In the Year 2013
May 15th, 2008 at 09:01am Matt DiBari
The video can be found here.
The ad feels like the a preview for something, and as it turns out, it probably is.
John McCain, looking through a crystal ball to 2013 and the end of a prospective first term, sees “spasmodic” but reduced violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden dead or captured and government spending curbed by his ready veto pen.
The Republican presidential contender also envisions April’s annual angst replaced by a simpler flat tax, illegal immigrants living humanely under a temporary worker program, and political partisanship stemmed by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.
In a speech being delivered Thursday, McCain concedes he cannot make the changes alone, but he wants to outline a specific governing style to show the accomplishments it can achieve.
In outlining potential achievements of a first term, the 71-year-old McCain implicitly was suggesting he would seek a second term, an attempt to mute suggestions he would serve only four years after being the oldest president ever to take office for a first term.
In particular, he sees a world in which:
- “The Iraq war has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension. Violence still occurs, but it is spasmodic and much reduced.”
- The Taliban threat in Afghanistan has been greatly reduced.
- “The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants,” McCain said. “There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.”
- A “League of Democracies” has supplanted a failed United Nations to apply sanctions to the Sudanese government and halt genocide in Darfur.
- The United States has had “several years of robust growth,” appropriations bills free of lawmakers’ pet projects known as “earmarks,” public education improved by charter schools, health care improved by expansion of the private market and an energy crisis stemmed through the start of construction on 20 new nuclear reactors.
- Democrats are asked to serve in his administration, he holds weekly news conferences and, like the British prime minister, answers questions publicly from lawmakers.
McCain also pledges to halt a Bush administration practice of enacting laws with accompanying signing statements that exempt the president from having to enforce parts he finds objectionable.
“I will respect the responsibilities the Constitution and the American people have granted Congress,” the senator said, “and will, as I often have in the past, work with anyone of either party to get things done for our country.”
The policy to appear in front of and answer questions from lawmakers is particularly interesting. As Ed Morrissey notes, Senator McCain excels in a townhall style format, and appearing before a joint session of Congress and answering questions from Democratic law makers will help to show the American public that he is more bipartisan than Senator Obama pretends to be.
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5 Comments Add your own
1. Joe | May 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Good for him.
political partisanship stemmed by weekly news conferences and British-style question periods with joint meetings of Congress.
— That sounds encouraging and I suggest whoever is the Prez should do that. It shouldn’t be a novel idea.
Good for him again…
McCain also pledges to halt a Bush administration practice of enacting laws with accompanying signing statements that exempt the president from having to enforce parts he finds objectionable.
— This Bush tactic is disgusting and should be held accountable for this practice.
A “League of Democracies” has supplanted a failed United Nations
— This again comes down to… “Let’s play with those like us and ignore the rest of the world.” So would Saudi Arabia be allowed to play in this “League of Democracies”?
- “The increase in actionable intelligence that the counterinsurgency produced led to the capture or death of Osama bin Laden, and his chief lieutenants,” McCain said. “There still has not been a major terrorist attack in the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.”
— When Dems bring up the fact that Bin Laden is still alive 7yrs after 9/11, we are told… “Killing Bin Laden won’t make terrorism go away”. Yet when a Repub brings it up, then it is important? Hey, we should have been concentrating on Bin Laden instead of going into Iraq. Good for him for returning to where we were 7 years ago.
Also, the comment of no terrorist attacks having occurred since 9/11 is kind of silly and is a White House talking point.
All in all, good thoughts for his first term.
Then again…… who really envisions bad things in their first term?
What is he going to say? Iraq will still be a disaster, the economy will still be in the crapper and Bin Laden will still be alive and free?
2. Matt DiBari | May 15th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I think you can argue that Mondale envisioned some bad things in his first term…
I personally was never of the mindset that killing bin Laden was meaningless. I think there’s plenty to be done after that, but I always thought bin Laden should be a top priority.
As for the League of Democracies, well, now neither candidate wants to have playdates with dictators, so you might be a bit SOL on that one.
3. Joe | May 15th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Matt,
I can tell you that over at Blogs for Victory, they fully supported Bush saying that Bin Laden just wasn’t important. Good for you for saying what Dems have been saying all along. We took our eye off the ball in 2003. There is no denying that.
Seriously tho… would Saudi Arabia be allowed to play in this League of Democracies? Or is the plan to allow those non-Democracies who we like to join, but the non-Democracies that we don’t like can go take a leap?
4. Matt DiBari | May 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I’d argue that we made the mistake in 2001 when we were too reliant and overly trusting of the Northern Alliance as the ground forces. The real time to capture or kill bin Laden was in the initial success of Afghanistan, even before the Iraq war.
But what’s done is done, and that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still chase this man to the gates of hell.
5. KMorrison | May 15th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
I agree that Bin Laden is important. He’s still sending out videos that direct his followers and that shouldn’t be ignored regardless of the politics of it.
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