McCain set to begin White House run
It’s official. Almost. John McCain is running for president. According to ABC News, “[a] presidential exploratory committee is expected to be set up this month — perhaps as early as next week,” though a “final decision will likely not come until after the Christmas holidays”.
Given his alleged “maverick” credentials, an outsider on the inside, the Republicans’ dismal performance on Tuesday will likely benefit him. If he can position himself as a friendly critic of Bush while also standing firm against the Democratic Congress even as he cooperates to work out some sort of resolution to the war, he may be able to unify his party behind him, particularly if the party sees him as the best way to win the White House in ’08. But will he be able to walk that tightrope? Will he be able to withstand a challenge from the right? Will he be able to secure the support of the evangelical right? Will his ardent support for the Iraq War end up bringing him down? How many times will we see this photo of the notorious hug, the image that links him for all posterity to the president whose leadership has been so thoroughly repudiated by the vast majority of the American people?
Over at The Reaction, Heraclitus has expressed “having a soft spot for McCain”. For my part, I have admired him at times in the past but now consider him delusional on foreign policy and just plain wrong on Iraq, a true-believing neocon, more than Bush ever was, and, on social issues, a partisan hack and panderer to the evangelical right, a social conservative as much as a maverick, drifting rightward to win the support of his party’s base.
So he’s running. And he’s a leading contender. And he could very well win the presidency. But how far will he go in pursuit of that ultimate goal?
Will the real John McCain please stand up, please stand up?
21 Responses to “McCain set to begin White House run”
Jon Stewart made the comment that McCain was “driving his straight-talk express direct to Bullshit Town”. Given his capitulation on the torture bill and his vehement attacks over Kerry’s speech impediment, as well as his courting of the religious right, I’ve gone from being a McCain fan to being a skeptic. He may have made strides towards being able to win the Republican primaries, but he’s ceded a lot of the support that he once held with independents in the process.
I hope that his recent actions have only been made as concessions to win the primaries, and that the guy that supported the rights of the minority party to filibuster, who opposes pork, and who stood against torture is still around. Unfortunately he now has some explaining to do to let America know whether maverick McCain or politician McCain is the one running for President.
McCain has lost his ‘street cred’ as a maverick. His pandering to the Religious Right and Bush didn’t help, his gurus misread the publics move to the middle. I think Hagel has the maverick vote if he goes for 2008.
He used to have cross-over support. There WERE McCain Democrats. That went away with the picture shown above. Since then he’s had that finger up in the wind a bit much. Especially for a “straight-talker.”
I think the torture bill was the last straw for a lot of democrats. Here’s a guy taking a stand on a topic he is intamitely familiar and just tosses it. Instead of the real John McCain will John McCain ever really stand for anything?
Me too Rubyeyes. If a man who has been tortured can’t see the outright wrongness of going down that path, he doesn’t deserve America’s support. And when some torturer of an American soldier is able to quote Bush *and* McCain justifying it, we will all be sick and sorry. Let’s try to struggle back up to the moral high ground. John’s not there any more.
McCain has gone from someone I could have voted for in the 2004 election to someone I am skeptical of now. It seems to me, he *used* to be his own man, willing to make his own decisions and stick to them regardless of which way the political wind was blowing. But recently, he seems to have really stiffened up and started playing to the Republican “base” with an eye towards his 2008 ambitions.
Andrew Sullivan summed it up best. I don’t recall exactly which show it was on (probably the Chris Matthew Show), but he was quick to dismiss McCain over his recent lack of integrity. Sullivan (and the other guests on the program) were pointing out how pretty much everyone beating up on Kerry knew full well that it was just a really bad verbal faux-pas, but they were willing to feign outrage anyway, just to get their supporters (voters) riled up. And who was leading the pack to denigrate Kerry? Why, his old friend and war buddy McCain.
For me, it was pretty sad to watch McCain a couple weeks ago, blasting Kerry over his terrible botched joke on national TV. McCain was so stiff and cautious, pursing his lips, picking his works carefully and speaking slowly, you could tell just by what he was saying and how he was acting that he really didn’t believe Kerry intentionally insulted the troops…but McCain felt he had to go along with the Republican lie if he had any chance of staying in the 2008 race. I was disappointed that McCain, of all people, would do that. I lost a lot of respect for him on that day.
Andrew Sullivan pointed that out, as well as McCain’s capitulation on the torture bill, as examples of McCain’s loss of integrity — giving up his personal hard-fought principles in the face of political pressure. Pandering to the “broken-glass Republicans”. I must say, I agree.
Like Democrates were even going to get the chance to vote for McCain.
Or anyone cares who the Dems vote for. Independents are the one’s who win elections. People who are not partisan think at best Kerry was an idiot and his no apologies bs was insulting. That being the case the only one’s who would care about him bashing Kerry are people who would never vote Republican anyway. There has been a snowball effect against the republicans and the current administration. Since we have two years with the Dems in charge of congress and Senate it’s going to be near impossible to sustain that till 2008. With the ultra partisan political scene, which McCain really wasn’t part of, there is even a decent chance that it will go the other way in 2008. Way to soon to lay any bets.
And I think I can trust a man who’s been thru it to decide what’s torture.
In 2000, I would’ve run through a brick wall for McCain.
Now, though, he’s totally lost me, for the reasons already mentioned. But I hold him in special contempt for meekly rolling over when Bush punked him on torture.
Trust him on torture? Which him .. the one who was against torture or the one who was being loyal to Bush?
Also that picture is freaky … McCain looks like he’s hugging his mom.
He sure ain’t the man he used to be; but they all act like whores when they’re running for president. I don’t know if I’d vote for him or note. It depends.
I remember how McCain used the explosion on the USS Cole for political gain when he was campaigning for Bush in 2000.
The picture sums it up…almost. McCain should be on his knees in that picture, because thats in effect what he did for Bush.
Michael,
I agree with a lot of things you criticize McCain for. But I think you’re being a bit harsh on him when you call him a “true-believing neocon.” Certainly, he has some neoconservative leanings, and during the 2000 Republican primaries, he, and not Bush, was the darling of The Weekly Standard and most neoconservatives. But if neoconservatives are known for one thing, its that they’re always looking for the next war–the next third world country to throw against the wall “to show the world we mean business.” Growing carnage and mounting deaths don’t seem to phase them; indeed, their response to war has been “faster, please.” I think it’s fair to say that McCain has shown a good deal more restraint than the neoconservative warmongers who helped engineer this war.
Still, on account of his foreign policy views and even some of his domestic policy views (was going after the MLB for steroid abuse really necessary?), I will most likely not be voting for him.
McCain won’t win the primary. Why? Rush Limbaugh hates him. The GOP based doesn’t trust him. And unless the Republican Party suddenly opens itself up to grassroots insurgency, McCain won’t break through. The closes the GOP ever came to a grassroots breaktrhrough was Reagan in 1976. By 1980, he wooed every leading Republican in the party. McCain still angers the GOP establishment, and he annoys to no end the GOP propaganda-meisters.
Giuliani is more likely to get the GOP nomination than McCain.
I’m a Democrat who voted for McCain in the 2000 primary; that’s how much I liked him.
But it wasn’t the torture issue that turned me against him. No, I turned against him long before that: when he decided to suck up to the same people who defamed and slandered and made mock of his family, esp. his adopted daughter.
I figured a man who would do that is no kind of man at all.
The problem is the alternatives aren’t much better.
Clinton: used vote for the war as a political move.
Romney: Bush’s parrot.
Guilliai: had a good moment on 9/11, been pimping it for 5 years.
Gingrinch: pleeazzee
And good people aren’t running at all: Feingold, Lugar, ithout reading the NIE or
McCain, like some others, has painted himself into a corner.
It will be interesting to see how that works out. And not just for McCain.
Bismarck: “Laws are like sausages. It better not to see them being made.”
Once again, I am really surprised at the lack of political realism of folk here. Most of you seem to be taking a “principled” stand and slagging McCain on compromising on this or that score.
Dudes, politics is messy and successful politicians must compromise on their principles all the time.
Jon Stewart is funny, but simplistic. Simply put: BS is a fact of life in politics. Bismarck created the German empire and with his “realpolitik” dominated Europe for a generation…until Kaiser Bill took a principled stand, tossed him, and led Germany on the path to continental war and defeat.
I would take Bismarck’s political analysis over Jon Stewart’s any day of the week.
Do you recall that saint of liberals: President Roosevelt. His coalition was based heavily upon Southern Democrats who were openly racist, and often also KKK!
If Roosevelt had followed the views of most posters here, he would never have become president…and certainly could never have gotten his New Deal programs through.
Instead, Roosevelt held his nose…charmed the racist Democrats whom he didn’t like…and brought the United States through one of its greatest periods of crisis.
Also, may I point out that the so-called “torture” at Gitmo is far removed from the brutality experienced by McCain at the hands of the North Vietnamese (so beloved by Hanoi Jane and the left).
Elrod said: “Giuliani is more likely to get the GOP nomination than McCain.”
I would disagree with you here, for 3 big reasons:
(1) Experience: McCain has been on the presidential trail before. He has the national recognition, plus he has been through the primaries, has contacts in each state. All this matters. Consider history: every successful presidental candidate has been through the mill before (except Carter and Clinton – Carter winning from post-Watergate, Clinton because of the fraticidal collapse and split of the GOP vote).
(2) Ideology: Recall how Guiliani, when he left his wife, moved in with two friends who were a gay couple? A lot of the base would be horrified at that. I think he would make an exceptional candidate, but today it would be like a pro-life candidate being nominated by the Democrats.
(3) IOUs: McCain has recognized that the Bush family’s IOU system was critical to his downfall. He has been building connections and IOUs throughout the party ever since. Bush – and the powerbrokers behind him – are favourably inclined.
On all three points, McCain overwhelms Guiliani.
Michael Strickings post, the use of the picture with Bush and many of these postings here are pathetic. This isn’t the Moderate Voice. It’s the “we’re in a room with a bunch of liberals and think we’re actually moderate” voice. It’s so cute that on Veteran’s Day, that someone would Swift Boat a decorated airman and former POW like John McCain who doesn’t screw over his fellow veterans when he gets home. If he had the helm in 2000 we wouldn’t be in this mess now. And I would rather have a veteran leading this country rather than Hillary or Obama who wouldn’t know the difference between an Air Force captain and a Navy captain.
A few years ago I would have supported McCain but I’ve also lost a lot of respect for him for the Bush-ass-kissing he’s done. If it’s all just part of the attempt to win over the base for the primaries, all the more reason to distrust him. Don’t other people get flogged for “flip-flopping” when they do stuff like that?
As for Giulianni, am I the only person who thinks he’s seriously overrated?