WILL AMERICANS GIVE A MANDATE TO McCAIN FOR UNCEASING NATION BUILDING AT UNLIMITED TAXPAYER EXPENSE?
It's not immediately clear why so many American's support McCain, even now, when he basically represents a mandate for "stay the course", a formulation that isn't time-bound or resource constrained in any way.
What is driving that? The perceived "pain" of loss, a "loyalty" to party that transcends commonsense (including an obscene willingness to pay for time in lives, just to be able to dump "defeat" at the doorstep of the Democrats, as Nixon was caught musing about years ago?), or a real hope that there is something to "win" in Iraq, still, beyond what the Iraqis themselves muster?
NO EXECUTIVE EXPERIENCE, JUST A COAT OF TEFLON
The rest of the explanation cannot be put better than this (via ThinkProgress).
The Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum takes a closer look at McCain’s media “cred”:
Let’s recap. Foreign policy cred lets him get away with wild howlers on foreign policy. Fiscal integrity cred lets him get away with outlandishly irresponsible economic plans. Anti-lobbyist cred lets him get away with pandering to lobbyists. Campaign finance reform cred lets him get away with gaming the campaign finance system. Straight talking cred lets him get away with brutally slandering Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican primary. Maverick uprightness cred allows him to get away with begging for endorsements from extremist religious leaders like John Hagee. “Man of conviction” cred allows him to get away with transparent flip-flopping so egregious it would make any other politician a laughingstock. Anti-torture cred allows him to get away with supporting torture as long as only the CIA does it.
Surprisingly, McCain's "cred" weighs even with some gay pundits, who imagine that tax policy is enough of a consideration to weigh decisively with gay rights. Such opinions were novelty enough years ago to "make a career out of", perhaps. Today, they just seem hackneyed.
One also has to demur at the idea that McCain will transform the Republican Party. That's like the neocon notion that "freedom" in Iraq will transform the whole middle east, starting with Iran. This ignores that Iran "gets a vote", to borrow a Rumsfeldism for another context, that the pressure goes the other way, too.
