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The Right-Wing Primal Scream
Why Republicans are mad as hell at John McCain.
John McCain's failure to inspire the Republican Party is not a surprise. He has spent the last eight years boasting how he opposed the party on fertile issues such as campaign finance reform and offshore-drilling. He has devoted more time in his campaign to making up with the Democrats who mock his appeasement—that facile "reach across the aisle" bromide—than he has to making up with the GOP, who want to believe him despite his boastful indiscipline called the Gang of 14 and his loony immigration apostasy with his Republican-bashing pal Ted Kennedy. What is a surprise is that after one year of listening to the hoarse, pedantic voice of the oldest man ever to run for the first time for president repeat tiresomely how qualified he is, how traveled and tested, what a world historical figure he will be staring down Comrade KGB, it is unclear why he wants to be president, why he thinks he is a Republican, and what in Creation he could be?
Why does John McCain want to be president? It's not good that, with hours to go until the vote, the answer is uncertain. A McCain-friendly radio host told me that the candidate's recent reply to the question was something pompous, patriotic, and vague about "service." How about a translation for the 98 million voters who have never worn a uniform, please, Mr. McCain? An electrician on a Coast Guard ship, or a volunteer school crossing guard, believes in service, but doesn't aim to be POTUS. John McCain has claimed elsewhere that he runs to balance the budget, keep America secure, find Osama Bin Laden, hold faith with the veterans, reform entitlements, and get rid of those pesky earmarks, none of which is are a reason to be more than a cranky senator. How about a vision, a plan? How about a destination? How about stating that you are going to find out who wrecked Fannie Mae and Lehman Brothers and AIG and make them answer to you, to the law, and to us?
The only thing worse for the GOP than a Democrat in the White House would be the charming, whimsical, intractable, purposeless John McCain.
The frustration at Mr. McCain's random inarticulateness is so commonplace in the party that a Republican columnist joked with me by paraphrasing a witticism told by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona. "The good news is that John McCain believes in country, duty, service. The bad news is that that's all he believes in."
Why does John McCain think he is a Republican? Again, the party is perplexed. On campaign finance reform, he is dead against the party and for the Democrats, and no one I know has forgiven him an inch for the inert McCain-Feingold in 2002, which has now been trashed by the gargantuan unfettered fundraising by the Obama-Biden campaign. "It was his vanity," an always charitable conservative columnist told me. "There are people who have been hurt by that law," a young Republican legislator seethed. "It's why we hate him."
It is the same with ANWR, wherein Mr. McCain spent years siding with the holy thinkers at The New York Times and The Washington Post and their progressive protégés. The result is that the newspapers disdain him anyway, and when the polls this summer showed the public overwhelmingly siding with the Republicans on drilling, the Democrats switched sides, leaving John McCain unloved and uninformed. Even when his running mate is Governor Drill, Drill, Drill, Mr. McCain does not awaken to his own knuckleheaded pride and say, I'm wrong. Instead, he talks about cap-and-trade as if he is Al Gore's acolyte and Barack Obama's fellow student.
As a founding member of the Munich-inspired Gang of 14, John McCain's record with the court fights in the Bush administration is so treacherous that no one speaks of it without scoffing. "He pledges he won't compromise," a major conservative editor told me of recent McCain promises about his presidency. "He says he'll stick to his guns." There is no confidence that John McCain means what he says. The charge John McCain heaves at Barack Obama, that he'll say anything to get elected, is a charge the Republicans aim at Mr. McCain. "He's running a campaign divorced from the Republican Party," is the verdict.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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As vice chairman of Public Strategies and president of Maverick Media, Mark McKinnon has helped meet strategic challenges for candidates, corporations and causes, including George W. Bush, John McCain, Governor Ann Richards, Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong, and Bono. McKinnon is co-chair of Arts & Labs, a collaboration between technology and creative communities that have embraced today's rich Internet environment to deliver innovative and creative digital products to consumers.
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Tehvin
I found this article, much like John McCain left to his own devices for too long, rambling and somewhat incoherent.
It sounds like a peeved Republican who likes to leave windy comments on MSNBC message boards, especially the last paragraph.
Is there no other, more cogent argument for why Republicans don't like McCain?
pacifistgunslinger
In short, why would anyone in his right mind want a maverick, a lone wolf, someone who marches to his own drummer running a country? We need someone who comprehends team playing. McCain has has said over and over "I know how to" do this, that and the next thing. We need someone who gets "we." Palin's remarks regarding the role the VP plays suggest she suffers from the same one-man-army sort of thinking.
pencilbox
How is this Primal Scream different from any of the other screaming the GOP has almost religiously branded itself to over the last decade? While Pelosi, Reed, and the left has ignored mandates from its base (ending the war, health care), the *only* thing the right did correctly was try to ignore its ownbase's mandates by making McCain its candidate.
Only when McCain straddled the bloody carcass of GOP policy, as decimated by the Bush administration, did he lose any chance of becoming president. In other words, despite the press and the vocal faithful of each side, voters don't want parties to own issues in this election. They only want directional slant, with "we'll cross that bridge when we come to it" written in the margins of policy.
McCain was more perfect for the electorate now than 2000, until he tried to become what I agree with you he is not- a republican. The party could have changed with him, as it will have to do to remain viable. Instead, he signed on to the campaign of 4 years ago, to win over people who've not thought much about defining victory in the last long while.
Tulku2
Well, riddle me this: Everytime i read a thing about John McCain it's to try to understand what i am missing about McCain-Fiengold. McCainites wave that colaboration like a banner and no one ever asks, "If McCain-Fiengold was such a triumph, then why is this election bleeding money?!" Don't launch about Obama refusing public funding either. The Obama camp's crucial question to the McCain campaign was always, "Can you control your sideshow? Obama can control his Moveons, can you control yours?" The McCanites did not answer honestly and so Obama stuck with private money and good for him. But... what about McCain-Fiengold? It is much tooted, but did not amount to a hill of beans.
zazzer
Yes, at a time when our economy is falling apart, we should all get under the covers and sob about McCain-Feingold. Campaign finance reform is the cause of the crash!!
'The only worse thing for REPUBLICANS than a Democrat...' Don't act like you care about your country; you just want to see the Democrats get destroyed.
bobfromoz
there's a much more simple reason that Republicans don't like John McCain. It's because he isn't winning. If he was you'd be hearing from this writer and others about how he represented the "new" Republicanism of bipartisanship.
AgathaX
The Republicans ended up with McCain because of their "winner take all" primaries. If McCain had had to appeal to the party as a whole, winning delegates that represented a majority of the vote, he wouldn't be where he is. And yet the media touted the Republican system as sensible and the Democratic system as odd.
I'm not saying that some other Republican candidate would be winning, but I think a candidate that was forced to win more primary votes might be able to put together at least a less bizarre campaign.
maxpower1013
Wow, the author of this article clearly has no interest or concern for this country beyond his Party. You seriously are sick.
jeffb01
This story contains the following:
"...pedantic voice of the oldest man ever to run for the first time for president...
I think bob dole was older when he ran. I think the deal is if he wins, he'll be the oldest person to begin a first term...
MrsDolly
When McCain won his party's nomination so early, while the Democrats dragged on and on, I expected a well-run, strategic campaign. McCain looked like a high-schooler who slept in all summer, and realized the week before school that he had not finished his summer reading list.
riall1
McCain's mistake is that he was not McCain...for some reason he began to bow to GOP preasure, especially from the right. And, probably because he was uncomfortable with his situation, he didn't sell the right wing position nor did he execute their tactics very well. This is especially obvious when he claims to being a maverick when many of his statements are inconsistent with his prior positions. He was not a Bushite, but he had to act like one, he was not a right wing religious nutcase, but he had to choose one for his vp (despite her obvious short comings). I don't know what changed John McCain (although I believe that his defeat following Bush's extreme dirty tricks had something to do with it) but I know that he has changed. He used to be (or so I believe) was a true independent, but no more. If he had been a true maverick and not some right wing extremist puppet, I would have supported him....but I loath the right wing, racist, hate & war mongering, fanatical, sick, (the list goes on) "christians" and I believe that this election will demonstrate that most people in the US agree with this assessment. As soon as the GOP gets rid of them or regulates them to the fringes and back woods of American culture the sooner that the GOP can become a viable party again.
Riddle
I'm a strict vegan and pro-choice advocate, but a strong second amendment supporter; so I support John McCain.
I like Obama's great sounding voice, his tall good looks, his education, his articulateness, indeed his eloquence, but I don't trust any politician who wants to ban so called assault weapons that according to the FBI statistics are used in the commission of around only 1% of the crimes committed.
If Clinton had succeeded in dismantling our second amendment I wouldn't have been surprised if he might not have tried to change the law to allow him to serve as President forever. And, he wouldn't have had to worry about the electorate rising up against his attempt, because he would have disarmed the electorate. American citizens are one of the best armed populations in the world (Switzerland is better armed). Let's keep it that way to disuade any ambitious politicians from even considering remaining in office way over the two term limit now in place.
I'm a little embarrassed to be a voter who bases their vote on only one point, but I don't think there is any more important point other than possibly free speach that allows me to say Bush is an asshole, without fear of being jailed. So, despite all that's been said about John McCain, I'm voting for him because he supports our right to keep and bear arms; Obama doesn't, and that's a real concern to me.
hillbilly
You can find the leaders of MORTGAGE PROBLEM easy..3 of them are on Qbama staff, 1 was on search committee all 3 left with 200 million parachute.. only one returned any money & that by court order..& 50 million.This is 2 party election REPUBLICAN / SOCIALISM DEMOCRATS have no dog in this fightchuck pearce
sundancer
Like Bush, McCain has legacy issues. He's been quoted as saying if he wins the Presidency, maybe his mom will get off his back for leaving the Navy.
History teaches us that by the time you get to the third generation of a powerful family (Bush and McCain) you're usually riding on legacy, not merit.
McCain never would have been at the Naval Academy, nor a reputedly reckless and substandard pilot if not for his father and grandfather. The Presidency is not a consolation prize for being a POW.
And Bush.....Bush would be an assistant manager at WalMart had he not been born into his family. Both he and the world would be better off for it too!
therightguy
McCain is the perfect foil for Obama and it's apparent the liberal newspapers picked him and supported him during the primaries because of that. After Obama was clearly going to win the nomination, they turned on McCain. The problem with McCain is not that he has had to pander to the right or be a Bushite: His failure is that he hasn't presented any ideas that are cogent, practical and effective. Couple this with a campaign that looks like it has been run by spanky and alfalfa, it was doomed from the start. The big picture with the republican party is that they seem to adopt a philosophy of primogeniture. McCain felt it was his turn and it reminded me of 1996. It's high time for some bloodletting in the party and to get fresh uncorrupted blood in it. The party has lost the ability to see itself for what it is. At least we won't see McCain running in another four years.
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