The Manchurian Candidate
John McCain is simply impossible for me to support.
His supporters point out his heroism as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton. I stipulate that there was no more heroic POW than John McCain, who adhered to the spirit and the law of the Code of Conduct throughout his captivity, and famously refused parole in accordance with the Code as it would have been a propaganda coup for the enemy.
The trouble is not McCain's heroism, but the arrogance, bitterness, and brittleness it has generated. Like a Greek hero, McCain's hubris is his tragic flaw.
The very stubbornness which served McCain and his fellow POWs so well in Hanoi has destroyed his character since Operation Homecoming. His cruelty to his disabled wife, who had waited for his return and kept faith with him throughout his hellacious imprisonment, is simply breathtaking. His dishonesty and disloyalty toward his fellow Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, is chronic and catastrophic.
His supporters point to his lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 81.8 (they of course round up). They conveniently fail to note that he was far more conservative 1986-1996 (88.7 mean) than 1997-2006 (74.9). What happened in 1996? McCain-Feingold was successfully filibustered in the Senate by the GOP. Anyone surprised that McCain's held a grudge against conservatives ever since?
Things got worse, if anything, in 2000, when George W. Bush beat McCain in the primary. The man who now looks to be the GOP nominee for the White House made overtures to top Democrats to switch parties, thereby handing control of the Senate to the opposition, only to be beaten to the punch by Sen. Jeffords.
Jeffords had better watch out for an IRS audit if McCain becomes president.
McCain's supporters claim he is the most electable Republican. To this I propose a though experiment: picture McCain in a debate with Barack Obama. If you believe Americans will vote en masse for the irascible old man criticizing his country rather than the young, hip man with a message of hope and optimism, you might want to go back and replay Kennedy-Nixon and Johnson-Goldwater. This is America. Hope and optimism ALWAYS wins. (Well, except in 1976).
I voted for Bob Dole in 1996. I knew Dole was no conservative, although I (wrongly) presumed Jack Kemp still to be one. I wanted a war hero in office, rather than that lip-biting draft-dodger. I wanted someone from the Greatest Generation instead of the perennially-pubescent Baby Boomer. Dole got his clock cleaned. Why would McCain do any better?
Conservatives are being told once again to shut up and color. This is nothing new. Republicans have invariably taken us for granted, and presumed to know better, as trust fund babies brook no ideology. It's the independents who matter, they say, ignoring simple math. If McCain took every Independent vote, he'd top out at 30% of the popular vote. McCain needs the base to turn out for him, or he stands no chance of winning the presidency.
And still, he refuses to pay even lip service to his party's base. This is because, stubborn and stupid, he presumes his base in the left wing media will remain steadfast (oh, how angry he's going to be at them after the convention), augmented by those coveted independent voters. What will happen instead is that the conservative base will largely stay home, the media will turn on their Manchurian Candidate precisely as he has turned on conservatives, the independents will flock to Obama, and McCain will be the 2008 edition of Mondale '84.
The GOP apparatchiks, of course, will blame conservatives. They always do. It is ever the way of masters to thrash the serfs for their indolence.
His supporters point out his heroism as a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton. I stipulate that there was no more heroic POW than John McCain, who adhered to the spirit and the law of the Code of Conduct throughout his captivity, and famously refused parole in accordance with the Code as it would have been a propaganda coup for the enemy.
The trouble is not McCain's heroism, but the arrogance, bitterness, and brittleness it has generated. Like a Greek hero, McCain's hubris is his tragic flaw.
The very stubbornness which served McCain and his fellow POWs so well in Hanoi has destroyed his character since Operation Homecoming. His cruelty to his disabled wife, who had waited for his return and kept faith with him throughout his hellacious imprisonment, is simply breathtaking. His dishonesty and disloyalty toward his fellow Republicans, especially conservative Republicans, is chronic and catastrophic.
His supporters point to his lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 81.8 (they of course round up). They conveniently fail to note that he was far more conservative 1986-1996 (88.7 mean) than 1997-2006 (74.9). What happened in 1996? McCain-Feingold was successfully filibustered in the Senate by the GOP. Anyone surprised that McCain's held a grudge against conservatives ever since?
Things got worse, if anything, in 2000, when George W. Bush beat McCain in the primary. The man who now looks to be the GOP nominee for the White House made overtures to top Democrats to switch parties, thereby handing control of the Senate to the opposition, only to be beaten to the punch by Sen. Jeffords.
Jeffords had better watch out for an IRS audit if McCain becomes president.
McCain's supporters claim he is the most electable Republican. To this I propose a though experiment: picture McCain in a debate with Barack Obama. If you believe Americans will vote en masse for the irascible old man criticizing his country rather than the young, hip man with a message of hope and optimism, you might want to go back and replay Kennedy-Nixon and Johnson-Goldwater. This is America. Hope and optimism ALWAYS wins. (Well, except in 1976).
I voted for Bob Dole in 1996. I knew Dole was no conservative, although I (wrongly) presumed Jack Kemp still to be one. I wanted a war hero in office, rather than that lip-biting draft-dodger. I wanted someone from the Greatest Generation instead of the perennially-pubescent Baby Boomer. Dole got his clock cleaned. Why would McCain do any better?
Conservatives are being told once again to shut up and color. This is nothing new. Republicans have invariably taken us for granted, and presumed to know better, as trust fund babies brook no ideology. It's the independents who matter, they say, ignoring simple math. If McCain took every Independent vote, he'd top out at 30% of the popular vote. McCain needs the base to turn out for him, or he stands no chance of winning the presidency.
And still, he refuses to pay even lip service to his party's base. This is because, stubborn and stupid, he presumes his base in the left wing media will remain steadfast (oh, how angry he's going to be at them after the convention), augmented by those coveted independent voters. What will happen instead is that the conservative base will largely stay home, the media will turn on their Manchurian Candidate precisely as he has turned on conservatives, the independents will flock to Obama, and McCain will be the 2008 edition of Mondale '84.
The GOP apparatchiks, of course, will blame conservatives. They always do. It is ever the way of masters to thrash the serfs for their indolence.
Labels: Politics
posted by Teflon at 1:35 PM
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