The war in Iraq will afford him the chance to draw sharp distinctions with his Democratic opponent, but that difference will place him on the wrong side of the electorate. He will win points, perhaps, for sticking with the unpopular position. But with the prospect of recession growing each day, his devotion to military solutions and neglect of economic concerns may make him appear not only dangerous, but also irrelevant. Joe Conason writes for the New York Observer. © 2008 Creators Syndicate Inc. Previous item: Kucinich Under Fire Next item: The Democrats' Class War Elsewhere: . CommentsAre you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.
By Jaxon, February 11 at 6:53 am # A couple of days ago, McCain said he would like Rove’s advice about his campaign. All of us remember the political mayhem committed on McCain in South Carolina in 2000 by the current Puppet’s thugs led by Rove, Ralph “religious conman” Reed, the crackpots of Bob Jones University, all of whom were aided and abetted by the Bible-thumping Redneck Dupes’ whispering campaign not just against McCain but against all of his family.In 2000 McCain was a different man, favored by Independents and many Democrats. Then came the deplorable photo of McCain, while being embraced by the Puppet a couple of years ago, shown resting his head on the Puppet’s left shoulder. This very act was a nauseating display of craven obsequience. Worse, he at the same time was turning his back on his family members who had been so savaged by the said crew of misfits without conscience. Now, to really demonstrate how lacking both in self-respect and in his ability to predict public reaction, McCain incredibly welcomes the advice of Rove, who in effect led the charge with a political meat cleaver in the South Carolina 2000 mayhem. This guy is saying the right things: Continuing the quasi-fascist gun barrel policy of the ultra-Right in control of the Republican Party; continuing the comfort and welfare of the Plutocrats with deeper, frequent, and hopefully permanent tax cuts; cutting spending with the concealed objective of shredding the safety net social programs of medicare, medicaid, and social security, excluding of course the necessary spending to bail out failed corporations, to subsidize business entities, and to reward U. S. companies that move their manufacturing jobs and service components (legal, medical, and customer relations) overseas. The middle and lower middle class Americans finding it ever harder to survive economically and for that matter politically need to listen to McCain and his vision for America. With him in the White House, this Country will be burdened with a third term Bush II administration. Do we really want that...indeed, can the Country survive the continuation of the devastation wreaked upon this Country by the incompetence and downright indifference of the Bush Gang?
By lightning john, February 10 at 1:42 pm # Re: cyrenaand we have no idea what they do with these people after they are ‘taken into custody’. In the next paragragh you state “MORE importantly”
By Piceno, February 8 at 1:22 pm # I agree with all that all Shenonymous has to say. The national debt is sky rocketing, and the politicians continue to ignore it. The arrogant one, John McVain, continues to flash Let’s hope the Dem’s roll to victory in November, Add Your Comment |
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