McCain: Custer Riding to Whose Drum?
It’s hard to be a hero, when no one wants you.
Imagine, John McCain talks George Bush into having a special meeting of just him, George, Obama (which will make him look like he is being beckoned), and a few Congressional heads, to sort out the big mess.
Only problem: it was already sorted out.
Then, a few hours late from his campaign speech at the Clinton Initiative in NYC, McCain shows up. Unfortunately, he has a whole new document in hand, that no one, not the president, not the cabinet, not the taxi driver, has seen before.
As Reid put it later: we had a deal, and then McCain showed up.
McCain NEEDS dissension, so he can look like a leader. He also needs an excuse to prevent him from showing up at the debate with Obama, where he will probably lose.
Most important, he needs to show the far right that he is NOT Bush.
So, decrying campaing politics, he uses Bush to call an un-needed meeting, while the real negotiators are doing really good work, then he shows up, blows up the meeting, blows off Bush et al., and — the country is nowhere, and he creates a situation in which he now can say that he must really skip the debate, because, thanks to him, there really is no deal.
In some races, there is a disqualifying behavior. Cheating, for instance. If this presidential campaign were a footrace in Somalia, McCain would be drawn and quartered.
Cheating is bad.
Now, there is a fraction of a fraction who will say that McCain represents them; fine. That’s democracy. There is always a fraction of a fraction who feel good about whatever the guy upstairs does.
In this case, McCain and his handlers are doing a great disservice to the country, in order for him to be able to separate himself from the leader he used to call this meeting, to which he arrived late. By most accounts, he then destroyed a deal almost done.
Did we really need, or want, McCain to go back to help with this deal?
No.
Is this an example of great leadership, or of really selfish manipulation? I would suggest, the latter.