Sunday, April 02, 2006

McCain: Warmonger, but, other than that, a great guy

Publius argues, from a centrist Democratic perspective, and much to the disgust of his commentariat, that John McCain might not be so bad after all, except that he "never met a war he didn't like."

It seems to me like an exception that swallows the rule. I suppose as an American, publius is entitled to care about the domestic policies of a possible Presidential contender. But, from my perspective, the worst possible Republican nominee would be (a) more militaristic than Bush and (b) not tied in the public mind with Bush's Iraq policy. At least a dyed-in-the-wool Bushie would have trouble using the whole "Weapons of Mass Destruction" line again. And a conservative isolationist like Hagel might actually have a rational foreing policy. So McCain seems like the worst of all worlds.

2 comments:

Charlie said...

I think you are correct about your two points for the next President. I think that Senator Hagel would have a very rational foreign policy, but it would not be isolationist. He is cautious on the use of force (probably partly due to his first hand knowledge of it) but favors a very active international approach, but one that favors diplomacy.

PithLord said...

Fair enough. "Isolationist" is pejorative. Hagel's definitely my favourite Republican.