John McCain: The Devil You Don't Know
Paul Jenkins
The Huffington Post
John McCain's insistence that Americans know so much more about him than they do about Barack Obama echoes Hillary Clinton's "tested and vetted" rhetoric, and is an equally misleading preemptive strike to convince the media there is nothing more to see.
Like Clinton, McCain has his share of shabbily scrutinized scandals, but, at least as importantly, it is his political positions that remain utterly confusing. That is quite a feat after 26 years in Congress and two presidential runs under his belt: it is hard to think of another veteran politician whose political philosophy is as murky as McCain's (with just one term as governor, Mitt Romney does not qualify.) This has usually been seen as a good thing: unfettered by partisanship and rigid orthodoxy, McCain supposedly gives us common sense solutions to the problems conservatives and liberals are unable to tackle objectively. McCain's much-vaunted "straight talk" usually takes the form of a confident or humorous sound-bite happily regurgitated by an ever-pliant media. The problem is that hours, days or months later he will typically give an equally confident or humorous sound bite on the same topic, but one that is often mutually exclusive from his original position.
It is completely understandable that many Republicans can't stand McCain: he is hypocritical, holier than thou, disloyal and inconsistent. He won a plurality of the primary vote in a particularly weak field, and he has clearly not won the hearts, or even the minds, of most conservatives, struggling until the end to win 70% of an uncontested vote. But this alone should not be enough to make him the darling of independents, let alone Democrats: when he does have a clear position, there is not one issue on which he agrees with the majority, or even a large minority, of either group.
With a carefully cultivated veneer of "independence," McCain has been able to bob and weave, leaving an impression of moderation, and even bipartisanship, to the many voters who weren't looking closely. From abortion to Iraq, campaign finance to gay rights, and everything in between, McCain has succeeded in playing both sides in a way that makes Bill Clinton look amateurish.
(Continued here.)
The Huffington Post
John McCain's insistence that Americans know so much more about him than they do about Barack Obama echoes Hillary Clinton's "tested and vetted" rhetoric, and is an equally misleading preemptive strike to convince the media there is nothing more to see.
Like Clinton, McCain has his share of shabbily scrutinized scandals, but, at least as importantly, it is his political positions that remain utterly confusing. That is quite a feat after 26 years in Congress and two presidential runs under his belt: it is hard to think of another veteran politician whose political philosophy is as murky as McCain's (with just one term as governor, Mitt Romney does not qualify.) This has usually been seen as a good thing: unfettered by partisanship and rigid orthodoxy, McCain supposedly gives us common sense solutions to the problems conservatives and liberals are unable to tackle objectively. McCain's much-vaunted "straight talk" usually takes the form of a confident or humorous sound-bite happily regurgitated by an ever-pliant media. The problem is that hours, days or months later he will typically give an equally confident or humorous sound bite on the same topic, but one that is often mutually exclusive from his original position.
It is completely understandable that many Republicans can't stand McCain: he is hypocritical, holier than thou, disloyal and inconsistent. He won a plurality of the primary vote in a particularly weak field, and he has clearly not won the hearts, or even the minds, of most conservatives, struggling until the end to win 70% of an uncontested vote. But this alone should not be enough to make him the darling of independents, let alone Democrats: when he does have a clear position, there is not one issue on which he agrees with the majority, or even a large minority, of either group.
With a carefully cultivated veneer of "independence," McCain has been able to bob and weave, leaving an impression of moderation, and even bipartisanship, to the many voters who weren't looking closely. From abortion to Iraq, campaign finance to gay rights, and everything in between, McCain has succeeded in playing both sides in a way that makes Bill Clinton look amateurish.
(Continued here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home