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« Inevitable My ... | Main | Politics Without Policies » December 03, 2007Warming Up to John McCainSpotted this article on John McCain by Prof. Atwood of Three Hierarchies in Zach's Shared Items to the right. He makes a pretty good case for John McCain, and I have to admit I'm warming to the Arizona senator. While his jocularity about bomb, bomb, bombing Iran and his unshakable commitment to staying in Iraq indefinitely make me uneasy (putting it mildly), he is the only major, viable GOP candidate who is right about torture, is willing to stand up to party orthodoxies when they are asinine (ethanol subsidies for example), and he doesn't show the compulsion to compete in the "macho primary" with Romney, Giuliani, and Huckabee, as his life story makes him immune from challenges to his manhood. Unfortunately, his heresies make him about as popular with the base as Bob Dole in 1996. I can see McCain taking the nomination, though without much excitement from the rank and file. Still, the party can do worse given the alternatives. Some might say they did in 2000. Posted by David Darlington at December 3, 2007 12:05 AM CommentsI'm generally in agreement with you on McCain here, but I'm not quite buying into the "macho primary" take. I don't see Huckabee playing that game much and McCain's dressing down of Ron Paul on Iraq in the last debate had more than a bit of alpha male in it. Granted, you see quite a few of the lead pack wanting to play the "though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I'm the toughest SOB in the valley" routine far too often. If you've got a couple of Huckabee moments that will out alpha-male that McCain-Paul discourse, I'll reconsider my critique Posted by: Mark Byron at December 3, 2007 12:59 PM | permalink Huckabee does less of it than the other two, but he did have his own dressing-down of Paul in an earlier debate, which was much discussed on this site. Huckabee used the "we broke it, we bought it" and "we must honor their [the troops] sacrifices" arguments for staying against Paul. You could probably put Tancredo in the "macho primary" as well, if you think he matters. Posted by: DMD at December 3, 2007 01:46 PM | permalink Post a comment |
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