February 26, 2010

The man who would have been President

Or, as the WaPo's Chris Cilliza put it, one of the HC summit's losers:
"John McCain: From the start of his remarks around mid-day, McCain seemed on the verge of losing his temper and threw several rhetorical jabs (including one about Obama breaking his campaign promise about holding the health care hearings on C-SPAN) into his speech. ('We're not campaigning anymore,' Obama shot back at McCain. 'The election is over.') Later, McCain hit Obama again for the special carve out for Florida in the health care bill. Obama agreed with the McCain critique, a move that caught the Arizona Republican off guard and left him speechless. In truth, McCain's target audience today was not people in the room or the national media but rather conservative Republicans in his home state -- the people he needs to beat back a challenge from his ideological right from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth."
McCain did a good job of playing that "maverick" thing in 2000, and obscured that he had always been a complete asshole. I remember the story about him upstaging a Democrat from Arizona in a hearing (from his own state, remember), and bragging later that anytime he could embarrass a Democrat he would. Watching him since the election last year--accusing Obama of purposefully trying to bankrupt the country--or even doubling back on his own anti-torture policy to get himself ingratiated with his rabid right in Arizona--all of it reminds me of what a disaster this man would have been as President. Say what you will of Obama, he acts well and he acts Presidential. Imagine a vindictive asshole like McCain as President--especially with that VP?

Shudder.

2 comments:

Noah said...

What freaks me out the most about McCain is his instability. For as much as Clinton was criticized for his change-with-the-wind policy attitudes (which, to Clinton's credit, changed because he was willing to poll and listen to the public at large), McCain's is a way more schizophrenic. It's a weird run towards the base meshed with borderline mental health issues that makes him politically and personally unstable.

"Shudder" is right. I mean, the neocons are already drooling and making overtures about attacking Iran...

steves said...

At one point in time I found him to be a reasonable moderate, but the more he talks, the more I think he is somewhat unstable. That being said, I am fine with saying Obama is a better President than McCain would have been, but I am finding him to be unable to follow through on some of his promises and would be surprised if he wasn't a one-term president.