[Peace-discuss] Would you rather have McCain?

Mon Jan 19 11:56:27 CST 2009

I support your wise comments, although I have less optimism, given  
various recent statements (and silence where he could have spoken with  
effect) by Obama, most particularly with regard to foreign policy  
(Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Georgia), SE Asia, Latin  
America) and the military, intelligence and national security  
establishments. We shall soon enough have firmer evidence to draw  
conclusions.

But thanks.

Mort

On Jan 19, 2009, at 10:10 AM, John W. wrote:

> You do recall, right, that Obama is trying very hard to be  
> bipartisan, and that McCain pledged to support Obama?  Obama has  
> stated many times that he wants to work with people from "both sides  
> of the aisle", but it will be he who sets the national agenda.  He  
> will be, in other words, the Decider.
>
> So the proof will be in the pudding.  Not in who he consults, but in  
> what he ultimately decides to do.  I have no doubt that it'll be a  
> mixed bag - neither as dark and dismal as you wish to portray it,  
> nor as bright and progressively rosy as most of us would like to see.
>
> I refuse to write history before it's even happened, perhaps because  
> I don't consider myself gifted enough in prophecy.  I still hold out  
> hope that Obama is a thoughtful man, relatively non-ideological but  
> also relatively non-provincial compared to Bush and even McCain.  My  
> hope could be entirely misplaced, though.
>
> John
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at uiuc.edu>  
> wrote:
>
> "...many of these appointments [McCain] would have made himself ...  
> Obama does not want to be the guy who lost Iraq when it is close to  
> being won..."
>
>        New York Times - January 19, 2009
>        Obama Reaches Out for McCain's Counsel
>        By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
>
> WASHINGTON — Not long after Senator John McCain returned last month
> from an official trip to Iraq and Pakistan, he received a phone call
> from President-elect Barack Obama.
>
> As contenders for the presidency, the two had hammered each other for
> much of 2008 over their conflicting approaches to foreign policy,
> especially in Iraq. (He'd lose a war! He'd stay a hundred years!) Now,
> however, Mr. Obama said he wanted Mr. McCain's advice, people in each
> camp briefed on the conversation said. What did he see on the trip?
> What did he learn?
>
> It was just one step in a post-election courtship that historians say
> has few modern parallels, beginning with a private meeting in Mr.
> Obama's transition office in Chicago just two weeks after the vote. On
> Monday night, Mr. McCain will be the guest of honor at a black-tie
> dinner celebrating Mr. Obama's inauguration.
>
> Over the last three months, Mr. Obama has quietly consulted Mr. McCain
> about many of the new administration's potential nominees to top
> national security jobs and about other issues — in one case relaying
> back a contender's answers to questions Mr. McCain had suggested.
>
> Mr. McCain, meanwhile, has told colleagues "that many of these
> appointments he would have made himself," said Senator Lindsey Graham,
> a South Carolina Republican and a close McCain friend.
>
> Fred I. Greenstein, emeritus professor of politics at Princeton, said:
> "I don't think there is a precedent for this. Sometimes there is bad
> blood, sometimes there is so-so blood, but rarely is there good  
> blood."
>
> It is "trademark Obama," Professor Greenstein said, noting that Mr.
> Obama's impulse to win over even ideological opposites appeared to
> date at least to his friendships with conservatives on The Harvard Law
> Review when he was president.
>
> For Mr. Obama, cooperation with his defeated opponent could also
> provide a useful ally in the Senate, where Mr. McCain has parlayed his
> national popularity and go-his-own-way reputation into a role as a
> pivotal dealmaker over the last eight years. But on the subject of
> Iraq, in particular, their collaboration could also raise questions
> among Mr. Obama's liberal supporters, many of whom demonized Mr.
> McCain as a dangerous warmonger because of his staunch opposition to a
> pullout.
>
> Mr. Obama arrived for their Chicago meeting on Nov. 16 with several
> well-researched proposals to collaborate on involving some of Mr.
> McCain's favorite causes, including a commission to cut "corporate
> welfare," curbing waste in military procurement and an overhaul of
> immigration rules.
>
> "The corporate welfare commission and military acquisition reform are
> two things the president-elect wants to do very soon," Rahm Emanuel,
> Mr. Obama's chief of staff and a participant in the meeting, said in
> an interview. The new administration is already preparing to introduce
> legislation echoing a previous McCain bill on the commission idea, Mr.
> Emanuel said, adding, "We have been very respectful and solicitous of
> his ideas."
>
> Mr. Emanuel said he did not remember any discussion of Iraq. "Barack
> has been clear that he is going to stick to his responsible reduction
> in forces, and he hasn't changed from that," he said.
>
> But Mr. Graham, who accompanied Mr. McCain to the meeting, said Mr.
> Obama took a notably different tone toward Iraq than he had during the
> campaign, emphasizing the common ground in their views.
>
> "He said that he understands that we had differences but he wanted to
> let us know that he also understands that we have got to be
> responsible in how we leave Iraq," Mr. Graham recalled. "What the
> Obama-Biden administration has talked about is not losing the gains we
> have achieved. "
>
> He added, "Obama does not want to be the guy who lost Iraq when it is
> close to being won."
>
> Mr. Emanuel, whose only previous contact with Mr. Graham was
> negotiating the terms of the presidential debates, began calling him
> more than once a week to follow up. "Constantly," Mr. Emanuel said.
> "There has been a running dialogue."
>
> Mr. Graham, in turn, called his counterpart "a pleasure to do business
> with."
>
> Vice President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., a friend since Mr. McCain
> was the Navy's liaison to the Senate three decades ago, has also
> played intermediary. He called Mr. McCain to ask him to appear at the
> inaugural dinner, and he invited Mr. Graham on another recent trip to
> Iraq and Afghanistan.
>
> "I know the vice president-elect is very concerned about the end game
> in Iraq," Mr. Graham said.
>
> Some Senate Democrats have complained that Mr. Obama failed to seek
> their contributions about certain appointments — notably Leon E.
> Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. But the Obama
> transition team has consistently sought advice and feedback from Mr.
> McCain, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, on
> national security appointments, Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Graham both said.
>
> Mr. Graham said Mr. McCain had enthusiastically supported those
> appointments: Gen. James L. Jones (an old McCain friend) as national
> security adviser; Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the retired Army chief of
> staff, as secretary of veterans affairs; Hillary Rodham Clinton as
> secretary of state; and most of all, retaining Secretary of Defense
> Robert M. Gates.
>
> "Picking Gates is a good statement that they are not going to pull out
> of Iraq in a way that undercuts the gains achieved," Mr. Graham said.
>
> And when Mr. McCain raised "concerns" about the potential choice of
> Adm. Dennis C. Blair as director of national intelligence, Mr. Emanuel
> said, Mr. Obama's advisers asked the admiral to provide answers to Mr.
> McCain's questions to win his support. (Neither side would disclose
> the details of Mr. McCain's concerns, but Admiral Blair has faced past
> questions about his relations with the military dictators of Indonesia
> when he was in the Navy, and a possible conflict of interest when he
> later worked with a nonprofit group evaluating weapons systems.)
>
> "We gave McCain time to talk through it, made sure he was briefed,"
> Mr. Emanuel said.
>
> Mr. Obama's cultivation of Mr. McCain is a stark contrast with the
> practices of past presidents. After the 2004 election, President Bush
> did not talk to his defeated opponent, Senator John Kerry of
> Massachusetts, until Mr. Kerry visited the White House in March 2005
> as part of a large group to celebrate the Red Sox victory in the World
> Series. ("I like to see Senator Kerry," Mr. Bush said, "except when
> we're fixing to debate.") And after Mr. Bush defeated Mr. McCain for
> the Republican nomination in 2000, the two had only perfunctory
> contact and often-adversarial relations for nearly two years.
>
> Shortly before his second inauguration, former President Bill Clinton
> awarded his defeated opponent, Bob Dole, the Medal of Freedom. But it
> was an entirely ceremonial event. (Mr. Dole joked that had hoped to be
> at the White House picking up "the front door key" instead.)
>
> A spokeswoman for Mr. McCain did not respond to several messages. But
> Mr. Graham said he and Mr. McCain were convinced that Mr. Obama was
> genuinely interested in working together with them on both domestic
> priorities and foreign policy.
>
> "Not only is it good politics," Mr. Graham said, "it gives you an
> insight into who we are dealing with."
>
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/us/politics/19mccain.html>
>
>
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