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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. TAGS:
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Honduras’ Top Court Refuses to Reinstate Zelaya
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Jump to Comments
By Jaxon, February 11, 2008 at 11:53 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
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?
Report thisBy lightning john, February 10, 2008 at 6:42 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
and we have no idea what they do with these people after they are taken into custody.
In the next paragragh you state “MORE importantly”
Report thisNO Cyrena there is no more importantly
By G.Anderson, February 10, 2008 at 4:35 am #
Keep this quiet…I wouldn’t want Mc Cain to find out about it..
But probably, Mc Cain will get really P.O’d about something and put his foot in his mouth by calling someone some very crude names, and then make even dummer comments trying to get out of it, until he looks like the horses ass that his is.
Then he’ll spend the next several months tying to explain it all away… While the press needles him and questions him over and over again….
and the Democrats will win with a landslide.
Report thisThe End.
By cyrena, February 10, 2008 at 3:12 am #
So, what do we do when NOTHING makes sense?
Seriously, Joe has reiterated all that we know about McCain the radical militarism and his promise to keep sending our troops to die, and our money to kill millions of other civilians around the globe. So why has he become the repug forerunner? Why has ANY American voted for him? Why, given the choices, havent ALL Americans just switched parties? And, why are there any current Democrats, who dont see McCains policies and positions as the same as Hillarys? They are the same political coin. Gender is the only thing that makes them any different, along with the fact that Hillary has been clever enough to con many people into believing that shes changed her mind, and is no longer a war-monger. Still, why do any Americans believe that? Unless its OK with these Americans. Is that why theyve voted for them?
Joe has explained that the ONE issue on which he might gain some footage, the immigration thing, hes also backed away from. Tis true. But, he cant really use that against the Democrats, because hes backed away from it for the same reason that Hillary wont commit to it. Because they LIKE this illegal immigration. And, even if they COULD do something about it, they wont, because first, it would mean having to address the truth about why its a problem to begin with. And, its a problem because of NAFTA, and because illegal immigration BENEFTITS the corporate oligarchy that Hillary and McCain represent.
So first, theyd have to explain why all of these undocumented workers are here. Or, at least the ones that everybody notices, being the Hispanics from the SOUTH of our borders. (most Americans dont have a clue as to the number of temporary immigrants that are here from Europe, Asia, and elsewhere, and they TOO, have taken a huge portion of the job market, but nobody pays much attention to them).
So, theyd have to explain that it is the policies of NAFTA, and American Imperialism, that has created this huge influx of immigrants from the South, along with the whole Globalization thing, which most Americans dont understand.
Immigrants Come Here Because Globalization Took Their Jobs Back There
By Jim Hightower
The Hightower Lowdown
“Seal-the-border hysteria is everywhere. Instead of blaming immigrants for America’s problems, let’s look at executives on both sides of the border.”
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020708G.shtml
THEN, theyd have to get into explaining why theyve yet to do a thing about it. For instance: I just read another piece yesterday, about an INS raid at some business in L.A. Something like 102 undocumented people taken into custody with 8 of them charged with some felony crimes for providing fraudulent docs to get the jobs. So, what else is new? These raids happen all the time, just to keep the blood thirsty masses happy, but it still doesnt produce any jobs for legal citizens, and we have no idea what they do with these people after they are taken into custody.
MORE importantly though, is what they NEVER say about these raids..WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ONES WHO HIRED THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE? It would appear..nothing. No I will not believe that they dont know that they are hiring illegals. OF COURSE they do!
But, they are never accountable, aside from the exceeding fine. Even then, its no skin off the corporate bottom line. Whats a little fine compared to the billions saved by hiring illegals? And, who sits at that same bottom line? The corporate cronies and supporters of McCain and Hillary.
Report thisThen theres the inevitable issue of what happens to all of the other foreigners that are here? The ones that most Americans dont seem to mind, or even notice. Wouldnt some equal policies have to apply? What about all of those Asians and Euros? Is it ok for THEM to take our remaining jobs (they do you know) just because the INS (read lobbies) hands out legal permission for them to be here?
By nf, February 10, 2008 at 2:29 am #
Although a true war hero and conscientious Senator who believes in what he says, McCain has no chance of winning this fall. The left will finally get what it wants in either Hillary (why does she campaign under her given name ?) or Obama. Let’s hope it is Obama - he will be the most interesting leader of the free world by far.
Report thisBy BlueEagle, February 8, 2008 at 8:19 pm #
The Giants have no chance. The Patriots are undefeated. We might as well crown them the Super Bowl champs. Why even play the game. ESPN has said the Patriots will win. Vegas has odds against the Giants. You Giants fans are delusional, crazy, kooks to even think you might win. I don’t even think I will watch the game, because it doesn’t matter the Patriots already won.
Report thisBy Piceno, February 8, 2008 at 6:22 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
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
that hypocritical smirk on his face, and never
misses a chance to say: ‘I was the one who was in favour of the surge’, while thousands of our
wounded Iraq veterans struggle with loss of limb and
life.
Let’s hope the Dem’s roll to victory in November,
Report thisand bury these GOP losers once and for all!
By Frostedflakes, February 8, 2008 at 12:03 pm #
All this shows is how truly pathetic the repug party has become. For now as their front-runner they have a candidate which they buffooned and vilified only three months ago; and now we are supposed to believe that this is the best man for the presidency? Hell. He wasn’t even the best man for them. True conservatives want nothing to do with McCain, and independents, which once admired him, have been turned away for his new found love of Bush doctrines and for his undeniable warmongering.
Secondly, John McCain is a delusional old coot. He is a pocket politician (in the pocket of lobbyist), and he is an ardent supporter of ALL things concerning Israel. So you can best believe he is serious when he says that he would keep American troops in Iraq for a hundred years and that he would bomb Iran. And you can also believe that he would allow these treasonous,villainous criminals,in the White House now,not to be investigated for ALL the illegalities and war crimes they have openly and clandestinely committed. John McCain is a dangerous man, and I bet even the citizenry of Vietnam is watching this nomination process with cautious eyes.
Report thisBy Shenonymous, February 8, 2008 at 9:38 am #
John McCain is now crowned as The Loose Cannon of real flip flop politics who panders to the electorate. If we thought John Kerry knew the flop side of flip better than anybody else, we have a new champion in McCain. You will be able to watch his dosie-do with his new dance partners who will do anything to keep the Republicans in office. Conason present a clear portrait of what we can expect, especially the politics of fear strategies that define Republicanism. The excesses of Republican politics has dumped a National Debt at 12:30:31 PM GMT on Feb. 8, 2008 is $9,225,724,153,024 and 21 cents. That is Nine and a quarter trillion dollars. Ask yourself who is paying that debt? Watch the U.S. National Debt Clock at http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
Report thisThe site will also tell you what share you are paying. Do not underestimate that McCain will continue the worst war in US history, and the least justified.