John McCain

No surrender

The gnarled maverick outpolls his party and might even beat Barack Obama. But what sort of president would he be?

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Readers' comments



McCain will make a fiercely bipartisan President,as his track record suggests that he is an independent thinker.His main strenght is 'what you see is what you get'.More importantly he is a 'statesman' and not a mere 'pol'.
Obama is an unknown and untested commodity and will make a Partisan President keeping in line with the Democratic Party.It is one thing to give fancy speeches laced with idealism and quite another thing to lead from the front in such testing times for a post Bush America.
The contrast between the candidates could not be more stark.On the one hand a battle tested and experienced McCain and on the other an inexperienced,hopeful and idealist Obama.
The choice of the titles of their autobiography say it all.For McCain'Faith of my Fathers' and for Obama 'The Audacity of Hope',the difference between a realist and an idealist.
The hype/hope surrounding the young Obama in the Democratic Party is reminescent of that surrounding Candidate Carter.We all know how that Presidency fared.The spirit surrounding the old McCain is reminescent of Candidate Reagan and we know how that Presidency is looked back at.
Come November when push comes to shove the American electorate will go for a safe and known pair of hands.


Well.. LaMurzik, I can only go by what he has SAID, which is most *definitely* anti-business. Now, if you are suggesting that he will not DO as he said... from your mouth to Senator Obama's ear! I'm all for flip-flopping in this case ;-)


"as popular as a scorpion in a tub of popcorn" is the funniest piece of imagery I've read this month! Well done Economist!


We should pay prison guards upwards of 6 figures with barely a high school education to walk around with sticks and guns, for the hazards of the job. What of our military then?

And as for the social worker's, here are people who are attempting to keep mentally-ill individuals under control, take children away from abusive households and other such tasks. Many of them are educated at the master's level. So pray tell, where should our money be going here? The guards have a union, the social workers do not. The ridiculous wages and benefits the guards receive are a result of that, not the true job requirements.


To VK1961
Obama has an anti-business bias? As I write this the democrates at the convention are being wined,dined and bought off by the big corporate lobbiests in Denver. An ABC reporter was arrested yesterday for having the audacity to film this. Don't worry about Barak. I sure he has "safe hands". If not, he finish like JFK.


The lofty eloquence with which you refer to the maverick streak of one John McCain should be text from a eulogy. The maverick is pretty much dead and hasn't been seen on the campaign trail since the primary against ole Bushie. Unless you are referring to his recent call to kick Russia out of the G8 - how "maverick" of him.

John McCain has many endearing qualities, his easy rapport and not nearly elite intelligence makes him likeable. He can brush a tough question off with a practiced smile and a guffaw about fast food. But that is what got the world world in the shit it is in today - the old easy-going playfulness about Bush probably encouraged many to vote for the class clown instead of a legitimate candidate... are you really gonna do that again?

Here we have a candidate who hands are bloody as hell for all the atrocities in Iraq - yeah you're all tired of the Iraq gambit, but everytime I think about the hypocrisy and deceipt from that invasion I get angry all over again - this McCain dude would do it all over again (apparently he could have managed it better) and this raises a plethora of questions about his judgement. at the moment, the only respect he seems to springboard off is the torture he received in Vietnam - when the US invaded that country - no, not when Vietnam invaded the US, that was another war. I'm sorry guys - the whole war thing gets my goat.

Credibilty cannot be achieved through longevity, or time on the job, credibility should be about the choices you will make... McCain's maverick legacy is just about erased with his tactics during this campaign, he's shuffling his arse all over the US - confident that the only chance he has is that these dummy Democrats 'actually put a black man up against me'...

I'm sure the McCain team believes they don't really have to do much to maintain the polling numbers, why, because they, and all the rest of America knows that those polls are not reflective of legitimate comparison of the two candidates - but solely about the fact that - well - the other dude is a brother.

Honestly, I don't think the measure of a leader should rest on ability to stand firm unmder torture - not should it be based on this maverick concept from the past - but do we really honestly believe that these Rove/Cheney policies of the last 8 years did any good at all for the US? Would you really sell your souls all over again for the president who would immediately fancy himself a good shoot-out to wrap up his career. come one... stop the idiot logic.


Please forgive the sequel, on the Fallacy of Equality:

Years ago, Senator Obama co-sponsored the Harkin-Obama bill on the wage-equality between men and women.

Now... ANY decent person must agree that men and women should be paid the same-- for the same JOB. As husband of a successful, professional woman, I'd be the first one to insist she get paid equally as her male colleagues.

But Messrs. Harkin and Obama targeted state employees, namely social workers (mostly women) vs prison guards (mostly men).

Hmm... If you want me to help people in need who want to get back on their feet, you've got to pay me something for my work, my time, plus for the psychology degree I probably needed to get the gig; if, however, you want me to watch after the scum of the earth, all the lifers at the State Penitentiary, whose only aspiration is to gouge out my eyes with a sharpened toothbrush, or strangle me with their shoelaces the first chance I give them, well... you'll have to pay me MUCH more. The truth of this should be rather intuitive, rudimentary.

Thus my conclusion: beware of ALL talk of equality. More often than not, it does more harm than good. By said unintended consequences, it does a LOT of harm.

The above proposal was (mercifully) dead-on-arrival. His mind clouded with such egalitarian biases, however, Senator Obama is a terrifying piece of work...



In Italy both candidates would be far leftist! No one who wants to stop wild immigration (we will soon take digital fingerprints to everyone), no one who wants to ban abortion (=homicide!), no one who loves civil nuclear power, no one who wants to privatise public schools, no one who wants to curb public fiscal recklessness and cut federal debt...

I used to complain that powerful Italian Communist Party and the like were too strong (10% or more, before last elections), but I realize that even the conservative US have veered to the left!

Happy birthday to Mr McCain, the less communist dude! And go, go, go!


Well, John McCain is probably my biggest political disappointment this year. He appeared to be so promisingly rational and pragmatic before he got the nomination. And now he's running a Karl Rove-style campaign, presenting himself as the tough guy who won't hesitate to bomb out the enemy wherever he assumes it, a warmonger with this incredibly ignorant good/evil ideology, and a bootlicker of the rich and social conservative. Just the kind of guy the average TV-brainwashed american likes.
Do you think McCain is going to change once in office?

I sure hope so...

pursuer of happiness


While The Economist sees this as a sign of 'moderation', others may consider it evidence of hypocrisy.


Hello, Heimdall.

Please not that I did not speak of *large* corporations specifically; thus I trust that we are in agreement with my comment that corporations in GENERAL do as I wrote. The 52% you mention is true, but of course INCLUDED in the majority I referred to.

If I am allowed a non-malicious outburst... to HELL with "distribution"! Why should I care? Why should ANYone care? Your thinking --brilliant, otherwise-- seems morbidly fixated on some Gini curve (better put: Gini *coefficient*, *Lorenz* curve). Why?

It is ABSOLUTE, not RELATIVE wealth that matters; the crux of the matter is CREATION, not DISTRIBUTION of wealth. This is not "trickle-down" economics, which is a "vertical" idea; I am speaking of "horizontal", "lateral" causes and effects.

Thus your belief that

"Obama's plans might upgrade the bottom 90% to TV dinners without seriously effecting the quality of fare for the top 10%. McCain's plans would upgrade the top 10% while leaving the rest of us Wonder Bread..."

doesn't hold water, I'm afraid. Senator Obama's anti-business bias might cause the bottom 90% (at least some of them) to lose their jobs altogether-- NO Wonder Bread on their table at all. Again, by the Principle of Unintended Consequences, making *efficient* companies less *profitable*, as Senator Obama proposes to do, will hurt the very people you (and he) care the most for.

That said, Senator McCain's unduly regressive bonus to the top 10% is fiscally irresponsible and, in the unlikely event he is elected, I hope that the (Democratic) Congress nixes it, or at least puts it into deep freeze. I agree with you wholeheartedly that some fiscal prudence is BADLY in order after the "deficits-don't-matter" madness of recent years.


zuwadza, pray tell, where are the errors and biases? As an outsider I can't see them. Please elucidate your issues.


Juan A. Hervada - you shouldn't be that surprised, if you understood just how much we-who-believe-that-government-should-be-a-force-for-good have suffered while Bush and the Republican congress destroyed so much of our great country with their neo-con ideological stupidity.

As a consequence anyone who voted for George W. Bush is assumed to be totally lacking in the ability to judge character. Why? Because Bush's character-flaws were blatantly obvious to anyone who was not blinded by their Republican Party affiliation.

That's a fair comment, not so?


VK1961,An unsurprising quibble from the Bifrost Bridge:You say re large corporations: "they create more JOBS than any other component of our economy"According to the SBA, the majority of jobs (52%) are in small businesses, not large corporations.And while it's true that a majority of citizens have some skin in the financial game, it is critical that we understand the distribution of the wealth (e.g., stocks, bonds, etc.), for example: Bill Gates owns approximately the same wealth as the bottom 40% of citizens.Or to look at the top 1%: they own approximately 1/2 of all non-home assets. The top 10% own approximately 85% of all financial assets.In essence, the "hand that feeds us" is feeding us bread and water whilst feasting on caviar and champagne. Obama's plans might upgrade the bottom 90% to TV dinners without seriously effecting the quality of fare for the top 10%. McCain's plans would upgrade the top 10% while leaving the rest of us Wonder Bread...


I love the Economist, but its pretty clear whom those in charge would prefer to win. I personally think that a good President of a powerful nation should respect other nations despite our and their differences. This can be done while remaining the most powerful nation in the world, be being as we naturally are, extremely competitive, i.e. we want to win. Its the shallow mindset that McCain brings that so many Americans embrace that scares me. Its a combination of religious superiority, ethnocentrism, and a general sense that we as Americans are better people then the people that inhabit yours or other nations. We cannot afford to elect someone with this attitude towards the world, Bush had the same attitude in spades. What made America great that we have lost is the respect we fostered around the world while also dominating its affairs, because we respected our competitors for differences in their beliefs and policies. We can diplomatically encourage through negotiation/diplomacy that tyrants and dictators see the value of democracy, but that should be the extent of our action. McCain offers little this understanding and I'm scared.

Dirty Water

"It is hard to name another politician who is such a mediocre public speaker, and yet so effective." Tom "Mumbles" Menino, Mayor of Boston MA, USA.


The media tends to present the two candidates as being diametrically opposed yet one cannot deny that the two share a lot in common. The two conventions will set the pace of both campaigns as they highlight their corresponding partners and the latter bring to the table. Furthermore, it is equally crucial to bar in mind that populism is the stuff politicians are made of as they attempt to endear themselves with independents and disenchanted counterparts. Trade remains a thorny issues and both will strive to present radically different policies to address the country's decline.I'm sure that stories of Both McCain and Obama's past will surface....each one trying to embellish or dismiss past misgivings or accomplishments.Although it is a close call, the election is Democrats to lose...Obama's slide in recent polls (see Reuter's poll) is down to dithering and flip-flopping. Two months is an eternity in politics and anything can happen to swing the White House either way


It's pretty clear that Frankinaeus blames his doubtlessly numerous failures on affirmative action. To think that what is perhaps the most competitive and prestigious law school would risk its reputation by taking in subpar-but-minority students is laughable.It's like he took Obama's description right out of


I contributed money to McCain's Presidential campaign in 2000 and have admired him for years. Since then, I've seen him embrace people (Bush, Falwell, Romney, etc.) that he formerly despised, adopt gutter tactics (as practiced by Karl Rove, Bud Day, Rick Davis, etc.) that he once denounced, and reverse positions that he once espoused (on abortion exceptions, immigration, etc.), all in the name of winning.

It seems clear now that a McCain Administration will be Bush Term III, which is not that gets me very excited about supporting him this time around. I miss the old McCain and now am not sure which was the real one.

Setting that aside, I still can't get over the acknowledged fact that he called his wife a trollop and a "c--t" in front of reporters and aides, which I only learned of recently. I have trouble voting for someone who publicly humiliates his wife (or any woman) in that way.


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