Commentary: Is McCain another George W. Bush?
By Jack Cafferty
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Russia invades Georgia and President Bush goes on vacation. Our president has spent one-third of his entire two terms in office either at Camp David, Maryland, or at Crawford, Texas, on vacation.
His time away from the Oval Office included the month leading up to 9/11, when there were signs Osama bin Laden was planning to attack America, and the time Hurricane Katrina destroyed the city of New Orleans.
Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.
I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn't bother to show up. Now I know why.
It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. "It means I'm saved and forgiven." Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we've all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand.
Asked about his greatest moral failure, he cited his first marriage, which ended in divorce. While saying it was his greatest moral failing, he offered nothing in the way of explanation. Why not?
Throughout the evening, McCain chose to recite portions of his stump speech as answers to the questions he was being asked. Why? He has lived 71 years. Surely he has some thoughts on what it all means that go beyond canned answers culled from the same speech he delivers every day.
He was asked "if evil exists." His response was to repeat for the umpteenth time that Osama bin Laden is a bad man and he will pursue him to "the gates of hell." That was it.
He was asked to define rich. After trying to dodge the question -- his wife is worth a reported $100 million -- he finally said he thought an income of $5 million was rich.
One after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite. He showed the same intellectual curiosity that George Bush has -- virtually none.
Where are John McCain's writings exploring the vexing moral issues of our time? Where are his position papers setting forth his careful consideration of foreign policy, the welfare state, education, America's moral responsibility in the world, etc., etc., etc.?
John McCain graduated 894th in a class of 899 at the Naval Academy at Annapolis. His father and grandfather were four star admirals in the Navy. Some have suggested that might have played a role in McCain being admitted. His academic record was awful. And it shows over and over again whenever McCain is called upon to think on his feet.
He no longer allows reporters unfettered access to him aboard the "Straight Talk Express" for a reason. He simply makes too many mistakes. Unless he's reciting talking points or reading from notes or a TelePrompTer, John McCain is lost. He can drop bon mots at a bowling alley or diner -- short glib responses that get a chuckle, but beyond that McCain gets in over his head very quickly.
I am sick and tired of the president of the United States embarrassing me. The world we live in is too complex to entrust it to someone else whose idea of intellectual curiosity and grasp of foreign policy issues is to tell us he can look into Vladimir Putin's eyes and see into his soul.
George Bush's record as a student, military man, businessman and leader of the free world is one of constant failure. And the part that troubles me most is he seems content with himself.
He will leave office with the country $10 trillion in debt, fighting two wars, our international reputation in shambles, our government cloaked in secrecy and suspicion that his entire presidency has been a litany of broken laws and promises, our citizens' faith in our own country ripped to shreds. Yet Bush goes bumbling along, grinning and spewing moronic one-liners, as though nobody understands what a colossal failure he has been.
I fear to the depth of my being that John McCain is just like him.
While I don't agree with everything in this commentary, I agree that it is time we have a sophisticated president who projects intelligence, confidence, and a nuanced understanding of the world. When one of the charges leveled against a presidential candidate (John Kerry) is that he is too snobby and out of touch with the American people, i.e. He speaks French and is extremely intelligent, we have a problem. It is time that mainstream America stops belittling public figures for their sophistication and intelligence.
Thus, I agree with Cafferty. We need a president who can think beyond black and white simplifications. Do we want a president who graduated in the last 5 percent of his class, or one who was a law professor and the first African American editor of a law journal at Harvard? It is an easy answer for me.
1 comments:
I ignore hatchet jobs whether they are Republican/Democrat, Left/Right, Conservative/Liberal. This is a hatchet job.
There is no link between the President of the United States being on vacations at the time the Russians invade another country and that president's competence. He vacations no more, no less than any other president and all of them work while they are away. Modern communications have freed the presidents from being prisoners of the White House. Read Carl Sandberg's "Lincoln- The War Years" and you will see what an imprisoned president's life is like. We would not want that for any current, modern leaders. Also, the rap on the Carter Administration and how he handled the Iran Hostage Crisis is that it was made worse by Mr. Carter staying at his desk. Later, when bad things happened under the Regan watch, Mr. R. would go out horseback riding or chopped wood to send a signal to the world that no one holds the President hostage. He was much more successful than Mr. Carter. If Mr. Bush chooses to emulate Mr. Regan on this matter, I'll back him.
That he was not in the Oval Office at the time of the 9/11 attack or Hurrican Katrina is irrelevant both operatively and politically. Many make these links, including Michael Moore, but it is all "b as in b, s as in s." If you know what I mean?
John McCain takes days off because that is the right thing to do for all human beings. It is, in fact, Scriptural. Running an insane schedule, being a frantic and hard charging over achiever does not make that person a good leader. It may, in fact, connote just the opposite. I am reminded of the joke where two bulls, a young one and an older one, see cows grazing across the field. The young one says, "Let's run over there and screw us a cow." The older one saids, "Let's walk over there and screw them all." Enough said.
That he didn't show up for a debate, as a Republican, with two battling Democratic candidates...that is simply political wisdom and strategy. Another paragraph which has no weight at all.
That I am saved, that I am forgiven...is not shallow. When you surrender to Christ the "struggle is over" religiously. That does not mean you are shallow. What does this guy want, Thomas Aquainas, or some psycho dribble about the multitude of ways to heaven or religious and moral relativity to make everyone feel better and "O.K."? Not going to get it from John.
To be a good candidate for President of the United States of America one must spill your guts about the details of "moral failures?" Let's see...humm. "I could vote for John McCain if he would tell me about all the women he has had sexual intercourse with, the number of beers he has consumed while naked, and the number of times he has opted for oral sex over cigars while playing with interns!" Gee Whizz Andrew! Your going for your Masters Degree at Georgetown University! Ha, ha, but seriously.
Stump speeches are what candidates use, Obama Man of Change too. The answer to the "evil" question was a resounding "YES." Perhaps the author of this article doesn't understand that Mr. Bin Laden has become, in the minds of many Americans, the "face of evil" as Mr. Hitler and Mr. Stalin, and Mr. Mao became that to many cold warrior types...like me. Also, hell implies heaven, another allusion to the answer of evil. One can choose to be good, one can choose to be evil. It is up to the individual no circumstances. It isn't relative. Nuanced, I think. Mr. McCain was short and swift and too the point. He was and is also a political animal who knows who is listening to him.
Mr. McCain didn't dodge the question about richness. He just wasn't taking the bait which is to recognize "two Americas" as opposed to one. He went into his most eloquent discussing here regarding his philosophy and understanding of free markets, government's role in the lives of its people, and the correct use of tax codes. That the author of this article skips all of that speaks volumes. When he threw the figure of five million out there he was joking, using absurdity to help gracefully close the discussion and move on. Oops. The Author forgot to mention that.
With regard to simplistic answers all I can say is that some of the most elegant answers to life's challenges are the simplest. Remember Jodie Foster's challenge in "Contact". Yakum's Razor. The simplest and obvious answer is most often, or most likely the correct one. Humm.
My understanding is that while at the Naval Academy Mr. McCain was in rebellion against his family's expectations. He grandfather and father were both four star admirals. He was being forced by this family to go. So, he blew off steam. Yet, he did graduate, has been honest about his attitude, and he did become a fighter pilot who flew 21 missions before he was shot down. Oh, and he flew off of and landed on aircraft carriers both during the day and night and during combat. Those skills are not small things and the U.S. Navy generally doesn't allow idiots to do such things. One can also argue that being 894 at Annapolis may be higher than first at Westmont or Wheaton Colleges. I'm not saying that it is, but the military academies are "a cut above." Oh, by the way, Mr. McCain has been an admired and respected member of Congress, both House of Representatives and the Senate, for 30 plus years. Must be an idiot. He was, in 2000, the "media darling." What has changed? Not him.
That the Bush administration has been a failure is a matter of what your agenda is. Obviously Mr. Cafferty is looking left for the next president and he is a person who admires those in our culture who have the highest levels of education. They won't embarrass us, I guess. Seems to me that it wasn't so long ago that we had a Rhodes Scholar and political genius in the Oval Office getting blow jobs from Monica and sticking his cigars into her vagina for kicks! Now, I found that a little bit embarrassing for our nation, but again I am a simple fellow.
I believe, despite this lengthy note, that the fewer words the better, actions speak louder than words, and that Osama bin Laden is a good personification of evil. Good Christ follower that I am I do hope that he comes to a saving knowledge of Jesus before one of Mr. Bush's military geniuses, and they are real, finds a way to put a rocket up his ass.
As for Mr. Bush's education, Masters in Business Administration from Harvard School of Business, his military history, qualified to fly supersonic, single seated aircraft with weapons on board, business skills, has made more money than Mr. Cafferty I'll bet, and to me most importantly Mr. Bush has worked through and dealt successfully with dyslexia which he was born with, did not choose. Instead of being crippled by it he embraced who he was, the man God made him, and he ran with the ball pretty darn good. I remember his Yale speech where he jokingly said "I am living proof that even you C students can become President of the United States." Humor, my friends, is one of the surest signs of intelligence.
As for deficits. That is another discussion, but suffice it to say they are not always a bad thing. Also, our nation's debt as a percentage of its assets... very small. I'd like to have that ratio.
Broken laws, promises and the like...just talking points. I am not neurotic about my freedoms right now any more than I was before the Bush administration. That we have played hardball with the bad guys, this makes me happy. That we have had an administration that has pushed hard and sometimes to the edge, I am glad. That we have safeguards, that we can fix things later, that I take pride in. That I can write this and Mr. Cafferty can write too, that is not now, nor is it going to be in danger because of what the Bush administration has done. I think Islamic terrorists have much more to fear than fear itself and we owe that to the Bush administration and its simple kick but and take names stance.
It is not the Bush administration that wants to take my right to bear arms away, to travel as much as I can afford, and to dream about making as much money as I can. They don't want me to have to pay for anymore welfare babies than I already do. As a business owner I pay for lots of them. You can talk to me about that if you don't believe it. It is the Left in the Democratic Party that want to do these things and limit my freedom. So, whom do you fear? As for me and my mind it is the left wing over thinkers whom I worry the most about.
I didn't mean to do a "hatchet job" on Mr. Cafferty, but he asks for it. I also thing an alternative hatchet job is called for. Critical thinking is, to me, critical. Don't you think? For sure, regardless of who is elected president, I will back him and I will not hang my head in shame to anyone. I didn't do that even with Mr. Clinton. I got embarrassed and I was mad at him introducing such matters to the lexicon of the junior high school kids in my family and youth ministry, but I was not ashamed of him and our nation. That too is a big difference between me and Mr. Cafferty...and perhaps you.
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