With these actual examples of the infamous McCain temper, would you be comfortable with his finger on the nuclear button?
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To: ajay_kumar
2 posted on
01/28/2008 9:08:11 PM PST by
pandoraou812
(Don't taunt the animal's at the zoo or they may bite YOU!)
To: ajay_kumar
He’s not Presidential material, which why the libs love him— they know they can beat him
3 posted on
01/28/2008 9:15:33 PM PST by
IncPen
(Elect Barack and it's an Obama-Nation !!)
To: ajay_kumar
Does McCain throw ash trays, or is it someone else??
4 posted on
01/28/2008 9:19:13 PM PST by
dodger
To: ajay_kumar
I think he thirsts to use the military in a new war against Iran.
On the other hand, Iran may need a whuppen next year.
5 posted on
01/28/2008 9:30:20 PM PST by
Finalapproach29er
(Dems will impeach Bush in 2008, they have nothing else. Mark my words.)
To: ajay_kumar
Not on your life. He’s much too scary for me.
I was watching McCain’s interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, and I was stunned at the forced smile on McCain’s face. It was so obviously phoney. Does McCain think we’re just so stupid he can fool us ..??
Remember .. this is a LIBERAL technique. We can’t question people because they’re black; because they’re a woman; because they’re a war hero; because they’re disabled; etc., etc., etc.
McCain plays too many liberal games.
8 posted on
01/28/2008 9:54:50 PM PST by
CyberAnt
(AMERICA: THE GREATEST FORCE for GOOD in the world!)
To: ejonesie22
9 posted on
01/28/2008 9:55:16 PM PST by
dixiechick2000
(There ought to be one day-- just one-- when there is open season on senators. ~~ Will Rogers)
To: ajay_kumar
No. I’ve always had questions about his emotional stability. It seems to get shakier as the years go by.
10 posted on
01/28/2008 9:55:37 PM PST by
VegasBaby
(<---Just one of many who refuses to vote for McCain or Huckabee under any circumstance)
To: ajay_kumar
Several presidents have been hot-tempered behind the scenes, notably Eisenhower, LBJ, and Clinton. It is interesting that all three had problems with heart disease.
To: ajay_kumar
I am uncommitted at this point, but I don’t know that I want a cream puff for a president. Our president has to stare down Putin, Achmadineja-whatever, Kim Sung Mentally Ill, the Chicoms, you know - a tough personality may not be a bad thing. Didn’t Patton have a temper, for instance? How about Churchill?
I wouldn’t want him as my pastor, but President of the Free World doesn’t need to be Mr. Nicey Pants all the time.
14 posted on
01/28/2008 10:31:32 PM PST by
Marie2
(I used to be disgusted. . .now I try to be amused.)
To: ajay_kumar
Years ago I read an intriguing article that sheds light on a possible root cause for McCain's attitude towards his fellow Republicans. I've searched online for it and cannot find it, so here goes my best shot, solely from memory........
McCain was elected Senator in 1986. During his first term, he was proud of his "across-the-aisle" reputation, i.e. of forming close relationships with Democratic Senators.
But that first term also saw a major blot on his reputation in the form of the Lincoln Savings & Loan scandal. Charles Keating, the head of Lincoln S&L, gave his name to the infamous "Keating Five" Senators, consisting of 4 Democrats (Cranston, DeConcini, Glenn and Riegle), and 1 Republican : McCain.
Keating was a friend of McCain's, and had contributed generously to his Senate bid. But in spite of that connection, and the fact that McCain had taken part in a meeting called by Cranston (attended by all 5 Senators) for the purpose of putting pressure on banking regulators to ease up on Keating, it eventually became clear to Senate Ethics Committee investigators that McCain's involvement was minimal, and he didn't belong in "The Five". He had certainly used bad judgment in going to the meeting without first asking some hard questions of the Democrat Senator(s) who invited him, but his involvement and prior knowledge was nowhere near the same level as the four Democrats.
So the Senate Ethics Committee seriously considered exonerating McCain, while continuing the investigation of the other four.
But there was a major problem for the Democrats if they did this. It was 1990, in the middle of election season. Voters were angry about the S&L scandal, which up until then had been spun in the press as a "bipartisan scandal". If McCain was let off the hook, then the "Keating 5" became the "Keating 4" - all of them Democrats - and it would morph into a "Democrat scandal". This could have major consequences in the Fall election.
So the Senate Dem leadership decided there was no way they could afford letting McCain off the hook before the election. And since they controlled the Senate, they controlled the Ethics Committee.
But McCain had a card to play. His "cross-aisle" schmoozing paid off in the form of two Dems on the Ethics Committee who were buddies of McCain (or owed him favors, perhaps), and personally promised him to vote for his exoneration. The flipping of their two votes would be just enough to set him free by a 1-vote margin, assuming that all GOP Committee members voted to let him off.
But that was no slam dunk! One of the GOP members sitting on Ethics - Senator Jesse Helms (NC) - was in a close, tough reelection race that year. The S&L debacle was all over the national news back then. Challengers from both parties needing fodder for their TV ads were searching for anything that might even remotely connect their incumbent opponents with the scandal. Helms knew that a vote by him to clear McCain would instantly be grabbed onto and wildly distorted as "Helms Votes to Exonerate S&L Scandal Senator"; he would have been painted as "soft on ethics violations," or even as abusing his Ethics committee seat to free a guilty-as-sin crony. In a tight race this could be fatal.
The Senate GOP leadership team, led by Bob Dole, met to discuss the situation. Normally, they would have used "party discipline" to force all GOP members of Ethics to vote to clear McCain. After all, he deserved to be cleared. But there was another rule among GOP Senators that if any of them were in a tight reelection race and made a convincing case that voting with the rest of their party would endanger their election, then they could ask for and be granted permission to vote otherwise. Helms was invoking this rule, as was his right.
At the meeting that was called to discuss this issue, the leadership was forced to agree with Helms. As I remember the article, an anonymous meeting attendee told the article's author that McCain arrived at the meeting very late, and basically just stormed in. He was extremely emotional, and perhaps had even been drinking. He kept talking about his honor. He cried. He begged. He demanded that they force Helms to vote for exoneration. He said that his reputation would be forever ruined. He told them they MUST force Helms to clear his besmirched name.
That didn't happen. And apparently McCain totally lost it. He accused his fellow GOP Senators of betraying him, of stabbing him in the back, of allowing his reputation to remain in the mud when they had the power to pull it out.
When the Ethics Committee vote was later held, Helms abstained, resulting in a tie vote. Since the vote was whether or not to change the status quo by excluding McCain from the Keating investigation, a tie vote meant that the current situation was unchanged. McCain was still under investigation; still lumped in with the four guilty Democrats.
The author of the article speculated that McCain's strong feelings of being betrayed by his own party had a major effect on how he viewed his relationship with the rest of the GOP from then on.
Another speculation that seems obvious here is regarding McCain's obsession with campaign finance reform. If he felt his honor was seriously tarnished in the media, if he felt his name was synonymous with corruption, then what better way to redeem himself than to become the Number One Champion of Campaign Finance Reform, right?
And if doing so had the side benefit of screwing over many of his GOP colleagues with an abominable bill that favored the Democrats, well, so much the better, right?
At least, that's my speculation.
To: ajay_kumar
McCain, God bless his service to America, has lost a step in the intellectual acumen department.
That's my problem with him. He had no idea, when questioned, that Z Visa's were "de facto amnesty". His temper flared and he argued vehemently that it wasn't so. And he was the author of the damn bill.
The other day, when he flubbed a pretty basic question on the economy, his excuse, after spending 20+years in the Senate, was " I'm not as up on economic issues as I ought to be"!
I love the guy for his service to the US, but he is no longer Presidential material. He's down a notch in the "sharpness" quotient! His temper is, I feel, under tight wraps for the campaign, and will certainly surface at some later date, win (God forbid) or lose!
18 posted on
01/28/2008 10:47:13 PM PST by
HardStarboard
(Take No Prisoners - We're Out Of Qurans)
To: ajay_kumar
Be Afraid of President McCain
The frightening mind of an authoritarian maverick
Matt Welch | April 2007 Print Edition
The John McCain presidency effectively began on January 10, 2007, when George W. Bush announced the deployment of five more combat brigades to Iraq. This escalation of an unpopular war ran counter to the advice of BushÂs senior military leadership, ignored the recommendations made by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, and sidestepped the objections of the Iraqi government it was ostensibly intended to assist. But the plan was nearly identical to what the Republican senior senator from Arizona, nearly alone among his Capitol Hill colleagues, had been advocating for months: boost troop levels by at least 20,000, give coalition forces the authority to impose security in every corner of Baghdad, and increase the size of AmericaÂs overburdened standing military by around 100,000 during the next five years.
By enthusiastically endorsing McCainÂs approach, the lame duck president all but finished the job of anointing the senator his political successor. McCain had already spent the previous three years lining up BushÂs campaign team, making nice with the social conservatives he railed against in the 2000 primaries, and positioning himself as the most hawkish of all the nomination-chasing Republican hawks. For the purposes of the 2008 campaign, BushÂs surge announcement was almost the perfect gift: McCain got to solidify his case with primary voters even while giving himself operational deniability. (ÂWeÂve made many, many mistakes since 2003, and these will not be easily reversed, he said on January 11, while reiterating his call for even more troops.) The sheer unpopularity of BushÂs move did knock the previously front-running McCain a notch or two behind Rudy Giuliani in the polls. (Both men have consistently finished ahead of Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in head-to-head competition.) But it also allowed McCain to recapture some of his lost reputation as a straight-talking independent. ÂI would much rather lose a campaign than lose a war, he said with a grin on Larry King Live right after BushÂs speech. The press, which had been souring on the candidate during his noisy lurch to the right, breathed an audible sigh of relief. ÂDefiant McCain back as maverick, declared the Chicago Tribune.
The significance of the McCain Plan transcended horse-race politics. It was a microcosm of the Arizona senatorÂs largely unexamined philosophy about the proper role of the U.S. government. Like almost every past McCain crusade, from fining Big Tobacco to drug-testing athletes to restricting political speech in the name of campaign finance reform, the surge involved an increase in the power of the federal government, particularly in the executive branch. Like many of his reform measuresÂidentifying weapons pork, eliminating congressional airport perks, even banning tortureÂthe escalation had as much to do with appearances (in this case, the appearance of continuing to project U.S. military strength rather than accept ÂdefeatÂ) as it did with reality. And like the reputation-making actions of his heroes, including his father, his grandfather, and his political idol Teddy Roosevelt, the new Iraq strategy required yet another expansion of American military power to address what is, at least in part, a nonmilitary problem.
McCainÂs dazzling résuméÂwar hero, campaign finance Quixote, chauffeur of the Straight Talk Express, reassuring National UncleÂtends to distract people from his philosophy of government, and his chumminess with national journalists doesnÂt help. There is a more useful key to decode how he might behave as president. McCainÂs singular goal in public life is to restore citizens faith in their government, to give us the same object of beliefÂnational greatnessÂthat helped save his life after he gave up hope as a POW in Vietnam.
Although Bill Kristol and David Brooks coined the phrase Ânational-greatness conservatism in a 1997 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, the sentiments they expressed and the movement forefathers they chose would have been right at home in one of the Chamber of Commerce speeches about the virtues of patriotism that McCain gave in the 1970s. Kristol and Brooks wrote that Âwishing to be left alone isnÂt a governing doctrine and ÂwhatÂs missing from todayÂs American conservatism is America. McCain, then an ambitious pol-to-be working the rubber chicken circuit as a famous ex-POW, would deliver inspiring sermonettes about the value of public service and restoring America as an international beacon. All three men would eventually come together on such National Greatness projects as the Âforward strategy of freedom in the Middle East, trying to drive money out of politics, and, not least or last, getting John McCain elected president.
Like Kristol and Brooks, McCain regards Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln as political idols; like them, he never hesitates in asserting that government power should be used to rekindle American (and Republican) pride in government. Unlike most neoconservative intellectuals, however, McCain is intimately familiar with the bluntest edge of state-sponsored force. A McCain presidency would put legislative flesh on David Brooks fuzzy pre-9/11 notions of Âgrand aspiration, deploying a virtuous federal bureaucracy to purify unclean private transactions from the boardroom to the bedroom. And it would prosecute the nationÂs post-9/11 wars with a militaristic zeal this country hasnÂt seen in generations.
Military Son
To say John McCain comes from a military family is a little like pointing out that Prince Charles is a scion of the upper class. Born in 1936, McCain is the Navy captain son of a four-star admiral who was the son of another four-star admiral, all named John Sidney McCain. And that just scratches the surface.
John McCain and his ancestors have served in every major U.S. war from the Revolution to Vietnam, and the line wonÂt stop there: 20-year-old John Sidney McCain IV (you can call him Jack) is learning the family trade at the Naval Academy, and 18-year-old Jimmy is in the Marines, waiting to deploy to Iraq. McCainÂs father headed up the militaryÂs Pacific command from 1968 to 1972, convincing President Nixon to illegally attack Cambodia and famously ordering the bombing of Hanoi even though he knew his son was still imprisoned there. He also led the controversial 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic, which he defended by saying, ÂPeople may not love you for being strong when you have to be, but they respect you for it and learn to behave themselves when you are. He warned early and often that Soviet naval power would soon eclipse AmericaÂs, and he palled around with the likes of the Indonesian dictator Haji Mohammad Suharto. His favorite book was Alfred Thayer MahanÂs The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, and his favorite poem was Oscar WildeÂs ÂAve Imperatrix, which he doubtless read as an unironic meditation on the righteous use of imperial power: ÂEngland! what shall men say of thee,/Before whose feet the worlds divide?/The earth, a brittle globe of glass,/Lies in the hollow of thy hand.Â
McCainÂs grandfather commanded all naval air power during World War II and started a three-generation tradition of schmoozing in Washington by heading the Bureau of Naval Aeronautics, where he ordered up weapons systems. McCainÂs major-general granduncle was the father of the modern military draft. And his paternal great-grandmotherÂs side of the family, he says, has an even stronger military tradition, including a militia captain on George WashingtonÂs Revolutionary War staff, an Army captain in the War of 1812, even royalist brawlers in EnglandÂs mid-17th-century Civil War.
The McCain men switched from Army to Navy right when Teddy Roosevelt dramatically expanded the countryÂs naval forceÂthe Âbig stick he waved whenever a rival colonial power got uppity in the Americas or the Pacific. McCainÂs grandfather was on the flagship of the famous Great White Fleet when it finished its demonstrative 14-month world tour in 1908. ÂFor the McCains of the United States Navy, as well as for many of our brother officers, presidents just didnÂt get much better than Teddy Roosevelt, McCain wrote in his 2002 book Worth the Fighting For. ÂHe transformed the American navy from a small coastal defense force to an instrument for the global projection of power.Â
The senator, his father, and his grandfather all took as a given that the U.S. Navy should control the worldÂs shipping lanes, guarantee the political stability of far-flung continents, and use overwhelming force at the hint of a threat to national interests. When John Sidney McCain III was growing up, every male around the dinner table could cite the exploits of British Admiral Lord Nelson, recite verse from Rudyard Kipling, and sing ribald songs about drunken misbehavior in ports of call. ItÂs the character trait reflected by that last fact, more than any highfalutin stirrings of National Greatness, that initially gave young John the fighting will to survive five years of brutal captivity during the Vietnam War.
John McCains I, II, and III shared more than just a name and profession. Each was short for a sailor, quick to violent temper (especially when accused of dishonesty or of benefiting from privilege), and lousy in the classroom. (The future senator graduated 894th out of a Naval Academy class of 899, but that was only marginally worse than his father, who was 423rd out of 441.) One reason for the poor academic performance was that each McCain was a five-star binge drinker and carouser. Grandpa Âsmoked, swore, drank, and gambled at every opportunity he had, Sen. McCain wrote in his 1999 memoir Faith of My Fathers. Dad, while more discreet, was an out-and-out alcoholic. John spent his teens and 20s constantly flirting with disciplinary disaster by breaking every drinking and curfew rule on the books, concentrating more on Brazilian heiresses and Florida strippers than on his aviating skills. This wide streak of good-time rebelliousnessÂand his unusual frankness in discussing itÂis one of many endearing things about the senator, along with his active and self-deprecating sense of humor, his still-salty tongue, and his convincing passion when confronting some types of injustice and government waste.
Any young McCain worth his salt could convert a grudge into motivational sustenance and torment his tormentors with defiant lip. So after being shot out of the sky during a risky raid over Hanoi in 1967, then pummeled by a mob of local Vietnamese and detained at the notorious prison nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton, McCain comported himself heroically despite two broken arms, a mangled knee, and innards wracked by dysentery and other maladies. Every morning for two years a guard the prisoners called The Prick would demand that McCain bow to him. Every morning McCain would refuse, then brace for his beating. Herded into a made-for-propaganda Christmas Eve service in the prison yard, McCain punctured the enforced silence with repeated shouts of ÂFuck you! while raising his middle finger to the camera. Beat senseless for days on end for refusing to divulge information or accept early release (which would have given the North Vietnamese a propaganda victory and violated the NavyÂs honor code), he would reveal only the names of every player he could remember from the Green Bay Packers. ÂResisting, being uncooperative and a general pain in the ass, he wrote, Âproved, as it had in the past, to be a morale booster for me.Â
But it wasnÂt enough to prevent him from finally cracking. After two weeks of particularly severe beatings in 1968, he recorded a forced confessionÂthough not before half-heartedly attempting suicideÂand then plunged into inconsolable, shame-wracked despair. ÂThey were the worst two weeks of my life, he recalled. What pulled him back from the brink was not the stubborn individuality that had sustained him through the years but the selfless encouragement of his fellow prisoners, who told him he did the best he could even while giving him strength to do better next time. ÂI discovered in prison that faith in myself alone, separate from other, more important allegiances, was ultimately no match for the cruelty that human beings could devise, he wrote. ÂIt is, perhaps, the most important lesson I have ever learned.Â
Submerging and channeling his individuality into the Âgreater cause of American patriotism became McCainÂs reason for living. ÂI resolved that when I regained my freedom, he wrote in Faith of My Fathers, ÂI would seize opportunities to spend what remained of my life in more important pursuits. Upon his return to America he rehabilitated his injuries, studied the Vietnam War for a year at the National War College (cashing in on his fatherÂs connections to gain a privilege for which his rank of lieutenant commander did not qualify him), commanded an air squadron for two years (again attaining a position for which he wasnÂt technically qualified), and then rode out the 1970s as the NavyÂs liaison officer to the U.S. Senate, where he built the political relationships that made possible his second career. After divorcing his first wife, retiring from the Navy, and marrying the young Arizona-based daughter of one of the countryÂs largest Anheuser-Busch distributors, McCain hunted around for an available Arizona congressional seat, bought a house in the district of 30-year GOP incumbent Jim Rhodes on the day the congressman announced his retirement, and served two terms in Congress before graduating to the Senate, where he succeeded a retiring Barry Goldwater in 1986.
Starting off as a Reagan conservative, McCain soon got caught up in the 1989 ÂKeating Five scandal, in which he and four other senators were raked over the coals for pressuring regulators to go easy on the savings and loan magnate (and generous campaign donor) Charles Keating. Because the scandal called his honor and integrity into question, he counted it as an even worse experience than Vietnam. After enduring the scandal and his wifeÂs messy addiction to pills, McCain locked in on a lifelong political goal: to give all Americans the same opportunity to transform their lives that he had, by focusing their belief on the Land of the Free.
The 12-Step Guide to Expanding Government
Reading McCainÂs four best-selling books is a revelatory experience. Not since Teddy Roosevelt has a leading presidential contender committed so many words to print about his philosophies of life and governance before seeking the Oval Office. All of McCainÂs charming strengths and alarming foibles are there, hiding in plain sight, often unintentionally.
McCain on the page is reflexively self-effacing (ÂI have spent much of my life choosing my own attitude, often carelessly, often for no better reason than to indulge a conceit, he writes in the second paragraph of Faith of My Fathers), consciously reverent of his heroes (Why Courage Matters and Character Is Destiny are basically collections of hagiographic mini-profiles threaded with a few self-help bromides), and refreshingly authentic-sounding (for a politician, anyway). He has a tendency to write passages that would fit perfectly in a 12-step recovery guide, especially Steps 1 (admitting the problem) and 2 (investing faith in a ÂPower greater than ourselvesÂ). There isnÂt any evidence that McCain himself has gone through the 12 steps, but his father was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, his second wife received treatment in 1994 for her five-year addiction to pain medication, and he has spent a life surrounded by substance abusers. ÂI have learned the truth, he writes in Faith of My Fathers. ÂThere are greater pursuits than self-seeking.Â
Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself.Â
That Âsomething is the Âlast, best hope of humanity, the Âadvocate for all who believed in the Rights of Man, the Âcity on a hill once dreamed by Puritan pilgrim John Winthrop (whom McCain celebrates in Character Is Destiny). Any thing or person perceived as tarnishing that cityÂs luster has a sworn enemy in the Arizona senator. ÂOur greatness, he writes in Worth the Fighting For, Âdepends upon our patriotism, and our patriotism is hardly encouraged when we cannot take pride in the highest public institutions, institutions that should transcend all sectarian, regional, and commercial conflicts to fortify the publicÂs allegiance to the national community.Â
So it was that McCain fought in 1994 to abolish a minor congressional privilegeÂuse of the parking lot closest to the main terminal at National Airport. He readily acknowledged this was Âmerely a symbol of corruption, not an actual abuse of power. ÂI meant only to recognize that people mistook such things for self-aggrandizement, he explained in Worth the Fighting For. ÂEvery appearance that inadvertently exacerbates their distrust is a far more serious injury than it would be had we made other, more serious attempts to rekindle Americans pride in their government.Â
So many ways for Americans to lose their pride in government, so little time for reform! Everything from the trivial to the sublime became a Âtranscendent issue requiring urgent federal attention. McCain has used the Âtranscendent tag not just for campaign finance reform, the War on Terror, and Iraq, but for expanding Medicare, cracking down on Hollywood marketers, even banning ultimate fighting on Indian reservations. ÂNational pride will not survive the peopleÂs contempt for government, he wrote in Worth the Fighting For. ÂAnd national pride should be as indispensable to the happiness of Americans as is our self-respect.Â
Occasionally this impulse translates into a libertarian stance, as with the senatorÂs long-running rhetorical war on pork-barrel spending. More often it results in more government, even at the expense of the First Amendment.
Such has been the case with McCainÂs favorite domestic issue: campaign finance reform. To restore Americans faith in their political system, McCain and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) sponsored a 2002 law that prohibits advocacy groups such as the National Rifle Association and the Sierra Club from paying for any radio or TV ad that mentions a federal candidate within two months of an election. As a result, active political participants (candidates and parties) and deep-pocketed media organizations can continue to attack and praise contenders, but independent groups may not (unless they form separate political action committees subject to federal contribution limits). Meanwhile, the McCain-Feingold bill tasked the Federal Election Commission with constantly re-interpreting the rules to close off new sources of financial support for political speech.
McCainÂs fondness for government power doesnÂt stop there. He pushed for the huge airline industry bailouts after September 11. He recently proposed legislation requiring every registered sex offender in the country to report all their active email accounts to law enforcement or face prison. He wants to federalize the oversight of professional boxing. He wants yet more vigor in fighting the War on Meth. He has been active in trying to shut down the Âgun show loophole, which allows private citizens to sell each other guns without conducting background checks. He has lauded Teddy RooseveltÂs fight against the Âunrestricted individualism of the businessman who Âinjures the future of all of us for his own temporary and immediate profit.Â
If youÂre beginning to detect a rigid sense of citizenship and a skeptical attitude toward individual choice, you are beginning to understand what kind of president John McCain actually would make, in contrast with the straight-talking maverick that journalists love to quote but rarely examine in depth. For years McCain has warned that a draft will be necessary if we donÂt boost military pay, and he has long agitated for mandatory national service. ÂThose who claim their liberty but not their duty to the civilization that ensures it live a half-life, indulging their self-interest at the cost of their self-respect, he wrote in The Washington Monthly in 2001. ÂSacrifice for a cause greater than self-interest, however, and you invest your life with the eminence of that cause. Americans did not fight and win World War II as discrete individuals.Â
McCainÂs attitude toward individuals who choose paths he deems inappropriate is somewhere between inflexible and hostile. Nowhere is that more evident than when he writes about his hero Teddy Roosevelt, a man whose racism (he was a Darwin-inspired eugenicist who believed Ârace purity must be maintainedÂ) and megalomania (he declared before the 1916 presidential campaign that Âit would be a mistake to nominate me unless the country has in its mood something of the heroicÂ) do not merit more than a couple paragraphs pause in McCainÂs adulation of his expansionist accomplishments. ÂIn the Roosevelt code, the authentic meaning of freedom gave equal respect to self-interest and common purpose, to rights and duties, McCain writes. ÂAnd it absolutely required that every loyal citizen take risks for the countryÂs sake.Â
His insistence that every citizen owed primary allegiance to American ideals, and to the symbols, habits, and consciousness of American citizenship, was as right then as it is now. McCain, always disarmingly transparent in projecting his own ambitions onto the objects of his hagiography, describes Roosevelt as an ÂEastern swell who traveled West and fought wars to become Âa man of the people. He admires in equal measure the former presidentÂs trust busting, his prolific writing, and his boyish, bull-headed vigor, but somewhere down deep he will always see Roosevelt as the commander of the Great White Fleet.
All War, All the Time
McCainÂs lack of respect for individual choice, coupled with his slow-motion suck-up to social conservatives, has led to several reversals of social policy positions, most conspicuously regarding gay rights. McCain voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment to the Constitution, has repeatedly chastised his fellow Republicans for trying to win votes by marginalizing gay Americans, and gave a stirring eulogy in San Francisco for the United Flight 93 hero Mark Bingham, who was gay. But in the 2006 elections he made a fool of himself campaigning for an Arizona ballot initiative banning gay marriage. Perhaps because of the libertarian strain in ArizonaÂs political tradition, the proposition lost. McCain has been a pretty consistent opponent of abortion, but he went from saying he wouldnÂt seek to reverse Roe v. Wade in 1999 to saying he would in 2006.
Such flip-flops have cooled McCainÂs longstanding, mutually satisfying love affair with journalists. The senator had a natural affinity for writers long before his political careerÂbefriending, for example, the legendary New York Times scribe R. W. ÂJohnny Apple before his imprisonment in Vietnam. During the Keating Five scandal, he made a decision to start answering all media inquiries promptly and exhaustively. If thereÂs one thing journalists love, itÂs access. (The New RepublicÂs John Judis opened a 2006 analysis of McCain by gushing about how he has liked him ever since a one-on-one interview a decade ago.)
And if thereÂs one thing reporters love more than access, itÂs politicians who buck the orthodoxy of their own party, especially when the party is Republican. McCain made some lifelong media allies when he called Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson Âagents of intolerance in 2000 and when he spoke out against ethanol subsidies despite the strategic importance of the Iowa caucuses. Throw in his war hero status, which plays well in the eyes of a distinctly nonmartial profession, and youÂve got the most favorable press notices of any U.S. senator.
Until now. Besides the damage done by his sudden turn to social conservatism, McCainÂs stubborn and distinctly glum support of BushÂs widely despised troop surge in Iraq has brought into sharp focus the candidateÂs concepts of when and how Washington should use the strongest military ever assembled, and whether the president should recognize any constraints from the co-equal branches of government. On these questions, the most militaristic presidential candidate since Ulysses S. Grant has provided a clear answer: If you think George W. Bush had an itchy trigger finger, you ainÂt seen nothing yet.
In addition to calling for tens of thousands more troops in Iraq than Bush has committed, McCain has pushed to keep military options against Iran Âopen, criticized the Ârepeated failure to backÂ
rhetoric with action against North Korea, supported a general policy of Ârogue state rollback, and lamented the PentagonÂs failure to intervene in Darfur. On his short list of senatorial regrets is voting to cut off funds for the botched invasion of Somalia and failing to push for sending troops to Rwanda. Like the neoconservatives with whom he has increasingly aligned himself, he sees Iraq and Iran as integral to a new twilight struggle against Islamic radicalism, while holding onto the belief that too much multilateralism can screw up a perfectly good war.
ÂA world where our ideals had a realistic chance of becoming a universal creed was our principal object in the last century, he wrote in Worth the Fighting For. ÂIn the process, we became inextricably involved in the destiny of other nations. That is not a cause for concern. It is a cause for hope. As for the current mess in Iraq, McCain defends BushÂs doubling down by arguing that the alternatives are too horrible to contemplate. ÂWe should make no mistake: Potentially catastrophic consequences of failure demand that we do all we can to prevail in Iraq, he said in the Senate on January 11. ÂWe were able to walk away from Vietnam. If we walk away from Iraq, weÂll be back, possibly in the context of a wider war in the worldÂs most volatile region.Â
Regarding the U.S. presidentÂs war-related prerogatives, McCain has a nearly unbroken record of deferring to them, from the moment he volunteered to testify against The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case (even though his only expertise was in being a prisoner of war) to his rollover when Bush insisted that his ballyhooed anti-torture bill deny habeas corpus rights to War on Terror detainees and give the White House authority Âto interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions. McCain once wrote that Teddy Roosevelt Âinvented the modern presidency by liberally interpreting the constitutional authority of the office to redress the imbalance of power between the executive and legislative branches that had tilted decisively toward Congress. This is the kind of president John McCain is aching to be.
McCain is at his most unintentionally revealing when writing about his Republican predecessor in the Senate, Barry Goldwater. ÂI really donÂt think he liked me much, he wrote in Worth the Fighting For. ÂI donÂt know why that was.Â
He was usually cordial, just never as affectionate as I would have liked.Â
That it never occurred to McCain why a libertarian Westerner might keep a Ânational greatness conservative and D.C.-bred carpetbagger at armÂs length is both touching and deeply worrisome. Does he not understand that there are at least some people in American life who take liberty as seriously as McCain takes his notions of national duty? Judging by a comment he made recently on the Don Imus radio show, the answer seems to be no. Defending campaign finance reform, McCain said, ÂI would rather have a clean government than oneÂ
where ÂFirst Amendment rights are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice IÂd rather have a clean government.Â
He may have his choice soon enough. Matt Welch is Editor of Reason Magazine and one of my favorite writers. I highly recommend his book "McCain: The Myth of a Maverick"
21 posted on
01/28/2008 10:57:51 PM PST by
cold666pack
(America cannot continue to lead the family of nations around the world if we suffer the collapse of)
To: ajay_kumar
Gee, the more I hear about McPain the more I think about voting for Hellary. (not)
24 posted on
01/28/2008 11:24:19 PM PST by
garylmoore
(Faith is the assurance of things unseen.)
To: ajay_kumar
Would we rather have a Chamberlain?
25 posted on
01/28/2008 11:47:50 PM PST by
Solitar
("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)
To: ajay_kumar
I heard McQueeg flunked Annapolis by more than one point. Because his legacy relatives had made Admiral for more than one generation he was passed. Of course he is who he is and his ego. One of worst mishaps the navy had during Vietnam war happened on McQueeg’s aircraft while it was parked on the flight deck fully armed. The conflagration killed many sailors. I can suppose that his flight crew was stupefied from his overbearing posture.
33 posted on
01/29/2008 3:27:51 AM PST by
machenation
("it can't happen here" Frank Zappa)
To: ajay_kumar
They are pushing McCain because they know he is beatable.
One week with the Clinton Dirt machine and he will be a goner. Let’s see. His affairs, his temper, his age and what no one wants to talk about his health both mental and physical.
36 posted on
01/29/2008 5:35:36 AM PST by
ODDITHER
To: ajay_kumar
Forget Global Warming. Better to stop John McCain.
Old
Angry
Unreliable
Keating Five
Compromised
Guantanamo
John Weaver
Anti-ANWAR
Gang of 14
Swift-boats
Immigration
Bush tax cuts
Anti-business
English standard
Undercut Iraq War
Campaign finance
Free speech limits
Global boondoggles
Embryonic stem cells
Hidden skeletons
Kerry VP material
Media darling
Unelectable *
* McCain will wash out in the Republican only primaries where crossovers are not allowed.
.
38 posted on
01/29/2008 7:24:28 AM PST by
OESY
To: ajay_kumar
41 posted on
01/29/2008 10:18:25 AM PST by
Dante3
To: ajay_kumar
42 posted on
01/29/2008 10:19:34 AM PST by
Yosemitest
(It's simple, fight or die.)
To: ajay_kumar
Nuclear button aside, he is too old. Anybody over 60 should go home and stay there. That would include Hillary!08.
43 posted on
01/29/2008 10:19:50 AM PST by
RightWhale
(oil--the world currency)
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