Larison on Me on McCain
As most of you know, I am, despite profound ideological differences, a great admirer of Daniel Larison’s mind. In this post, he makes note of an obvious contradiction in a short argument I made on behalf of John McCain.
First, me:
The past seven years have been a time of extraordinary tumult in international affairs, and the world badly needs a period of consolidation and sweeping reform. Our diplomatic and economic institutions are ill suited to tackling the diffuse threats posed by climate change, financial contagion, mass epidemics and catastrophic terrorism. Only Nixon could go to China, and only McCain can reconcile conservatives to some of the hard steps the US will have to take [bold mine-DL].
Now for Daniel’s response:
Let us suppose that the “real” McCain has indeed been hidden, perhaps having been locked away in a dungeon (or at Guantanamo!) Man In the Iron Mask-style while his doppelgaenger roams free working his mischief on the campaign trail. After the election, the double will be slapped back into chains and the “real” McCain will emerge to govern, and perhaps at that point the “real” McCain’s real VP selection will also be presented to us. Regardless, this is the same “real” McCain conservatives cannot stand. They support him primarily because of his hawkishness and his embrace of the war in Iraq, but their enthusiasm for him becomes even more tepid each time he mentions climate change, to take one issue where he commands no loyalty from the right. Should he pursue the kind of institution-building agenda that I think Reihan has in mind, which will include more than a little international institution-building, he would run straight into a brick wall of opposition from the same populist and nationalist forces that rebelled against Bush the Elder in the early ’90s. The reason why it was claimed that only Nixon could go to China, as I’m sure Reihan knows, was that he was a zealous anticommunist throughout his career, so he was immunized against the charge of being soft on communism.
Apart from being very witty, I think this is pretty sound overall. My positive case for McCain was very brief — it is contained in this sentence — mainly because I think McCain would have a very hard time sticking to the various domestic policy proposals he has advanced during the course of the campaign. At the same time, per Yuval’s argument, McCain is governed by a fairly stringent code of honor: having pledged not to raise taxes, I wonder if he really can. My gut had been telling me that he’d be able to broker a deal that gave Democrats political cover to pursue some expensive economic rescue plan that might involve moving the needle on taxes on the rich, for example. Now, however, a McCain victory would be interpreted as a powerful anti-tax mandate.
Also, I focused more on the tragedy of the McCain campaign than on its substance, mainly because I find the substance mostly lacking. The symbolism of the first McCain presidential campaign struck me as noteworthy — in pointed in a different and more inclusive cultural direction for Republicans, and it promised more policy space as well.
Is McCain, as the subhed has it, the “best man” to unite America? Well, I think he’d have to be. Let me stress that “uniting America” isn’t necessarily the highest priority of the next president — perhaps Barack Obama would not “unite with” about 35 percent of the country that is bitterly opposed to his agenda, and I think that’s fair enough. But McCain would, in my view, be forced to unite America because he became the standard-bearer of a minority faction in our politics. How could McCain govern without engaging in really radical outreach to Democrats and independents?
Writing the op-ed was tough. As I’ve noted to you guys, I have slightly odd views about this election. I think that partisan intensity matters, and that shared ownership of American foreign policy matters: both of these things suggest that an Obama victory would be a good thing, though I disagree with Obama on many issues. That said, independent of the campaign (absurd, I know), I think that McCain would be a solid president, and that he’d have an opportunity to reframe our politics in a good and constructive way. If this sounds like faint praise, it is.
Overarchingly, I think both candidates are hilariously unprepared for the nature and scale of the challenges they’re likely to face. Mitt Romney has a far wider range of relevant domestic experience than either of them. That’s not to say he’d necessarily make a better president — he has character flaws, lest we forget. But boy, I haven’t been as encouraged as many of my friends about these guys.
I’m hoping to write something short on what the hell McCain would have to do if he were elected — my nightmare scenario is that he’d win the Electoral College and lose the popular vote. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen for the sake of our sanity.
Honestly, I’m mainly interested in social peace, and the idea of inspiring little kids across the country does tug at my heartstrings: I am excessively sentimental. Little kids love Obama. It’s very cute. Now, that’s not a voting issue. If you want some non-muddled thoughts to inform your vote, check out David Frum=.
Thinking of myself as “ethnic” — a notion that extends from really loving Goodbye, Columbus to going wild-eyed with excitement while driving through Koreatown to finding the ’90s sitcom Martin sublimely brilliant — informs my worldview a fair bit, and it’s certainly on my mind now.
Gosh, I’ve been really depressed for the past two days, but am in this beautifully sunny place and things are looking up. Thanks.
McCain is governed by a fairly stringent code of honor
That is absolute bulshytt and you know it.
McCain doesnt have a rag of honor to dress in.
— matoko_chan · Nov 1, 08:03 PM · #
faint praise for McCain? don’t backtrack now, it’s only been one day since you wrote this:
“John McCain would, I’m convinced, make an excellent president… hard though this may be to believe, this is precisely the right moment for President McCain.”
I don’t know if someone was holding a gun to your head, or you’re really just that big of a McMan fanboy, but this is a credibility-destroying endorsement. this is a statement that people are gonna read decades from now and say, “Reihan Salam has no clue what he’s talking about.”
it’s amazing how years of smart, informed commentary can be undone by one insane freakout. but the mask slips—it always does eventually, doesn’t it?
— raft · Nov 1, 08:15 PM · #
McCain has run his campaign as the antithesis of honor and patriotism,
even as the antithesis of humanity.
And as the antithesis of everything you endorse in Grand New Party.
How can you give the GOP a renaissance and redirection when McCain is the posterboy for race-baiting and IQ-baiting and outniggering and smear and slime?
In 2020 caucasian becomes a minority.
The cruel inexorable force of demographics is going to reform the GOP.
Instead of scamming votes from Jefferson’s yeoman farmers with identity politics and racism and classism, the demographics are going to force virtue on the GOP, in the principles of tolerance, individual liberty, and unity.
It is much easier to develop tolerance and humility as a rump party.
McCain is useless as a standard bearer. He has debased himself utterly along with the party he represents.
I am…I am heartbroken.
I don’t see much hope for my grandfather’s party.
— matoko_chan · Nov 1, 08:28 PM · #
I wonder why those partisan poseurs at NRO have not linked you, Reihan.
Could it be that they are terrified of comments?
— matoko_chan · Nov 1, 11:01 PM · #
Reihan,
Interesting as always. But I found Frum’s analysis weak, so I was curious as to how you found it compelling.
For instance, it’s sophistry to claim, as Frum has here (like many conservatives throughout the campaign), that things have come “smoothly” to Obama since the age of eighteen. He had to work very hard after that age to earn access to the academic and career opportunities, perspective on the country, sense of self, and network of relationships that made him a plausible candidate for national office. Now McCain’s heroism does add to his qualifications as a leader. But it should be thought of as a fathomless depth of substance that has been absurdly flattened and stretched to cover and elide a wide array of questions about his qualifications, temperament, and worldview. His policy knowledge, for instance, as revealed in the campaign has proved inconsistent and at times significantly flawed.
Frum also argues that McCain’s military background allows him to question military officers, who are not always right. Indeed they are not. But Obama has this capacity too. (See the first URL below.)
Frum also says Democratic control of the Congress and the presidency would endanger freedom itself, not to mention prosperity. He also seems to have an almost metaphysical fear of liberalism. Well, while, in deference to freedom, I regard the Fairness Doctrine as terrible and the Employee Free Choice Act as pretty bad, I think Frum has substituted assertion for argument here in a way that is particularly galling after the last eight years’ assaults on the Constitution (e.g., keeping warrantless wiretapping secret and unaccountable, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 insulating torture), our economic and fiscal health (ten trillion dollars’ debt, continued misguided deregulation), and human dignity (callous neglect of New York City air quality concerns post-9/11 and of New Orleans post-Katrina, etc.).
To take a final example (and I could go further, but other duties beckon), Frum supposes that McCain’s alleged moderation on social issues would allow him to foster relative national consensus at a time needing healing. But liberals dispute the idea that McCain is a moderate (see URL 2). They also might ask whether institutionalized discrimination can ever achieve social peace, and whether equality as a guiding value has increasingly come to achieve it in most if not every area of social life in which it has been applied.
Finally, I am still wondering what you thought of the GNP review at link 3 below …
(1) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1853025,00.html
(2) http://www.tnr.com/story_print.html?id=3483eb20-9228-4700-9557-57a47a676e0b
(3) http://bostonreview.net/BR33.5/daly.php
— jason · Nov 2, 12:01 AM · #
Reihan’s magical thinking:
The commenters do not understand the endorsement: Reihan like David Brooks (Reihan’s former boss) has looked into the eyes of McCain (like Bush looked into Putin’s eyes) and has taken measure of McCain’s nonpareil soul. From this deep immersion, comes the following dithyramb:
My guliibility is as boundless as the sea,
My ideology as deep: The more I give to thee
The more I have, for both are infinite.
Like Juliet, they have found their Romeo and no reasoning will be of any use.
— Badrul Islam · Nov 2, 12:12 AM · #
How could McCain govern without engaging in really radical outreach to Democrats and independents?
The same way Bush did.
This has been today’s simple answer to a simple question.
— MouseJunior · Nov 2, 01:15 AM · #
Although I can’t agree with your position, and yes, it is somewhat “muddled”, just hope you get out of your funk. Always a pleasure reading your stuff.
— Brett · Nov 2, 03:43 AM · #
I think McCain is a sort of good person, or an average person with some good qualities that has done some dishonest, juvinile, unserious, and stupid things trying to win this election. I think in that position, you figure, it’s the most important job in the world and an instant entry in the history books and so it’s worth humiliating yourself to some degree. Sort of like a game show. Not particuarly noble or heroic. But on top of that, he didn’t run any kind of a coherent or effective campaign. He got trashed by Obama in the organization and competence arena. On top of that, add what we have learned about his temperment and habits of thought compared to Obama. He has clearly proven himself to me to be less qualified as a human to be president, no matter what his policy ideas might have been.
As for Reihan, as he says, he is a sentimental and loving guy. He has affectionate feelings for McCain of a type that many us less sentimental and loving folk can’t comprehend. When I read what he writes the conflict is obvious. He has good feelings for McCain but at the same time what the campign has made obvious, is obvious.
I don’t think Reihan is constitutionally suited for election comentary, which is not a bad thing. Elections are an ugly struggle to amass power.
— cw · Nov 2, 04:44 AM · #
And then on January 21st, 2009, Todd Palin pushes McCain down the stairs and we have PRESIDENT SARAH PALIN.
No thanks. The very possibility of that demented moron as president precludes a vote for McCain. I’ll never understand what he was thinking when he chose her.
— MoeLarryAndJesus · Nov 2, 03:56 PM · #
McCain has put “Campaign First” This country needs to be united. Bush ran in 2000 as “a Uniter Not a Divider” and look what that got us. But McCain and Palin by Fear Mongering in their campaign with lies about “Palling around with terrorists”, “Socialist labels”,etc, etc throws gasoline on the fire of Red State Blue State and takes no consideration as to what that does should Obama be elected. And the person elected needs to be a president to all Americans even if their are ideology differences. But the false scare elements are irresponsible.
— BlueZolar · Nov 2, 04:28 PM · #
You’re assuming that conservatives need to be part of driving the fix. They’ve shown solidly over the past 15 years that they don’t. In fact, they should not. Every pillar Conservatives have espoused has been shown to be either wrong, or they have sold it out to the religious right. Really, the only reason to want Conservatives to play an active role in the fix is if you want to live in a theocracy. That’s why McCain’s heralding call of change rang so false, especially when he flip flopped on all his core traits and started pandering to the religious right. And seeking to further the partisan divide with a false, personal, negative campaign.
I’m looking forward to an Obama presidency, and a Democratic majority in Congress, and a Republican party that sobers up for four years and starts to think about what they really should be standing for.
— mattf · Nov 2, 04:30 PM · #
RE: Faint praise/ A Whisper speaks loudest
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/11/faint-praise.html#trackback
Stumbled into this and was delighted by your observations.
Seems to me that the “leave it all on the field” near to full committment of the culture in this election is a wonderful thing if it apothesizes into it’s full potential.
We get so distracted by the my/your teams duality that we endlessly overlook the revealing process of true dualist dialogue then fail to let go and move our attention on once the morality play drama of the elections ends.
I find myself excited and delighted with what I see and deeply concerned about how we as a culture will respond whoever is elected.
The sheer scale and scope of the problems facing whoever steps into the White House are so far beyond anyone’s capacity to assess and strategize effective response. My preference is for leadership that engages questions and works them through to best outcomes; The culture has a panic-driven need for a man of answers to shelter us from the questions.
The best outcome of this election kicks the experience of accountability and responsibility back to each and every one of us — the only place sustainable change can reside.
SO glad to read your words and see the due dilligence that holds the spaces of uncertaintly rigoursly open.
— Chris Colombo · Nov 2, 04:35 PM · #
One of the great Republican myths of this election is how Obama has had it all handed to him on a plate while McCain the son and grandson of four star admirals has had to fight for everything he’s got. It would be hard to find a better example of that turning reality on its head which has become the besetting sin of conservatism. Obama comes from a single parent family, he was obviously dumped on his grandparents for a awhile, then grew up on the south side of Chicago, fought his way to Harvard Law, and once there got elected president of the review. I really wonder if most of the posters here not to mention the bloviating idiots I sometimes see, have the remotest idea of what it takes in terms of intellect and perseverance to get into Harvard Law. Three of my kids got into Ivy League law schools including Harvard Law and let me tell you it is an intellectual and fortitudinal marathon quite apart from the financial implications of attending. I can’t imagine the struggle his family must have had to manage it. Once there to become the president of the Review is another Everest to climb. For Frum who while no doubt bright wouldn’t have the faintest chance of becoming Pres of Review to say this all happened “smoothly” demonstrates that he’s either spinning or doesn’t have the slightest idea of how things work. Even worse is the latest Republican mantra that self improvement or achievement, unless in the field of plumbing, is somehow suspect or “elitist.” Get real Obama’s intellectual and scholastic achievements are substantial, had to be fought for and it shows.
— John · Nov 2, 04:44 PM · #
McCain would hold no sway over conservatives because they have broken him once. For all his integrity and honor, his lust for the office allowed him to become the monster to Karl Roves Frankenstein to oppose the threat of losing.
For some reason, people like to doubt Obama’s ability to do something until he does it, at which point they move on to the next thing to doubt. Unlike McCain, he hasn’t bowed to pressure to be anybody’s man but his own, and he is winning.
How is he winning:
He chose the running mate he wanted, not the one 18 million Democrats thought would be best for him, one who would best help him govern, not the one who would best help him run.
He has raised unimaginable amounts of money, (ignoring the charge that he went back on a promise to McCain) because he knew that’s what it would take, and he did it by inspiring Americans to act and by getting them to donate via the internet $86 at a time. What will it take to save the economy? I don’t know, but the ability to inspire large numbers of people to make small sacrifices, coupled with the willingness to endure criticism without being swayed will certainly help. And the fact that unlike both his formidable foes he has managed that money well is a plus too.
We’ve been told in this campaign that Obama is a racist, a muslim, a socialist, an anti-semite, anti-American, a communist, a terrorist and more. In response, he has put a flag pin on his lapel, made a remarkably frank speech on race in America and continued doing what he was doing.
In the first debate, he said that McCain was right about something 8 different times, while McCain smirked dismissively. The pundits, especially the conservative ones called it a resounding victory for McCain and his party actually made an ad out of all the “John is rights” claiming that a man so inexperienced as to praise his opponent can’t possibly be ready to lead. Meanwhile the voters saw it differently, as Obama instinctively knew they would.
By the second debate, Obama stopped saying McCain was right, and by the third, McCain was playing to an audience of one, a plumber who would soon have a publicist.
Yes, McCain might shed his newfound odiousness and become a uniter if elected, but Obama is already one.
— Seth Berkowitz · Nov 2, 05:04 PM · #
I’m a Republican, and I once thought of myself as a Conservative, until the nutcases on the extreme right somehow changed the definition of that word. We, the GOP, need four or more years in the political wilderness to get our shytt together. One thing I would change is the addiction to wedge issues that appeal to “value voters”, which seems to be the mechanism by which the party has become a hostage to its most extreme elements.
— Marcos El Malo · Nov 2, 05:07 PM · #
Oh, I think the real McCain has always been easy to spot, if you really wanted to see the real McCain. But after his pick for VP one did not have to look hard to see the real McCain. That choice told us too much about the man. But, I gotta say, Way to go John, you made it easy for rational voters to say yes to Obama.
— Bob · Nov 2, 05:27 PM · #
I don’t want to be “unified” with the Republicans. Republicans have lied to Americans in order to go to war, have been raiding government coffers in order to enrich their buddies in industry, have been dismantling our constitutional rights, have ruined our economy, and have ruined our reputation. The Republican party talks a lot about values, morals, and fiscal responsibility, but they lack all of those attributes. Worst of all are the so-called “conservative Christians”, who, by and large, are just using a pretext of religiosity to justify ignorance, discrimination, and corruptions.
Although McCain used to be a fairly reasonable moderate Republican, all of that has gone out the window in his quest for power. Whether he were to find his way again after taking office almost doesn’t matter: the man is so old and fragile that if he were elected, we could look forward to several years of President Palin.
US politics needs a serious house cleaning, and these people need to be soundly kicked out of Washington and state governments.
— Mike · Nov 2, 05:50 PM · #
I, like others here, cannot understand how anyone with a shred of decency can dismiss the disgusting, scurrilous McCain campaign.
At the end, it has been almost entirely about demonizing Mr. Obama. With disgusting lies.
And Palin has been worse than McCain. Reprehensible. She is a divisive hater.
Then, there is also the shameful commentary from the Right against conservatives that have endorsed Obama. They have been called traitors. Rush Limbaugh and others claimed that Colin Powell endorsed Obama because they are both black men. An utterly racist statement. Disgusting.
I don’t understand how anyone with a conscience can excuse this behavior as simply necessary to win. Shame.
— William · Nov 2, 06:43 PM · #
I suppose….that it somewhat like being a defense lawyer.
Reihan is obligated by his generous spirit and “playful mind” (props freddie) and by honor and his outsized heart and superempathy to make the best defense he can for McCain.
I just don’t see how more magical thinking helps the GOP for post election healing.
Examples of current magical thinking.
Palin is actually qualified.
The polls are wrong.
In an econopalyptic political landscape, ayers/wright/khalidi/socialist/terrorist/muslim/elitist memes are going to work! dammit, if we could just get the elitist/intellectualsnob/inthetank media to cover it.
Those of us that believe the GOP is in for a well-deserved schooling and that crushing electoral humiliation is the only vector to deliver it, and that McCain is a symptom of an endemic disease that is slowkilling the GOP, natch, we kinda disagree with Reihan.
— matoko_chan · Nov 2, 08:18 PM · #
Not sure that your particular vantage point allows for a complete enough view of this campaign. Currently my television in Northern Florida is being bombarded by the some of the most contemptible propaganda proffered up since John McCain was trashed in South Carolina by the guy he hired to do the same to Obama. He lacks integrity. You would not have seen Chuck Hagel, for example, do this. There are good Republicans. But suppose a guy named Reihan Salan was running in this election against these goons, do you think that would fly with their base, that he’d be the exception? To think so would be exceptionally naive.
— jeff hoffman · Nov 3, 06:37 AM · #
Reihan, I think you’re extremely bright, and you seem like a very nice guy, but my God you’re making a fool of yourself this week. If your last few pieces were all I knew of you, I’d conclude that you were completely, hopelessly out of your depth. Seriously, it’s depressing. Please start making a tiny bit of sense again.
— Brian · Nov 3, 08:31 AM · #
Jeff Hoffman said:
“But suppose a guy named Reihan Salan was running in this election against these goons, do you think that would fly with their base…”
Man, is that ever a salient quote.
That is THE perfect point to make in this discussion.
Can you even imagine the scurrilous trash they would vomit up?
Reihan, how do you answer this?
— William · Nov 3, 02:24 PM · #
For example….why haven’t those pathetic partisan poseurs at NRO linked your piece on McCain, Reihan?
Actually…….the only linkage I remember them doing was a kind of link to both you and Ross when Grand New Party came out.
Could it be…that you are a muslim and therefore a crypto-terrorist?
just look at this bulshytt—how the mighty have fallen.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MTg3NTg0Y2VmZDk3MmUxYzM3MWJlY2FlZTljYTdkMTA=
disgusting.
— matoko_chan · Nov 3, 04:09 PM · #
Or perhaps being muslim is an automatic fail on their witch-testing for party purity.
Like being intelligent and thoughtful.
— matoko_chan · Nov 3, 04:34 PM · #
Here’s the real John McCain: A guy who could tell a nasty joke about the teenage daughter of the leader of the opposition party at a public event. You think that guy has the maturity to be what? The bipartisan maverick? Not quite.
— jeff hoffman · Nov 4, 07:58 AM · #