Mr. McCain and the Future

Well, in order to guage my interest in conservative politics this year (actually rather high) I made Erin and Lisa (Erin’s mom) watch McCain’s acceptance speech last night during the final hour of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. I have to tell you, there is a pretty significant difference, in appearance and in projection between Senator McCain and Senator Obama. What I was wanting to see, last night, was something that would inspire me that if McCain was elected President that he would actually do what he was claiming to do. What I wanted to hear was actual examples of the policies and issues he intended to follow through on. What I wanted to hear was something that would suggest to me that, for the first time in sixteen years, I didn’t have a reason to vote in another non- or less-conservative fashion. What I wanted from Senator McCain was reassurance that voting for him was something I would not regret in four years or less.

The problem I had, and Lisa made sure that this was tempered (and I half expected to hear from my mother during the speech), was that McCain didn’t really say anything. Sure, he gave some rather personal experiences during his time as a Prisoner-of-War in Vietnam and the torture and pain he went through and the fact that after he chose to follow the code of ethics of the fellow prisoners-of-war by following the first in first out rule, this does not illustrate, sufficiently, for me a reason to believe that he has what it takes to be the commander-in-chief of the United States. The sad thing, and there is no getting past this, is that being a prisoner-of-war does not a commander make. McCain was not one of Hogan’s flunkies and sidekicks in a fictional German POW camp, he did not fight a war from the inside, and he did not learn leadership while in the Hanoi Hilton. This is not to minimize his experience, I believe what he said. He presented the information factually and with that, one could not watch without experiencing the emotional impact of what that meant for him. I also understand and believe that the experience led to his dedicating his life to the public interest and the public good. I believe every single thing he said in that area and I still don’t trust him in the role of president.

The problems in his speech is that McCain is not inspiring as a candidate and as a leader and that he did not have the emotional impact or appeal that his running mate, Governor Palin, has or projects. When it comes to a person who has the charisma and ability to motivate, he is not the man. In fact, he did exactly the opposite. Where I tuned in specifically to hear what he had to say, I found myself having to remind mysef (in between U-S-A chants from the crowd) that this man was allegedly presenting his argument for why he should become the next president of the United States. Granted, it was nice to hear him claim that pork barrel project would not be a part of the budget and that he would advertise the names of every congressman and senator who chose to bad the budget with projects like that; but as a senator, he actually does have projects like that, that send money to Arizona, which in turn help get him reelected to the Senate every six years and as a result of that, McCain is the very product of what he is claiming he wants to challenge.

What interested me, in the lead-up to the speech last night, was the news and NPR coverage of McCain and what people expected and wanted to hear. What I heard from those outlets (online, on TV, and on radio) was that the conservative Republican base wanted to hear more of a Reagan-esque speech that assured the people that what he was going to do would be to look out of the interests of the United States, seek it’s protection, and ensure that the big issue problems would be addressed. And I think, going through the speech, he tried to do that. The problem is that he did not do it effectively.

As a part of the news leadup to the speech, NPR reported (through someone who is ostensibly a McCain supporter) that John McCain was not considered a maverick in the party until less than eight years ago and only after he was (allegedly) a part of a campaign finance scandal and a) appologized for his role; while b) vowing and then following up with drafting and presenting legislation that would reform campaign financing. Granted, I think that the reforms he helped push through were too little and need to go a lot further toward actual reform, but the point in this is that he bucked the system, went against the majority and his party and pushed, legislatively, unpopular legislation through.

A single piece of legislation does not a maverick make. Nor was McCain even considered the maverick of the party when he first started trying to run for president. All of this is all interesting and great. But none of it states whether or not he is qualified or even capable of performing as the commander-in-chief. And one of the problems associated with that is (quite literally) that he has to inspire a sufficient number of people to his side of an argument when dealing with Congress that he can then push the Congress into doing what he wants them to do.

So, one of the things I was watching for, last night, was whether or not McCain was able to inspire and sadly, I didn’t see that in him. In order to get to inspiring, Cindy McCain spoke and in her speechifying she decided to adopt a page from the Clinton playbook and introduced a lady from Africa who she met on a trip there who really had nothing to do with the election or the issues or McCain’s policy, but had a lot to do with making people feel as though they (the McCain’s) were somehow connected to the American people… by bringing someone from outside the United States here as an example of the magnanimous nature of John McCain.

He did not inspire and at rather regular intervals that delegates from the states that voted him into the nomination chanted U-S-A so frequently and so ardently and to an extent that McCain had to ask them to stop. No, there was nothing (with the possible exception of the POW experience) that was inspiring about what McCain had to say. He did say a lot of things like how good a job G.W. did after 9/11 in defending the United States from outside attacks; and that we had to expect more attacks (ignoring the fact that the next attacks on our country actually came from a researcher working for the U.S. military in the form of Anthrax research) and that G.W. was right in what he did. He also said things that were specifically for the audience he had in front of him, die-hard Republican Conservatives, that did not translate to independents or to liberals and were not sufficient to inspire someone who might be sitting the fence to leap off in one way or another.

Instead, McCain spoke about changing Washington, changing Education, changing the way we do things, and upgrading the way the Government works into the 20th century. My problem with that, and there is no getting past it, is that McCain has admitted that he doesn’t even know how to use a computer. And by “use” I am not speaking to the levels with which I can use a computer, but more along the lines of my mother and mother-in-law and the way they can use a computer. He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t understand. And as the oldest candidate for president in the history of this country, he is too far behind the curve to trust that, at least technologically, he can catch up to the rest of the population in what it means to be technologically savvy.

In the end, McCain played to the Republican Playbook which states (in theory) attack your opponent, tell the world why he is a bad choice and a bad person and completely incapable, and then attack anything he says in his (or her) defense as reasons why it supports the initial assertion that the candidate is incapable of doing anything. I have to tell you, the Republican Playbook is a bad, bad, bad playbook and it does not lead to a morally progressive or morally upstanding means the people can get behind and actually feel good about supporting the candidate or president. They will vote, but I think part of the reason there is such a large and (perceivably) insurmountable divide between political parties in this country is because the Republicans have a tendency to continue doing what they’ve done in the past and not caring that what they are doing is negative, does divide, and that another Reagan cannot come along because of the way the party chooses to do things.

At the end of the night, last night, I don’t feel that McCain sufficiently spoke to the issues or, even more specifically, his issues to change anyone’s mind about who they will vote for and, in the long run, I don’t think he has the staying power to actually win the general election. And in the end, he was about like Bob Dole in 1996 running for President. Sure, he had the party support, and the Republican’s played the same elections game, but in the end he lost to a sitting president.

Sure, in ‘96 I voted for Dole. In ‘92 I voted Perot. In 2000 I voted for Bush as in 2004. I think it is interesting that as a conservative individual, I am more than likely to vote for Obama because, between the two, Obama is the only one who has bothered to inspire and unite. And above abortion, above policy, and far above issues I may or may not agree with, this country is in desperate need of someone who will inspire and unite and whether or not Obama can do that in the long run is yet to be seen; but, reviewing history, older candidates with more than twenty years of experience in Washington D.C. tend to be very poor presidents; while educated persons with fewer than ten years in Washington D.C. tend to be very good, progressive, and popular presidents who get things done.

I can go one, but at the moment I am a little done with politics.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

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