QandO

May 21, 2004

They want it so bad, they can taste it
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The Washington Post's David Ignatius spends his 750 words today begging John McCain to join a Kerry-McCain ticket. The country, he pleads breathlessly, needs you, Senator McCain.

Which brings me to John McCain. The Arizona Republican is a cranky, impulsive, headstrong man. But there is something of greatness about him. When he speaks in a Senate hearing, you listen in a different way -- knowing that this isn't the usual peacock politician but something else: a man whose will couldn't be broken even by North Vietnamese torturers.

McCain matters this year because he has come to symbolize bipartisanship. He broke with the Republican leadership years ago to push for campaign finance reform. He was early to question whether the administration's strategy for postwar Iraq was working. And he demanded accountability for abuse at Abu Ghraib by bluntly telling the secretary of defense, "No, Secretary Rumsfeld, in all due respect, you've got to answer this question."

Many Democrats would be furious at the thought that a Kerry-McCain "national unity" ticket might mean more pro-life judges; Republicans similarly would loathe any embrace of the party of Bill Clinton. But that's the point: This is an election in which both sides need to give up things that matter to them, for the sake of a country that matters more.

In normal times, people would accept McCain's response to joining Kerry: "I have totally ruled it out." But these aren't normal times, and McCain's response is unworthy. Simply put, the country needs him. The logic of a Kerry-McCain ticket isn't to win an election but to provide leadership for a divided country at war.

It's quite touching, really, watching the press fawn all over McCain. But, you gotta ask yourself this question: Does McCain seem like the kind of guy who'd be happy spending 4 or 8 years in the dead end of the VP's office, getting out only to attend funerals for foreign heads of state?

As Ignatius admits, McCain is cranky, impulsive, and headstrong. Not really qualities you want in your Vice Presidents. And requiring him to switch to an explicitly pro-choice position, a position he has consistently opposed for his entire political career, would seem to me to be the kind of requirement that a cranky, headstrong guy like McCain would bridle at.

On the other hand, McCain really does see himself sitting in the big office on Pennsylvania Avenue. And, a lifelong comittment to principle on thinks like, say, school choice, was hardly a barrier to Joe Leiberman last time round, when political exigencies required him to abandon them.

So, I guess an even better question is, how badly does McCain want to be president?

Hey, here's a really cool scenario: McCain becomes John Kerry's VP for four years, resigns, then becomes Kerry's opponent in the '08 elections, using the insider knowledge he's gained as VP since '04 to hammer Kerry like a ten-penny nail.

Man, I'd pay money to see that.

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