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POLITICS-US: The King Is Dead. Long Live McCain?

Ali Gharib

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 2008 (IPS) - At the end of last summer, Sen. John McCain&#39s bid for the Republican nomination for president was running on fumes. Broke and dejected, McCain was polling below New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and senator-turned-actor-turned-candidate Fred Thompson.

But after capturing New Hampshire in early January and dispatching Giuliani and Thompson by the end of the month with one second-place finish between them, the McCain campaign carried the momentum through the Feb. 5 "national primary" to emerge with the lead in both convention delegates and states won.

Then on Thursday, at the nation&#39s influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), former Gov. Mitt Romney, McCain&#39s remaining serious challenger, dropped out of the race, declaring, "Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Thus McCain became the presumed Republican nominee to be the United States&#39 next "war president".

McCain hopes to follow in the footsteps of Pres. Ronald Reagan as the oldest U.S. president to take office – edging out Reagan by three years at age 72 – and the only other divorcee.

But he has campaigned less on those hopes than those of continuing the foreign policy of Pres. George W. Bush.


Though McCain claims that a wide array of advisors – including realist former National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft – has his ear, much of his rhetoric and record on the Iraq war and the "global war on terror" have a neo-conservative bent.

"I don&#39t think, given where John has been for the last four or five years on the Iraq war and foreign policy issues, anyone would mistake Scowcroft for a close adviser," one of McCain&#39s closest foreign policy advisors, Randy Scheunemann, told the New York Sun in 2006.

Scheunemann, president of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq – a non-governmental organisation formed by the central neo-conservative think-tank Project for the New American Century to drum up support for an invasion of Iraq – also serves on the board of the International Republican Institute (IRI) of which McCain has been the chairman since 1993.

IRI&#39s mission statement reads like a précis of Bush&#39s failed "Freedom Agenda" and critics have accused the institute of meddling improperly in other countries&#39 affairs – including the 2004 Haitian coup d&#39etat to overthrow the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide in which documents reveal that IRI gave support to a pro-coup opposition faction.

As Romney&#39s CPAC speech acknowledged, McCain, informed by a 23-year career in the Navy – five of which he spent as a prisoner of war and torture victim during the Vietnam War – and a neo-con world-view, has presented himself as a militaristic national security candidate who can best keep the nation safe from "radical Islamic extremists".

Despite his public criticisms of how the Iraq war was handled and tepid questioning of the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. there, McCain has remained a hawk on the conflict throughout. He essentially staked his candidacy on the "surge" escalation, and has benefited from its relative success.

"Make it a hundred," McCain told a questioner on the stump when asked about the potential for a 50-year occupation of Iraq. "That would be fine with me."

On Iran, McCain is equally hawkish. When asked about the Islamic Republic at a campaign stop last April, he jokingly sang the words "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys hit "Barbara Ann".

"He&#39s seeing the inevitability of war and conflict with Iran," said Steve Clemons head of the American Strategy Programme at the Washington think-tank New America Foundation. "He&#39s been incredibly reckless when it comes to war and deploying the military power of the United States in various issues."

Other critics have raised similar concerns, often alluding to McCain&#39s short fuse. Once on the floor of the Senate, McCain told Sen. Ted Kennedy to "shut up", and at a meeting in 1992 called fellow Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley a "f**king jerk" in a confrontation that another senator present thought was on the verge of turning physical.

When instances of prisoner abuse and torture began to surface in the war on terror, McCain seemed to take the issue personally and quickly criticised the Bush administration. But when the Supreme Court rejected the Bush plan for detention, interrogation, and secret trials for terrorism suspects, McCain rolled over under pressure from the right and supported the policies – even condoning the suspension of habeas corpus.

McCain&#39s re-emergence as a national frontrunner for the Republican ticket, however, still has its internal problems – most notably the resistance of hard-line conservatives against his nomination being led by radio-host Rush Limbaugh and Religious Right icon James Dobson in objection to McCain&#39s wavering from some conservative principles such as his opposition to an amendment to the constitution that would ban same-sex marriages.

In 2000, McCain referred to Religious Right leaders as "agents of intolerance," only later – in anticipation of his presidential run – to deliver the 2006 commencement address at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell&#39s Liberty University in an effort to smooth over tensions with the powerful Republican Evangelical voting bloc.

But just as McCain&#39s own party&#39s base is rattled by his ascent, so, too, are his Democratic counterparts. Many of the liberal party&#39s establishment views the McCain candidacy as the biggest threat in the general election.

"I was in these circles in 2006 with leading Democratic honchos who were scared of a McCain candidacy at that point," said Clemons. "I think they were relieved when they saw McCain&#39s campaign explode, and I think they&#39ve been very disheartened to see him bring it back to such life."

McCain poses such a grave threat to the Democrats because in a general election, his maverick status is attractive to independent voters – a group that now outnumbers either Democrats or Republicans – as well as moderates from both parties.

McCain&#39s reputation as that rare quantity – the independent-minded politician – comes from a prolific 20-year Senate career where he has not been afraid to break with party ranks.

Indeed, McCain has straddled the aisle on issues ranging from climate change to corruption. He supports stem cell research, has a pro-Hispanic immigrant stance, and has pushed improvements in broadband technology.

McCain has benefited greatly from the attention of the media generated by his positions – even joking himself that the media is his base. But critics from the left often assail him as being simply that; a maverick only as created by the media.

One of McCain&#39s hallmark achievements of conciliatory politics attacked by the right is his co-sponsoring of campaign finance reform legislation with progressive Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold. But hardly a far-left wing position, the anti-corruption measure passed a Republican congress and was, albeit reluctantly, signed into law by Bush.

Furthermore, McCain&#39s involvement in the McCain-Feingold Act is viewed by some as a mea culpa of sorts for his entanglement in the Savings and Loan scandals of the late 1980&#39s and early 1990&#39s.

As savings and loan institutions collapsed from poor investing made after deregulation of the industry, McCain and four other senators – known as the Keating Five – were investigated by the Senate Ethics Committee for interfering improperly with the industry&#39s regulatory body.

It was revealed that the five senators had received a total of 1.3 million dollars from Charles Keating, Jr. – the chairman of one of the institutions in question. The Ethics Committee criticised McCain for "questionable conduct".

Though McCain&#39s reputation as a maverick precedes him everywhere he goes, it remains to be seen if this narrative will be preserved through what is sure to be a long and hard-fought general election.

 
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