Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

More on McCain’s Authenticity Problem

FORTUNE Magazine gently suggests that it may not be so authentic for McCain to have become so enthusiastic about tax cuts--or a man who makes Grover Norquist happy. Still, his new position is closer to the right one--not to mention one that highlights one of the president’s undeniable successes.

Discussions - 6 Comments

This can be reconciled.

Inflationary pressures are at work in our economy, and take home pay has stagnated during the 2d Bush tenure, that being the case, McCain can say Americans need relief, and tax relief fits the bill. He can say when he opposed tax cuts, prior to 9/11, the economic situation was quite different than it is today. The economy didn't stay the same, the overall economic situation didn't stay the same, ----------------- so why should his economic proposals remain at stasis.

not to mention one that highlights one of the president’s undeniable successes.



Where do you live?

McCain has put himself in a bind. He established himself as an authentic straight talking maverick (and got loads of positive media attention) by taking positions to the left of the Republican base on taxes, immigration, drilling and global warming. Now when he tacks right (on offshore drilling and the Bush tax cuts), he appears equally inauthentic to both the right and the center. The answer would seem to be what Ronald Reagan did, which was to craft a series of policy proposals that strongly appealed to both the left and the center. In Reagan's case it was tax cuts, deregulation, and a defense build up. It will have to be something different for McCain. McCain can't win by trying to weave between the right and the center (no drilling in ANWAR for the center, yes to offshore oil drilling for the right, ect). He is going to have to identify a kind of conservative reformism that comes from the right but has appeal beyond the "base" - which is much smaller today than it was four years ago. This creation of a new broadly popular conservative aganda would be a tall order for anybody. For all his virtues, I doubt McCain will pull it off.

Isn't it even worth a mention that McSame's chief strategist said that "Certainly [another terrorist attack on U.S. soil] would be a big advantage to him."?

ANWR is but one battle, one minor battle really, in the larger struggle that can be described as the energy wars, or the energy/cultural wars. Our objective isn't simply energy "independence," our goal must be to become THE FOREMOST energy supplier to the Western world. That's the goal, and within that goal we'll obtain a diminishment of our trade imbalance, a reversal of the dollar flows, a restoration of America's rail network, and a boost to small towns all across the fruited plain.

ANWR doesn't accomplish that. So let's not let ourselves become lost, by making a fetish of ANWR. COAL, that's the key, not nuclear, not wind, {which is worst than a joke}, least of all the "biofuel" nonsense, which is already causing famine and food riots. COAL. That's the key.

If the Left, the hard Bay area Left, wants ANWR, -------------------- I don't give two damns, just so long as we win the overall energy war, and that means coal.

I don't think you can win this election by charging boldly down the middle. Indeed, I got a request for donations from McCain today, and his folks claim that the ideological differences couldn't be greater...the American people have a distinctive choice this election year...blah blah blah.

Usually the GOP nominates a candidate who is loved/hated by the social Right or loved/hated by the fiscal Right. But this guy isn't loved by ANY part of the base. He pretends to be a maverick, but in reality his positions are a lot more Rockefeller Republican. Oh joy...the Losertarians are surging again.

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