McCain Riddle Solved
STUDENTS: Warning--blatant political bias below.
When John McCain ran for the Republican nomination in 2000, he was my favorite Republican (faint praise from me, I know, but still). In the first couple years of W’s first administration, McCain was a fairly outspoken critic of W’s policies, and I continued to feel that he was ok (for a Republican). At one point during W’s first administration, T and I had an argument about whether or not one could be conservative but not Republican. T’s argument was that conservative and Republican were synonymous, and mine was that conservative and Republican often coincide but they are not synonymous. I used McCain as an example of a conservative and W as an example of a Republican. I meant this as a compliment to McCain.
Then, sometime after 9-11, McCain abruptly stopped criticizing W’s administration and became a craven spineless suck up, talking to the press regularly about his support for W’s policies and his respect for the man. Up until today, I had attributed McCain’s sudden personality shift to an undiagnosed stroke. I’m serious. I figured the only way to account for his sudden change in personality from a “straight talker” who would criticize the President in a thoughtful way to a, well, a craven spineless suck up.
And then today, I had an epiphany. Forget the undiagnosed stroke—today I saw McCain’s crazy-like-a-fox strategy. Here it is: sometime after 9-11, McCain realized that Bush would be elected to a second term (well, be elected for the first time but end up serving two terms), and that Cheney’s health probably wouldn’t allow him to run. Normally, the VP of a lame duck administration runs for president on the coattails of the president (as Bush 1 did with Reagan and Gore did with Clinton). But, McCain realized there would be no heir apparent in 2008. So, he began positioning himself as a surrogate VP, so that he could be the Republican heir apparent.
Just like a good VP, McCain has been careful in the last four or so years to not voice his own opinions, to speak glowingly but vaguely of the current president, and to suck up loudly and clearly; for example, he’s shamelessly sucked up to W in his mindless and uncritical support for the war in Iraq. Sure, many support the war, but many are able to articulate some plausible reasons for us having troops in Iraq. McCain is not one of them. For him, it’s good enough that W thinks the troops should be there. McCain doesn’t argue that we can win the war, that Iraq will be better because of the war, that the War on Terror demands that we be in Iraq—no, for him, it’s good enough that his boy Bush says we should be there. This, from a formerly outspoken war veteran, who should, at the very least, be able to speak about this war from his own military experience. Instead, McCain says things like, “I stand by Bush’s plan.” Notice that he doesn’t stand by the war, he stands by Bush’s plan. The support is specifically for Bush. Now that’s a VP.
And he’s managed to not shoot anyone. The perfect VP.
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