The Empty Campaign of John McCain

About a year ago, I had a memorable chat with a high-ranking Republican operative. The presidential primaries were revving up, and he asked me which Republican candidate I feared the most. Without hesitating, I answered McCain.

My rationale was simple. While he was increasingly out-of-step with the public on the war, so were all the other Republican candidates. But unlike them, McCain had repeatedly stood up to his party on matters economic, especially the Bush tax cuts, and he did so with resonant language.

In 2001, when the richest one percent of households held 18% of all income, he said he could not "in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us, at the expense of middle-class Americans."

In 2003, when we had gone through a recession, were waging an expensive war, and the federal budget had flipped from surplus to deficit, he voted against another round of tax cuts for the wealthiest, this time arguing that "At a time of war, at a time of economic stagnation, at a time of rising national debt...one might expect our national leaders to pursue policies calling for shared sacrifice to achieve shared benefits. Regrettably, that is not the case."

The most recent data show that in 2006, 23% of all income is held by the richest 1%, the highest level on record but for one year: 1928. Spending on the war has not abated, and the budget deficit is on the rise. Middle-class Americans, who allegedly weighed so heavily on McCain's conscience circa 2001, are much more squeezed now than they were then.

The economy is surely in recession. Financial markets are deeply screwed up, and on Friday we learned that the job market contracted by another 159,000 last month, the ninth month of consecutive job losses.

In other words, if the Bush tax cuts didn't make sense in 2001 and 2003, they make a whole lot less sense now.

Yet McCain doesn't merely want to extend these cuts forever. He wants to expand them dramatically, by cutting the corporate tax rate by about a third, at the cost of $735 billion over 10 years, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center (TPC). As Biden effectively emphasized in last week's debate, that move delivers $4 billion in annual tax cuts to the Exxon-Mobil's of the world.

What happened? How does McCain's erstwhile good conscience countenance this policy? The answer, or at least the spin, was revealed to me a few weeks ago in a debate I had with his top economist, Doug Holtz-Eakin. When I pointed out that these cuts do nothing to help the middle class, while needlessly raining more wealth on the "haves," Doug disagreed. Based on the fairy dust of supply-side, trickle-down economics, he asserted that these cuts would lead to more jobs and income for middle-class families. Contrary to McCain's position a few years back, the campaign now frames a cut in corporate taxation as their middle-class tax cut.

(Fact check: Data from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office show that middle class people hold a mere 3% of all corporate income, compared to 88% for the top fifth, and about 60% for the top 1%. In our new State of Working America, we show that an important factor driving the almost unprecedented level of inequality right now is the double whammy of a) the growth of corporate income, like dividends and capital gains, versus labor market income, i.e., earnings, and b) the increased concentration of corporate income among the richest households.)

The only way McCain can implement this fiscal policy without generating unsustainable debt levels is to cut deeply into government spending. His and Palin's hated earmarks won't get you there (in Palin's case, of course, the hatred is newly founded). His promise to freeze certain aspects of discretionary government spending gets you even less savings than the earmarks. They'll have to go after the entitlements, and since Social Security is actually a relatively small problem in this regard, for their plan to work, they have to cut the heck out of Medicare and Medicaid.

This brings you to their truly unfortunate health care plan, which I wrote about last week in this space.

So, my first point is that McCain and his team have crafted an economic plan that contradicts the candidate's recently held fundamental views and is far out-of-touch with the needs of the country. That might not have posed a big problem except for the fact that a series of events, including the middle-class squeeze generated by stagnant incomes and rising prices, recession, and financial meltdown, have made the economy front and center in this campaign.

How did McCain end up with an economic platform, especially on taxes, that is so out of sync with his past views as expressed in the above quotes, an agenda that is anything but "mavericky."

The answer comes from the Palin debate last week. Since Ms. Palin is a newcomer on the national scene with scant governing experience, little knowledge of the major issues, and few deeply held views, she serves as a talking head for the people behind the curtains, the staff and advisors running the campaign. When McCain spouts this stuff, he's filtering it through years of intense experiences, as a veteran, a former POW, and member of the Senate for 26 years. With Palin, it's unfettered, thin, talking points.

What we learn--and yes, I fully grant you that we knew this well already, but the debate was a strong reminder--is that the same neocons that wrote the Bush agenda wrote McCain's. Despite the fact that the electorate has moved on, they can't help themselves.

For example, they briefed Palin to spout the supply-side, anti-government, Reaganisms that are so deeply out of sync with where things are at right now. As we speak, the economy is reeling from market excesses and lax oversight, driven by an ideology that guaranteed us that unchained from its government overseers, the invisible hand would guide us to the economic promise land. Instead, it's guided us over a cliff.

Yet, here's how Palin reminded the audience about the true meaning of patriotism: "Patriotic is saying, government, you know, you're not always the solution. In fact, too often you're the problem so, government, lessen the tax burden and on our families and get out of the way and let the private sector and our families grow and thrive and prosper."

That recipe has certainly worked wonders over the past eight years.

Palin channeled the other great neocon tactic: talk it, don't walk it. I don't think she mentioned "Wall St." without the preface of "greed and corruption," but she failed to offer one concrete proposal to address that. To the contrary, she and McCain still want to turn part of the dollars flowing into Social Security over to the stock market.

Obama, on the other hand, back in March articulated a six point plan that had it been in place, would arguably have prevented much of what's going wrong in markets today.

The campaign's fondest hope is, of course, that the economy would just go away so they could get back to arguing foreign policy, where polls are more favorable toward their guy. But it's too late for that, and anyway, most people scored the first presidential debate a draw in matters of foreign affairs, as Obama effectively tied McCain to Bush's failed Iraqi policy.

More importantly, as the election nears, the undecided voters who will decide this thing seem to be recognizing the importance of the Obama "change" mantra. Unlike myself, most people don't have the time and interest to track the income shares of the top 1%, but for a while now, vast majorities have recognized that the country is on the wrong track, and for all its verbiage, the Obama campaign is really quite simply about getting it back of the right one.

We can have great arguments about whether his plan to end the war, his tax policies to favor the middle class while raising taxes on, and only on, the very high end, or his health care plan are, in fact, the right ones. But at this point, one of their key selling points is that they take us on a different path than the one we're on.

That's largely policy wonkery, I grant you, but let's close out with some reflections on character. Lo those many months ago, when I chatted with my conservative counterpart, I feared McCain because I viewed him as having the character to stick to his convictions, many of which I disagreed with, but that's not something you see enough of in politics these days.

He's lost that. It started with the policy reversals discussed above, was amplified by the outright lies of the campaign, and culminated in the cynical, reckless, and politics-over-country choice of a running mate who is dangerously unprepared to step into the presidency.

At this point I really wonder: what's in it for him? Why does McCain want to be president? Those who have followed him for years don't recognize his agenda, his tactics, his positions (e.g., the great populist regulator!). How could a man of seemingly deep conviction morph into this caricature? His campaign is empty, with no spiritual or intellectual core; its tactics have devolved into a series of crass surprises and Hail Mary passes.

I get Obama in this regard. To get the country back on track, to reconnect middle-class living standards and growth, to rein in market fundamentalism, to rectify a series of unjust and even fatal policy choices, to restore America's standing in the world, he seeks to implement his change agenda.

But I don't get McCain. I hope the country doesn't get him either.

Comments

[FrankensteinBlack]

JARED my friend, let me provide a probable answer to your initial question - "At this point I really wonder: what's in it for McCain?" ANSWER: The TITLE! Plain and simple (which is not dissimilar to Bush). Its the Mt Everest (because it was there ego) syndrome. He has little interest in governing or governance and will outsource a massive amount of responsibility to surrogates, and handlers. NEED AN EXAMPLE? Just look around him now, and (like Bush) his constant need to rely on notes written for him and Lieberman and Gram in his ear. MCCAIN ONLY WANTS THE TITLE AND NOT THE RESPONSIBILITY THAT GOES WITH IT!!

[Graywolf48]

McCain's father and grandfather were both Admirals. McCain was told he would never be given flag rank and that is why he left the Navy. The only way he can surpass is father and grandfather in rank and prestige is to wear the title Commander-in-Chief. Like little Georgie, John Sydney has something to prove to his daddy and grand daddy. It's family. It's personal. And the country really doesn't matter because as it always has been, and always will be, it's all about John McCain.

[GinaP]

BINGO!

[spudgun]

FINALLY!!!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!!!! Someone says it out loud. I've been saying this to friends for the last few months and I'm surprised this hasn't been talked about more in the press.

Yeah, that's all we need, another President with father issues...s­heesh.

[cybertoothcat]

Graywolf48, you have an excellent understanding of John McCain!

[smag]

The longer this campaign goes on, the longer an Obama presidency concerns me. This is not any campaign I have ever seen TEENS PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO OBAMA.

[ApolloSpeaks]

OBAMANOMICS = ZERO

The empty campaign of John McCain? The financial meltdown has made nonsense of Obama's economic plan. With $2 trillion in tax dollars already spent or committed to rescuing Bear Sterns, Lehman Bros. AIG, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac, etc. Obama is proposing on top of that another $1 Trillion in new entitlement spending to pay for a massive government healthcare bureaucracy and 5 million government green jobs? And where will Obama get the tax dollars to foot the bill? The top 5%? No way! To raise that kind of revenue he would need about $9000 from every middle class household over the $18,000 it's costing them for the financial rescue package. The financial crisis has rendered Obama's economic program obsolete. It's a balloon filled with hot air that will collapse by Election Day.

Oh, by the way, with the DOW down 800 points raising taxes on capital gains would only depress the market further. In short, the O in Obamanomics stands with ZERO.

[ApolloSpeaks]

If you soak the rich the rich will leave the country and take their wealth with them. They will do what Madonna did and relocate abroad. It is a stupid destructive counterproductive policy typical of shallow socialist thinking. Thank God this terribily confused and naive man will be returning to the Senate in November.

[oldgoose]

Let them! Take their MacManshions, their Hummers, their Tiffany jewelry and their brats-most of whom are too good to serve the country they "love"- with them. Considering how well regarded we are everywhere in the world right now, good luck! Better tell their new neighbors when they buy that "castle" somewhere that they are "canadians", that might work!

[trollsbwild]

JM apparently believes that the same tactics used in his crap games can be successful in running for POTUS. What a joke!

[jmpfjoy]

One assumes that if McCain loses the election, he will still want to be able to hold his head up in Washington. Why is he behaving this way? He is totally blowing his street cred.....

[davidwayneosedach]

Sadly, McCain is fullfilling the role of scape goat for Bush economics. The Republicans know they aren't going to win come November. (Nor, did they ever expect to.)

But to stay and the game, and more importantly position themselves for 2012: they chose McCain.

[archanjo]

The age old American spectre of "race" has the ability to psychologically affect us all. John McCain may be suffering and challenged by the fact he is facing a "black" man. Maybe he thought, surely, American will pick me over this upstart colored person. Look McCain is a spoiled brat who has always had his way. Maybe in his head, there is no way he is losing the presidency to a "colored guy." At last not in the America he knows.

Believing in the pseudo-scientific notion of race is bad for us all. There is no suce thing, it is merely a man-made social reality, a habit we need to kick. I daresay, it is a bit too late for John McCain to change.

[robbep]

The Palin pick told you all you needed to know about McCain. He is a desperate man who will do anything to win. He is impulsive and reactionary and ( hate to say this) dishonest as hell. He wld be in a better position had he picked Romney or Huckabee. The governor from Alaska may excite the base but that is all. If the economy continues to sputter the election cld be a rout.

[ProfessorDuh]

What's in it for McCain? He wants war. Lots and lots of blood. He is a dangerous sicko.

[KQuarksSuperKollider]

Great piece. McCain's campaign is beyond smoke and mirrors it's an absolute lie. He does not want to change a thing if he did he would not surround himself with the legions of lobbyists that control his campaign. Face it these lobbyists are the same people McCain will appoint to watch over the same industries they lobbied for in the first place. Palin is just an exclamation point to the joke that is the McCain campaign. Bob Herbert wrote a great piece about that in his latest column.

[shirleen01]

2 phrases to sum it all up:

1. OUT- OF- TOUCH
2. BUSH-ALL-O­VER-AGAIN!

Go Obama/Biden 2008

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Donations
https://donate.barackobama.com/donateinvite

Obama supporters we are coming to the final weeks (29days) of this historic election, the first big election of the 21century for our nation. If you can donate please do, I just made another donation of $15 (all I could afford) to the Obama campaign and have gotten 7 guys in my neighborhood registered, EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!

Brace yourselves for the barrage of Lies, voter intimidation, etc..... we can not take our eyes of the prize!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCx0J3NiABY

Obama/Biden 08

[HereNow]

McCain Did Not Morph into something else.
You have just been buying what he was selling because it didnt cost you anything and was not really important.
He and his early media friends began picthing the maverick label. No one seemed to question what a maverick means until now.
McCain has always been in it for himself at the expense of others.
He has not really ever made a substantitive contribution to anything other than himself.
The limelight he craves will also burn him like a moth as we continue to find out who is is and has been.
Just another cocky flyboy who used his Family to get connected. The family is dead, and the connections are only as gopod as his ability to pay them, which is running low.
I wonder if Cindy will diss him now that he can not deliver the whitehouse.

[strandwolf]

Depressingly accurate.

[lightthedark]

very well said!

[trollsbwild]

Good article in Rolling Stone this month-"make believe maverick"

It tells a tale of a boy of privilege who is a degenerate. Basically, a lesser version of GWB, if that is POSSIBLE.

[shirleen01]

watch out Cindy..he'­s after your millions!

[SILVANUS]

Well, I've been trying to figure out how yuppies and GOP neocons get up in the morning and WHY for twenty years.

Most beings EVOLVE out of selfishness, hoarding and bullyism after a couple of decades. It's as if they don't have souls, and, moreover, could care less.

[Minotaurus]

The only thing I get about McBushe's Cain is that he gambled away his presidential race just like he gambles in general in a casino.

[margardner]

McCain, old, frumpy, and out of touch. His ideas have dried up along with his prune juice!