Monday, January 19, 2009

Maverick, 2009 Model

Reed Galen thinks Obama may succeed in having John McCain stop Senate Republican vetos:
Obama understands that having John McCain as an ally in the United States Senate is a major boon to his policy initiatives. As the recent standard-bearer for the GOP, McCain will be enormously helpful; any Republican imprimatur on Obama legislation could help clear stubborn obstacles. The prospect of having a troika of votes in the Senate (McCain, Lieberman and Lindsay Graham) may have also played into the strategy; pushing a bill from 58 or 59 to the magic level of 60 votes is invaluable as the Democrats stand on the cusp of their magic number.

From Senator McCain's perspective, this scenario would allow him to return to the role he truly relishes: Being the deal-maker or swing vote in the Senate is much more his style and most importantly to him, keeps him imminently relevant. Acting as manager or administrator is not in McCain's make-up, nor did he ever seem to enjoy the prospect of having to play that part. In addition, much like the aftermath of the 2000 campaign, 2009 finds John McCain not much a fan of the conservative wing of the GOP nor they of him. In 2001 he went out of his way to break with President Bush and Republicans on tax cuts and spending.
(via Sundries Shack)

1 comment:

OBloodyHell said...

This is just flat-out stupid:

> Acting as manager or administrator is not in McCain's make-up, nor did he ever seem to enjoy the prospect of having to play that part.

Really? Then why did he keep running for the job????

Stupid.


> In addition, much like the aftermath of the 2000 campaign, 2009 finds John McCain not much a fan of the conservative wing of the GOP nor they of him.

...And this will help him as "a GOP power broker", HOW????

Again: Stupid.

Obama may well get McCain to be "Jeffords-Lite", but McCain himself is probably not long for the Senate. He's fairly old, as was already a campaign issue, and he's going to become persona-non-grata if he doesn't shift in the direction pretty much everyone thinks the GOP is going to head -- back towards the same conservatism that won it so many elections.

Frankly, I don't see McCain jumping on that bandwagon.