Congratulations are in order to John McCain, who finally found an issue he
probably won't have to flip-flop on for weeks. At yesterday's Little Havana
gathering of the veterans of the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, McCain boldly
came out against socialism, yes the Red Menace itself, and 24 hours later
he's still not looking back.
As an AP report of the event notes, "McCain carefully avoided criticism of
President Bush but said the Iraq war 'has diverted attention from our
hemisphere and we have paid a penalty for that' in the form of a growing
leftism embodied by leaders Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales in
Bolivia.'
And McCain may be onto something, since as of last November, the Iraq war
certainly inspired a shift to the left in this country. Considering the
rough time of it McCain and the Bay vets had from the Menace in its prime,
McCain looks believable for the first time in this campaign. It's not like
his change of mind on that South Carolina Confederate Flag in 2000, his
reversal on the GOP's evangelical base, his apparent confusion on who to
blame for the blunderings of the Iraq War, or his muddled views on gay
marriage. McCain should probably have suggested a Don't Ask, Don't Tell
policy for couples considering marriage, but too late now.
To sell it, McCain will have to inflate the menace of Castro, Morales, and
Chavez. Unfortunately, none of them have WMDs, real or imagined. The
rantings of Hugo Chavez put him somewhere between the Nikita Khrushchev and
Carlos Mencia of dictators. Evo Morales rules Bolivia, a nation no one is
afraid of, except coke dealers behind on their payments. That leaves
Castro, in his red, white, and blue running suit, looking like the only way
he'll be spreading socialism will be with the aid of a walker. It's too bad
the GOP didn't have time in its majority rule of Congress to get something
done on immigration, since the only spread of leftism that's a real problem
today is the flood of socialism's former citizens coming here.