Analyses of John McCain's Ohio speech in which he painted a rosy, gauzy picture of the Nirvana that America would become after a single McCain term as president, are in. And the verdict is: dud. First, from the Asia Times' Jim Lobe:
In separate speeches delivered an ocean apart, the two standard bearers of the United States Republican Party on Thursday offered rosy visions of a future designed to gladden the hearts of Israel-centered neo-conservatives without offering any details about how their dreams will be achieved.
... Indeed, Thursday's speeches served to underline how powerful and durable the neo-conservative vision of the world, particularly for the Middle East, remains, at least for the Republican Party, and how likely it would be that a president McCain would "stay the course" set by Bush.
Of course Senator McCain should strive to reach his goals. But there is a surprising lack of realism to this speech — particularly given that if elected, McCain will likely confront a Congress that is more Democratic and more liberal than even the one now, and which will fight McCain on almost every front. ... and of course life is too complex, with too many variables and contingencies, to declare with any degree of confidence what America will look like in January 2013. Consider that if George W. Bush had given such a speech in May 2000, sketching out what the world would look like four years later, no mention would have been made of al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, or probably Iraq. Most of the focus would have been on domestic issues.
For all I know, the conceit of the speech might work. The approach is certainly intriguing, and even original. And it’ll probably get attention, which may be among its chief selling point. But my initial reaction is it doesn’t work, at least for me — perhaps because the speech seemed to cut against one of McCain’s more impressive qualities, which is that he is a grounded, clear-eyed, realistic man, not given to wishful thinking. [emphasis added]
And from longtime McCain aficionado Leslie Gelb, comes this less gentle critique:
"I think John McCain has been one of the most important voices on national security policy for many years now," said Leslie Gelb, a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, who described the speech as "almost in la-la land."
"It is unsupported generalizations and predictions that he would have scoffed at as the old John McCain," Gelb said.
Some blog conservatives are wondering where the panders to their side were in the speech. Says Reverse Vampyr:
Personally, I’m still waiting for him to “reach across the aisle” to conservatives!
The man who tells many wingers precisely what to think, Rush Limbaugh, had this to say on his show yesterday about the motives behind McCain's Columbus dreaming:
I think Senator McCain's going to have trouble defining who he is because he's trying to become all things to most people. He doesn't really have a consistent worldview.
He doesn't have a reasoned approach to governance, which is why he can reject national health care but embrace global warming -- and while embracing global warming, talk about ending earmarks and having tax cuts and getting rid of Big Government. "Yep, we gotta get rid of Big Government," then we're going to do the global warming plan, which is one of the fastest, surest ways to government growth to come down the pike in a while. I don't think he expects to have any coattails, either. He's not seeking to have any coattails. He's out there running on his own. The New York Times today says that McCain's guy is going to run against Bush, is going to run against Congress. Running as a maverick, running as an independent, not running as the head of a team. His entire strategy is make sure the quarterback gets protected. The rest of you guys can blow out your ACLs, but you gotta protect the quarterback.
<%
dim done
done = request.form("done")
if done = "" then
done = "No"
%>
Tell a friend
<%
Else
if request.form("done") = "Yes" then
'sets variables
dim email, sendmail
email = request.form("email")
Set sendmail = Server.CreateObject("CDONTS.NewMail")
'put the webmaster address here
sendmail.From = "webmaster@aspbasics.com"
'The mail is sent to the address entered in the previous page.
sendmail.To = email
'Enter the subject of your mail here
sendmail.Subject = "Check out this website"
'send a specific page or send a site url
dim url
'url = Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
url = "http://www.aspbasics.net"
'This is the content of the message.
sendmail.Body = "Site recommendation from a friend!" & _
vbCrlf & vbCrlf & "A friend has sent you this email and thought you would should check out this site." & _
vbCrlf & url & vbCrlf
'this sets mail priority.... 0=low 1=normal 2=high
sendmail.Importance = 1
sendmail.Send 'Send the email!
response.redirect Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")
'Response.write ("Sent to ") & email
End if
End if
%>
"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
