The reassuring demagogue

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According to Andrew Sullivan, McCain:

  • is "the most reassuring as a potential president"
  • is "demagoguic"
  • "has learned nothing from these past five years and even less from history"
  • is "clearly the Republicans' best viable candidate"

Thanks for clearing that up, Sully.

This leads me to inaugurate a series I will be running from now until the Illinois primary, entitled:

"Why I can't vote for any of these clowns."

Episode 1: The McCainiac

Boy, you gotta have sympathy for John McCain. He should have been the nominee in 2000, and has spent the 8 years since then (except for McCain-Feingold and immigration) kissing the rear-end of every Republican in the nation, telling everybody who would listen, "I am a conservative Republican." The hawkiest of the hawky hawks, he famously backed the surge* before it was popular, but gets no credit from the Limbaugh wing of the Republican party because of a handful of instances where he has exhibited independent thinking.

On the other hand, McCain did this all to himself. The "maverick" McCain relished being a media darling, but when you repeatedly give your party's base the middle figure, it makes it tough to ask for a promotion.

What about being pro-life? Well, he generally votes right on abortion, but Rick Santorum recently took a break from running EPPC's stupidest program (though I suppose I should give them credit for changing the name from the "America's Enemies" program) to point out that, off the Senate floor, McCain "fought against us to even bring [social issues] up." So he voted pro-life, but tried to make it so he wouldn't have to. I guess he saves all of his passion for planning 50-year occupations of Iraq, because occupying Arab countries works so well, doesn't it?

Furthermore, with regard to character, I know everybody says McCain's is unimpeachable, but every time I see him move his mouth, all I hear is condescending drivel. He doesn't sound sincere, he sounds like somebody straining really hard to sound sincere. The result is I don't believe a word he says.

So there you go, I won't be voting for McCain because he's at best tepid on those life issues he happens to get right but passionate about fighting wars we can't afford against countries that can't hurt us, and because I don't believe a word he says.

That said, if a war hawk has to win, I guess I hope it's McCain, because he's the only candidate of either party I can see as a competent commander in chief. I think his concern for our troops is genuine and if you're going to police the world, you can't have a Keystone Kop as your chief.

* I don't watch debates, but has any Republican debate moderator had the stones to ask if the surge's "success" isn't at least partly due to ethnic cleansing having been successfully carried out? Killing or chasing away all of the other sects in your neighborhood would reduce sectarian violence.

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This page contains a single entry by Papa-Lu published on January 10, 2008 11:45 PM.

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