As I've been saying here, if I vote McCain this fall, as seems likely to me right now (check back in a couple of weeks), it will strictly be a vote against Obama and having one-party rule from both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. But Daniel Larison gets exactly to the point about why a McCain vote is such a nauseating prospect:
Conceivably, a different Democratic nominee might be doing slightly better, and I am still convinced that nominating Obama was a blunder on the Democrats' part for which we will all end up paying, but the disconcerting thing to realize is that even after eight years filled with illegal warfare, rampant criminality, the authorization of torture and numerous executive abuses of power the nominee of the party primarily responsible for all of this will probably still pull in 47-48% of the vote and maybe more. Since most of the worst abuses were in the executive, the enduring strength of the Republican presidential coalition is particularly disturbing, since the people who have been held accountable for the administration's wrongdoing have largely been merely the President's lackeys and enablers in Congress rather than the authors of these policies. In November we seem poised to throw out more of the lackeys from their relatively powerless perches in Congress. Meanwhile, we may end up potentially rewarding one of the biggest enablers of the crimes of this administration with the executive power whose abuse he did little or nothing to challenge.
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I humbly admit that I resemble Richard's opening comment, and I must restate my position thusly:
Logic stage 1: I cannot agree that a McCain presidency will be beneficial on balance, so I cast my vote for Obama to vote against McCain.
Logic stage 2: There is no other candidate I can possibly vote for, in any other party or as a write-in, so in this sense I choose to vote for Obama.
It is my serious intention to quietly laud Obama for his good works, and loudly criticize him for his mistakes, should he be elected. That is the price of my vote.
I think that the age of the candidate has to be a crucial factor in this election. We're facing so many problems from so many different directions (two wars, crippling debt, a possible financial meltdown, accelerating climate change, economic upheaval if people choose to walk away from their bloated mortgages, and other pressing issues I'm forgetting), that the President will have to be someone capable of putting out several fires at once. McCain's admission that he isn't very knowledgeable about the economy already disqualifies him, to my mind.
An Obama presidency may not make conservatives happy, but he is the more promising candidate to lead the country through an especially difficult period in our history. In such times, a flexible temperament and a capacity to inspire are the most necessary qualities. To be a successful President in the next few years, he must be engaged in fighting against the powerful forces that resist necessity and believe that the status quo can somehow be maintained. He will have to contend with these forces not only in the opposing party but also within his own. I think that Obama will be more capable of resisting the entrenched segments of the Left (which are always easy for mainstream liberal politicians to resist - Jessie Jackson already did him a favor) than McCain will be in resisting the entrenched interests of the Right and big business. McCain, it seems, will try to be both TR and Reagan, a balancing act certain to invite disaster, and possibly fall woefully short of even W, who has shown that he is capable of learning from experience. In other words, McCain faces the bigger fight when it comes to pursuing a pragmatic policy, and as someone who is nearing is 80s, has less fuel in the tank for succeeding in such struggles.
If the prospect of voting for McCain before his campaign geared up wasn't nauseating, it certainly is now he has adopted the Bush/Rove "ignorance is strength" position.
Political Atheist:
Would you say the same thing if the Obama-style candidate was a Republican and the McCain-style candidate was a Democrat? Would you vote for the younger and more charismatic of the two?
David WL
It it tedious to have to go through this on whatever forum it pops up. There is nothing illegal about the war in Iraq. You & Larison might believe it does not meet the standards for a just war, but that is a fundamentally different issue from legality.
Dude, I don't think anyone's saying it's not legally a war. They're saying that, under international law, it was an illegal invasion. You're not allowed to invade countries that have not attacked you.(1) Nor are you allowed to invade countries because you claim they're violating UN resolutions.
Having Congress actually declare war wouldn't have made that legal.
1) All you 'bomb Iran' supporters take note.
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