Consider this a personal counter-point to my observation back in November that his campaign was over. Hear me out.
John McCain has in many way represented the new age of the Republican Party. The man entered the senate taking the seat of an aged, bitter, and often angry Barry Goldwater. In terms of personality the people of Arizona replaced their senior senator with another bold, angry and straight-talking man in John McCain...but McCain is no Goldwater and I've described his seat in the senate as an unfortunate downgrade from that of ol' AU H2O.
So how could John McCain be what the doctor ordered in terms of economic growth? John McCain has one strength in terms of positions that he has remained absolutely pure on in his long political career...and that is free trade.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were very similar in terms of trade protectionism. Bush even went as far as adding tariffs to foreign steel, but for as little as McCain understands about economics (like not knowing who was on the president's working group on markets) he does understand one problem that has hurt the economy of this nation and is probably the only remaining resource that is not strained for federal receipts: Trade. His position on free trade and uniform tariffs is so good it could trump his otherwise ignorance on the subject of economics.
The United States simply does not trade with that many nations. Our greatest export is U.S. dollars and fewer and fewer countries are accepting it as reserve currency as it buys fewer and fewer marketable commodities.
The next president that opens trade and controls the growth of government (reducing its size and scope will simply be a pipedream at this point, but one in my view that is still worth having) will restore the dollar. Could it be John McCain?
3 comments:
Compared to the other two maybe. Not a ringing endorsement exactly.
McCain is a disaster waiting to happen. One day, should he be elected, he'll flip out as he has in the Senate more than once.
I picture him leaping over a table and strangling Vladimir Putin. Putin would kick his sorry ass, so we'd not only have started WWIII, we'd have already lost the first battle.
On economics, he's admitted that he knows nothing. That's pathetic. Just because he has a Libertarian stance on free trade doesn't mean he won't mess up the economy in other ways.
He's also hopelessly in bed with several lobbyists. I foresee economic decisions that effect us all being made by lobbyists, the way that Enron wrote Bush's energy policy.
Sorry, I'd rather take my chances with Obama. He's intelligent. He understands the economy. You may not agree with him, but he's nobody's fool.
I agree with you that his relationship to lobbyists could very well undermine any good he could do on trade but wanted to see if his pretty admirable free trade stance would give anyone pause.
McCain I think will be in a future 'Who will win in a fight.' segment.
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