[meandog]

McCain will be the strongest performing Republican against Hillary Clinton in early opinion polls; if anything, he is more aggressive on the war on terror than Bush is; he will have a strong theme of returning to a cleaner Republicanism after the ethical lapses of the current congressional majority. And all of this will be wrapped in his appealing thematic mix of patriotism, sacrifice and duty.

I wore my asbestos suit in this morning, anticipating such a posting...so here goes: If McCain were president instead of Bush..
1) Iraq would have been won by now;
2) Incompetent FEMA heads would have never been appointed;
3) We would not be faced with incontrollable deficits;
4) There would be a veto proof Senate for GOP;
5) RATs would be abandoning their Democratic party faster than a priest at a strip club!

[Always Right]

I wore my asbestos suit in this morning, anticipating such a posting...so here goes: If McCain were president instead of Bush..

I would not bet on too many of those. McCain's biggest problem was he surrounded himself with a bunch of RINO advisors. McCain's lead advisor was the main player convincing Bush Sr. that Souter was a conservative, eventhough he knew otherwise. Considering the company McCain keeps, those predictions would be highly unlikely.

[LS]

McCain would do nothing about the deficit; McCain would do NOTHING different in Iraq; but one thing is true. We'd be overrun by our brown amigos by now, far more than we are. He's a loser.

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote: "If McCain were president instead of Bush..
1) Iraq would have been won by now;
2) Incompetent FEMA heads would have never been appointed;
3) We would not be faced with incontrollable deficits;
4) There would be a veto proof Senate for GOP;
5) RATs would be abandoning their Democratic party faster than a priest at a strip club!"

1) Vagaries of war. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. To say the war would be won by now as an unqualified statement begs the question: 'How?' McCain is a veteran combat pilot; how does that translate to waging war better than the sitting POTUS? Answer: it doesn't. You pulled that one from an alternate universe.

2) Incompetents are appointed to federal positions of responsibility all the time, either as a pattern of corruption and nepotism (Harding) or because the President is a poor judge of character and ability (Grant, Carter). Besides, FEMA is no more poorly run than most federal bureaucracies. The greater fault in lackadaisical hurricane response was carried by the state and local governments in Louisiana.

3) McCain loves taxes. He hates tax cuts. You fight deficits by creating wealth, not by taxing the daylights out of the most capable and productive citizens.

4) Veto-proof Senate? Not sure I understand the statement. Do you mean McCain, because of his supposed moderation, would not have to employ the veto because of his celebrated rapport with the Democrats? Think again. The Dems would turn on him in a heartbeat the moment a President McCain does something even remotely Republican. So would the press.

5) Wishful thinking. The moderate Dems have already migrated to the sunny side. The next general election will be even more polarized than the last.

[Osage Orange]

ROFLOL!!