Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Conservative Doubts About the New McCain

With the struggle for his political soul between the Religious Right and Reagan Republicans settled by the choice of a running mate, there are increasing qualms about the new John McCain by traditional voices in his own party.

"Under the pressure of the financial crisis," writes conservative icon George Will, "one presidential candidate is behaving like a flustered rookie playing in a league too high. It is not Barack Obama."

This comes after the Wall Street Journal labels McCain's call for the resignation of SEC Chairman Christopher Cox "unpresidential," demonstrating that McCain "doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does."

"McCain's populist bent," CNN reports, "has made some fellow Republicans unhappy" about "his election year migration toward more government control of the economy."

But the doubts run deeper than unhappiness over his stance on the financial bailout.

"Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial," George Will observes, "usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

"It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?"

In an analysis of McCain's decision-making, PBS News Hour quotes his own description: "As a politician, I am instinctive, often impulsive...I don't torture myself over decisions. I make them as quickly as I can, quicker than the other fellow, if I can. Often, my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint."

On that program, McCain's best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, admitted that he wanted Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge for VP but their pro-choice positions ruled them out.

In picking Palin," Graham says, he wanted "to let the American people know that, if he gets to be president, buckle your seats, because we're going to do things different...I'm not so sure it was impulse, certainly from his gut."

As Election Day nears, more and more Americans, including conservative Republicans, are worrying out loud about government by McCain's intestines.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When Paulson was CEO at Goldman Sachs, whose bad investments contributed to this
problem, he took a meager 12 million in compensation.

Now he wants us to buy up their mess without oversight and with no possible
lawsuits in the future.

Wouldn't it be nice if that money could have gone to universal health care or
even to rebuild after Katrina. Oh, no, that would be socialism.

When reading the urgent need of the bailout legislation, I keep replacing the
term "IRAQ invasion" for "economic problems too dreadful to contemplate" and the
arguments sound suspiciously the same. Strange that it would all come to a head
5 days before the Senate wants to go home and campaign.

Isn't it great that we have to open the treasury to Bush who has crapped over
everything else that he has touched and we are supposed to be happy about it.

And their specious argument is "What if we do nothing?" Well, what if? What if
we had not invaded Iraq? We might not have lost 5000 + service people, a ton of
money, and our international reputation. The Constitution still might be intact, and Saddam
might still be scaring the bejesus out of Iran and keeping them in line.

I know for sure that we would not have been struck by Iraqi WMD and maybe, just
maybe, we might have caught Osama Bin Laden. Of course Paul Bremer and the gang
of rat bastards would not have gotten the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Wouldn't that
have been tragic...

Given past performance of Bush and gang I think that....

We are truly screwed!

Anonymous said...

I've been in Mississippi for the past week. I've seen one yard sign for a presidential candidate: Obama. Nothing for McCain. Zero. No bumper stickers, either.

There are lots of signs for candidates running in state and local races.

Will Southern conservatives turn out for McCain?