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Why McCain Wants to be President
One might ask of any candidate why they want to become the President of the United States. It's a formidable job and getting elected is a grueling ordeal.
But for me, the issue of McCain's hunger to be president is something that has been bothering me.
Back in 2000, he ran against Bush and got slimed, sliced and diced and mutilated by Bush's inherent nastiness. He came out of that campaign bruised, but still defiant. He was the maverick back then.
Somewhere in the past few years, McCain has changed to become Bush's best buddy - his lapdog on almost every critical issue. He has reversed position, reversed attitude, reversed in just about everything that I once thought was laudable about him - and for what?
I believe that he reversed himself fundamentally in order to become the president. But why? What does John McCain seek? Is it validation? Raw power? Vindication that he's really something special?
As I said, you could ask any candidate why they want to be president, but in McCain's case, my Spidey sense is saying it's something unsavory and sick, and something not good for the country. I mean, despite the fact that I disagree with almost all of his positions and policies, that I think he has passed his mental prime and really isn't fit for the job, that he talks about integrity but displays little of it, that he is incredibly nasty when all is said and done... despite all that, I also think he's in this for the wrong reasons.
Bush apparently thought he was ordained by God to do His work as president. Whatever. He was a failure all his life and he is still a failure.
What about McCain? He has had his ups and downs, but his record isn't stellar in anything. He has benefitted from a privileged position in life and taken advantage of it with the opportunities he's had. I once thought he was a pretty affable guy, and less scary than most Republicans. That was then. Now I think he's even more scary than most of them - and that's saying something.
But why is he so driven to be president? Why does he need this so badly? I have no idea, but I suspect it's worth considering, because it might give us a better idea of what he would do with the presidency, if he were to attain it. I mean, we probably think we already know, but I wonder if we really grasp his ultimate motivation and what that could lead to.
Any thoughts?
Comments (11)
I think there's several reasons McCain wants to be president, but I would draw the biggest, boldest circle around the Keating 5 scandal. His reputation was tarnished by that and he got off pretty damn lightly considering. However, that seemed to spark his drive for national political leadership first with campaign finance reform and then with seeking the presidency. And now he has the nomination thanks to a field so weak on their side, that it's just a pity Harold Stassen is dead or he would have been the nominee.
I think he doesn't want his political obituary's longest paragraph to be the Keating 5 scandal.
And then he's a mean old bastard and might just want to piss off all his old enemies. There are some who I believe run for office out of a devotion to public service (even those whose politics I find detestable). Among them, both Clintons, John Kerry, John Edwards, Joe Biden, Mike Huckabee, Bob Dole, and I could go on. But then there are those who seem to run more for ego, like having a trophy to put on the shelf, being able to call up high school nemeses and say neener-neener. Bush is definitely one of those. So is Romney (resume padder) and the pathetic Fred Thompson. I think McCain is a neener-neener candidate.
July 2, 2008 5:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Plausible. In any case, it seems he wants it bad... and not as a public service.
July 2, 2008 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who cares, as long as we keep McCain from becoming President?
July 2, 2008 5:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're probably right - who cares - but I think seeing underneath his facade to the possibly insane ambition would work against him if it were clearly revealed. Many of his actions lately show the character of someone who will do anything to win, even go directly against his own stated principles - meaning that he really has no principles, and only winning counts.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think the public is able to make any nuanced judgments about the guy, but if he is driven as I think he is, he may snap in some ugly way - now or later. So I think it's interesting to see where his weakness really lies - and his ambition and pride may provide a clue.
July 2, 2008 6:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
McCain's closest comparison in his desperation to be President is 1968's Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey also wanted to be President so badly that he said and did things he personally opposed in his attempt.
The difference is that HHH was not deranged to the point of psychopathology, as is McCain.
On the other hand, Dennis Kucinich is beginning to seem like a pallid retread of Harold Stassen, with the significant difference being that Stasses actually accomplished things of real significance prior to becoming a national punchline.
July 2, 2008 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
There is a difference between Kucinich and Stassen in that he is able to participate in the debates and elevate and air a progressive viewpoint that is seldom hear on the airwaves. This serves as a small paddle dragging against the current pushing the Democrats every rightward and is responsible intra-party dissent as opposed to the destructive egoism of Ralph Nader who mistakes his interests for that of the nation.
July 2, 2008 9:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, the most fundamental difference is that Harold Stassen is currently dead.
And while he may have appeared on debates, Kucinich was not taken seriously by the voters, as he failed to poll above single digits anywhere.
Dude needs to rethink a few things.
July 2, 2008 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, Stassen is dead, but while living he was not in the GOP debates. I agree Kucinich did not help this last time out, what with UFO's and all. He's not a perfect messenger, that's true. However, it's useful to remind people that there are people that the left is more than Earth First and WTO protesters, that there is an economic agenda that is meaningful and powerful.
July 3, 2008 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where is TheraP when we need her?
I am not a psychologist; however:
I've read a lot about McCain, and what I see is someone like W. who has major competitive issues with his father and grandfather in terms of one-ups-manship --
1) Grandfather, an Admiral, achieved at Annapolis, and was a stellar military prototype based on merit alone, although he was duty-driven to the point of self-immolation (he was quite ill by the end of the war, but, when Halsey asked him to stay for Japanese surrender, he did... and died immediately after he arrived back in California);
2) Father (whom McCain resembles physically and psychologically): put in lackluster performance at Annapolis; was hair-trigger impulsive in his personal life (went AWOL to marry when all he had to do was fill out a form to get permission); was hair-trigger impulsive in his Navy career (hit his first target as submarine commander, but then missed all sequential firings for the duration of the war); was promoted, anyway, due to affection for and legacy of his father; but was emotionally dysfyunctional (the night he learned that his son had become a POW, he went to a dinner party anyway, and did not mention it).
3) Fellow Annapolis graduate and fellow POW, Dr. Butler, who has known McCain for 60 years, says he will not vote for McCain, as he "distrusts John's impulsive temper in proximity to the nuclear button.";
4) McCain's surrogate father, when McCain was Navy liason to Congress, was John Tower, founding Necon whose ideology McCain absorbed not just politically, but also as article of faith to show loyalty to substitute father figure; Tower was also prime time philanderer and carouser, around the world -- who, along with McCain who did the deed, thought it was "funny" to leave empty liquor bottles outside French diplomat's door during an alcohol-free Middle Eastern conference.
5) This is creepy -- wife Cindy( tall, beaky) looks very much like McCain' mother (tall, beaky) -- so what, common syndrome -- except that McCain's mother looks almost exactly like his admiral grandfather (tall, beaky) ...which indicates that McCain is the son of a father who also had father issues....
And so, all of the above is my best guess as to why John McCain wants to be president. And, in my opinion, it has nothing whatsoever to do with wanting to serving his country. Rather, it has to do with McCain wanting his country to serve him, to best his progenitors.
Sort of the inverse of JFK's "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
Call on TheraP for her opinion.. or perhaps, if this reasoning seems insane, for a referral for me.
Summary:
Summary: John McCain has two admirals and a Senator to best in achievement, just to feel
5)
July 2, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. Never forget to proofread and delete. Sorry.
July 2, 2008 9:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Definitely - father and grandfather. No need to look further
July 3, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
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