Let’s imagine the worst and that McCain reaches the White House.  Because of his advanced age (847) he has only one term in which to implement the policies he’s promised.  But take four major issues (healthcare, social security, taxes and Iraq) and it’s clear that with an opposition congress, McCain will be able to keep only one of his promises.

On healthcare he proposes to eliminate employer based insurance and to give people a $5,000 tax credit so they can buy their own. George Bush already tried this when his party was in the majority of both the House and Senate and it still went nowhere.  If Bush in 8 years couldn’t do this with his own party in power for much of it, why believe that McCain can accomplish this in one term with opposition in the House and Senate?

On Social Security, McCain wants to “augment” the system with private accounts.  George Bush, with his party running both the House and Senate came very close to doing this but was stopped by Josh Marshall.  Okay, kidding aside, Bush came surprisingly close and vowed to try again, but he didn’t try again when he still had majorities and new better than to ever mention it again after 2006.  So again, this is something McCain is saying but that he won’t be able to do.

On taxes, he wants to extend the Bush cuts past 2010.  This is again something that Bush has tried and failed at getting done, over and over, both with a majority and without.   Maybe he thinks that when 2010 bears down and the provisions sunset, that the millionaires will all go on some sort of tax protest and the mood of the country will change dramatically.  But again, this isn’t something McCain can really deliver on and everyone should know it.

On Iraq, he wants to keep our troops there for either 100 or a million years.  Sadly, this is something that the president can do, even in the face of congressional opposition.

I’m not trying to make light of a McCain presidency, which will have terrible ramifications for our security, our civil liberties and for the Supreme Court.  But an honest media needs to start point out that McCain is ripping off a lot of his ideas from an unpopular president who has already failed at getting a lot of those ideas turned into law.  McCain is running on a rejected platform.