Kristol: McCain's Biography Can't Win Him The Election

New York Times:

The McCain campaign's first general election ad, released Friday, includes moving footage of him as a prisoner of war. What was Democratic Chairman Howard Dean's reaction? "While we honor McCain's military service, the fact is Americans want a real leader who offers real solutions, not a blatant opportunist who doesn't understand the economy and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years."

Most Americans want to be told we can leave Iraq sooner rather than later. McCain has chosen instead to tell Americans the hard and unpopular truths that we'll be there for a while, and that there's no sacrifice-free path to defeating our enemies and securing a lasting peace. This is "blatant opportunism"?

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[BlueInARedState]

Isn't Bill Kristol gone yet?

[mamacat]

The title of Kristol's article is accureate. Sen. McCain's biography should not win him the presidency, because his biography shows that he is not the most competent for the job.
General Grant and General Eisenhower were elected to the presidency based on their earned laurels as military leaders. They were earnest presidents, if not always the best that one might have hoped for. Sen. McCain is a war hero, but he was certainly not a war leader in the sense of either Generals Grant or Eisenhower. Someone who brilliantly commands millions of soldiers might be expected to be an adequate leader in both peacetime and wartime. Someone whose distinctions in war were more on the personal level has done less to show his preparedness to be a commander in chief.

Sen. McCain has successfully demonstrated to at least me that he never learned any of the broad lessons of the Vietnam war fiasco, and he appears quite intent on continueing the same mistakes that caused so much death and suffering 40 years ago.

[MizLiz]

A thoughtful analysis.

[BlueInARedState]

Absolutely. Someone should pass this post on to Howard Dean and the Dem candidates.

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

Time to do some ACID B.K.; your mind is all Jacked-UP

[indie17]

Does Kristol wear makeup?

[AxelDC]

McCain's biography is self-negating. He was a war hero, but then he came out and became a serial adulterer. Her married his mistress, which disaffected his children.

He was a member of the Keating 5, and wrote the most short-sighted campaign finance laws. They are so bad that he as a candidate is violating them today.

He won the attention of many moderates and independents by challenging Bush, and now he is fully embracing Bush as Bush's sunsets into political oblivion with a 29% approval rating.

He claims several decades in Washington, but he has blundered basic foreign and domestic policy issues the last couple of weeks. He is running on Iraq, but expressed "surprise" at the new level of violence and can't tell the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni, and between an Iranian and Al Qaeda.

His economic plan is just Bush's Voodooeconomics on steroids. When pressed on how to pay his tax cuts for corporations, he cites "cutting Medicare" as a viable option, as if he can slow the aging process and reduce health care costs without cutting people off.

McCain's day was 2000. He failed to maintain his stamina and integrity under Bush, so now he is a compromised, tired figure. Once the real campaign begins, post-conventions, he will fare very poorly against a younger, more intelligent candidate in Obama.

[DanaGarrett]

The truly scary part about Kristol's declaration that McCain can't win by using his biography is that if Kristol's history of making inaccurate predictions continues in pace, then just the opposite is likely to happen.

The man who told us Iraq was swimming with WMD, just told us that McCain can't win on his biography. What horrors! I'm now wondering for the first time if McCain really could win this election.

[PioneerKing]

McCain's military service and time as a prisoner of war may be more impressive than Clinton's or Obama's but McCain is not the only vet to have survived the tortures of a Vietnamese prison. All of our Vets are to be lauded.
McCain has been given a free pass by the media and his friendship with journalists has allowed him to be portrayed more favorably than the reality of his mien and manor.
What is clearly up for debate is what McCain has done since his return from Vietnam? Most notably, his decision to vote for YEA for the Iraq war, his recent comments about being surprised about the chaos that has erupted in Iraq and his plan for dis-engaging in Iraq.
Actually, McCain is the candidate who has been the least intensively vetted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amb-marc-ginsberg/big-macs-blazing-saddle-_b_93643.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/iraq-more-proof-that-the_b_94264.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-brock-and-paul-waldman/excerpt-from-free-ride_b_93576.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christy-hardin-smith/mccains-cronies-meet-c_b_94196.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/campaign-to-beat-mccain_b_94305.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-green/7-days-its-not-m_b_94113.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/closing-the-message-gap-o_b_94074.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/where-did-mccain-get-what_b_93711.html

[MizLiz]

Okay, okay, he had a really bad stay at the Hanoi Hilton. That was a long time ago, and quite frankly, I'm tired of hearing about it like it's some sort of qualification for the presidency. that it somehow gives him the right to the presidency.

All this from a guy who graduated fourth from the bottom of his class...so­rt of like his predecesso­r....MUST we have a dummy in the White House? I don't see why. I want the guy to be way smarter than me. I also don't see what makes him such a wonderful guy...don'­t forget, when he came home and saw his wife had been ill and gotten fat, he promptly started an affair with a blonde beer heiress and rode off into the sunset, destined for Greater Things.

He doesn't impress me one iota.

[Toonadude]

Many Americans appear to prefer an affable dumb ass in the Whitehouse.

[Shozen]

Ironically, it took reading a NeoCon claptrap article from Krystol to make me realized that if McCain wins the Presidency, the song "God Bless America" had better be changed to "God Help America!"

McCain.... Bridge builder to the Ninteenth Century

[Doofus]

"...a blatant opportunist who doesn't understand the economy
and is promising to keep our troops in Iraq for 100 years." - Howard Dean

That would be the Blatant Opportunism of a white male Repo running against a Demo who ain't.

In a more perfect world, both parties will be required to nominate candidates of the same race,
& gender. And AGE, to give the Demos their due. Could it be this is how Ralph Nader (or Ted
Kennedy) will take some back-door route to gain the nomination?

[MajorKong]

In a just world, Bill Kristol would be spending the rest of his life changing bedpans at Walter Reed.

[VOTER]

If only......­..........­......

[Davwbaird]

ah men to that and bush in jail.

[Independent voter]

Wow - for once I agree with Kristol.

I can't iamgine that horror that McCain went through as a POW, but this guy has made a career out of it. It takes more than getting shot down 40+ years ago to qualify for POTUS.

[ImmanuelGoldstein]

Honestly why is anybody paying any attention to "Wrong-way" Kristol anyway? Can someone point me to something this man has gotten right in the last decade?

[outnow]

So if getting tortured is your best item on you Curriculum Vitae, then some of the innocent prisoners in Gitmo have good resumes. Glorifying war is not what should be on a candidate's Resume'. Three generations of military men in a family. So what? General U. S. Grant was a good president because he fought in the Civil War but by his second term his administration was so corrupt that he was unable to accomplish anything.

Old soldiers are not necessarily good chief executive officers. Certainly, Bush, who claims that he will be seen as a great president had no combat experience.

I want current experience that is relevant in managing our economy for the benefit of the middle class, not experience in ill-conceived wars of long ago such as Vietnam where the United States pursued a campaign of using Agent Orange, a toxic anti -defoliant, and Napalm and where the US conducted Mai Lai-style massacres, a common occurrence, according to recently released government documents - rural "pinkos" could be killed.

McCain thinks that Ronald Raygun and Barry Goldwater were heroes. He believes that he was a hero because he flew bombing missions. Funny thing that many of the WW II veterans didn't feel so good about their bombing missions, and they fought in just wars. I have relatives who fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and WW II and Korea and Vietnam - So?

[livesimply]

LMAO! You tell 'im, Bill. McCain and economic policies? This I want to see!