The Mav'rick has penned an opinion piece for the UK Financial Times. Worth a read.

One thought experiment is - what if McCain had written this in, say, the Washington Post? Because the Mav'rick has the following to say:

- "Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed."

- "When we believe that international action is necessary, whether military, economic or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them."

- "We cannot torture or treat inhumanely the suspected terrorists that we have captured. We must close the detention facility at Guantá­namo and come to a common international understanding on the disposition of dangerous detainees under our control."

- "The risks of global warming have no borders. Americans and Europeans need to get serious about substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years or we will hand over a much-diminished world to our grandchildren."

- "There is such a thing as good international citizenship. If we wish to be models for others, we must be model citizens ourselves."

Unless I've been living in a parallel universe the last half-dozen years, these ideas are kryptonite to the Base. In fact they read rather like the RNCC rap-sheet against John Kerry. So that's one angle to have fun with.

But why two cheers for McCain? Well the first cheer is a resounding "bravo" for his advocation of internationalism. TPMC veterans will know the major debates we had a year or so back about the Concert of Democracies and other grand Truman Project plans, and I for one haven't shifted from a belief that you cannot formalize a "League" (as McCain puts it) of democracies. But I think it is desirable and inevitable that democracies will work together in defense of common interests - in a league of sorts - and McCain's recognition that this will happen on the basis of persuasion is realistic and correct (and makes a formalized League therefore counter-intuitive).

The second cheer for McCain is that he has said all of this. Because whatever the '08 Election might deliver in November, if it can sideline the rabidly nationalistic and xenophobic extremists in this country, that would be a very, very good outcome.

But here's where McCain fluffs his line - no apologies for the Iraq foreign relations fiasco that split NATO, and is front and center of European mistrust of American foreign policy, and he consequently winds up making contradictory statements on whether his League of Democracies should be called on to help out in Iraq.

In one breath, he consciously avoids calling for Europe to send resources to Iraq (rather, "They must spend the money necessary to build effective military and civilian capabilities that can be deployed around the world, from the Balkans to Afghanistan, from Chad to East Timor"), whilst in another, he declares that "struggling young democracies, such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon, that need and deserve help".

There are any number of ways to look at the McCain article - not least politically - but here's the big thing for me. McCain, in an attempt to repair relations with Europe by promising that America will be a "model" citizen, singularly fails to address the biggest issue of the last decade that has divided the two continents on foreign policy.

And if symbolism counts for anything, I'd mark down that McCain fudged this reconciliatory effort the day after Barack Obama sensationally nailed his speech on race relations.

But do read the article. There's a good deal in there that reflects favorably on McCain - there's a good deal that we should surely take to heart - but there's also a fair indication he isn't in the same league as Obama.