The Pundit Presidency
Max Bergmann had the excellent insight that perhaps the key to understanding John McCain’s hysteria-based foreign policy is that it reflects the mindset of a television pundit. And this, after all, is really what McCain has been. He’s not interested in the nitty-gritty of domestic policy that Senators actually have influence over. And he’s hasn’t been serving in the executive branch, where the national security policies that are his passion actually get made. Instead, he spends a ton of time going on television and talking. Max mentions that “one of the first things McCain did after 9-11 was go on just about every TV program – where he incidentally called for attacking about four countries” and consistently over the years gone on TV and “sounded the alarm, ratcheted up the rhetoric and often called for military action – with almost no regards to the practical implications of such an approach.” Thus he can, for example, go on TV and call casually for a land invasion of Serbia knowing he’ll never be held accountable for any problems since the Clinton administration won’t do it, and then just forget about the whole thing in later years when the more responsible approach turns out to have been okay.
Along these lines, David Ignatius has a great column tagging McCain for his irresponsible actions over the years that have worsened the situation in Georgia. As Ignatius points out, McCain has, literally for years, been calibrating his statements on Russia and Georgia with an eye to generating (in his own words) “good zingers.” Which is fine, if a bit annoying, for a TV commentator. But McCain is actually a public official, and public officials normally try to be cautious in their statements about delicate situations lest rash words and rash promises lead, say, to a war. And as McCain’s gotten closer and closer to the White House and as the situation has grown more and more precarious, he’s shown no sign whatsoever of a desire to calibrate his attitude more carefully to the kind of responsibilities that come with substantial public office.
33 Responses to “The Pundit Presidency”
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August 20th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly be more excited for a McCain Presidency. Though I think if you’ll look back on all the successful Presidencies, you’ll see that a majority were zinger based, with FDR moving us into a snark based foreign policy.
I look forward to all the government employees who’ll have to enact policies designed around a smug remark Shecky McCain wrote on the back of a napkin as he was thinking about his next Meet the Press appearance.
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August 20th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
You write “thus he can, for example, go on TV and call casually for a land invasion of Serbia knowing he’ll never be held accountable for any problems since the Clinton administration won’t do it.”
From The New York Times, November 7 1999:
August 20th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
It can’t be said enough that McCain, in foreign policy, is like a cartoon character who leaps up on the table shrieking every time (s)he sees a mouse.
It also can’t be said enough that McCain hid in his office rather than cast a vote that might cause him to stand for something. He was a war hero. Now he’s a 71-year-old man who hides in his office.
August 20th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Remember Max Headroom? It took place ‘Twenty minutes into the future…’ and had proportional representation in Congress, only it wasn’t by states, it was by network, and the re-apportionment wasn’t done after a decennial census, but after sweeps week.
McCain would have been elected there, and be serving out the end of his second term.
It just took reality a little longer to catch up.
August 20th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Someone in the DNC needs to attack his foreign policy. How about an update of the Daisy Girl 1964 ad that effectively killed Goldwater’s chance? Start out with quotes from his Republican Senator buddies, like Pete ““I Didn’t Want This Guy Anywhere Near A Trigger” Domenici, followed by Thad “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine” Cochran. Fade to his bellicose statements about Russia, then the countdown to Armageddon.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
McCain’s foreign policy “reflects the mindset of a television pundit” — I didn’t know that Charles Krauthammer represented all television pundits.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Khrushchevian is the perfect adjective for McCain. No wonder he wears $500 shoes. All the better to impress when he pounds the table with them to make a point.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I think Team Obama should start thinking about a campaign narrative along the lines of the “Daisy Girl” campaign ad by LBJ, which portrayed Goldwater as a hothead who would rush into war. By contrast, McCain really is a hot head who makes Goldwater look calm and considered. But, unlike Goldwater, McCain is a genius at appearing perfectly congenial and considerate.
August 20th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Or maybe the man who went from being a militaty lobbiest (Senate “Liason”) directly to a Senate seat continues to shill for the military. All the expertice I’ve seen from him is not in foreign affairs or details of military strategy or practices, it’s just in acquitring bigger budgets for the military. “Let’s fight” means “Let’s buy more weapons.”
August 20th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Perhaps generational, but Obama’s zingers make me laugh a whole lot more than McCain’s. The ‘Bomb Iran’ song and killing Iranian’s with cigarettes both fell flat with me. McCain has to come up with much better zingers to earn my vote.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
And his man, Joe Lieberman, just came back from Georgia and stated that we need to rearm them although that is not the position of the US Government. We need to drill, drill, drill how reckless McCain and his henchmen are when it comes to foreign policy. And all for partisan gain, I might add.
August 20th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
McCain never got over his failures in the military. He wanted to carry on the tradition of his father and grandfather and failed. He has parlayed being a POW 40 years ago into the U.S. Senate and his current candidacy. Who else could take 40 year old experience and do so much with it?
August 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
That statement suggests to me that John McCain could be a major loose cannon as POTUS. Another article I saw recently said he doesn’t like to be told what to do either, so he obviously thinks his opinion is the only one that matters!
Do you think he has a God Complex?
If he’s elected, maybe we’ll luck out and his Cabinet will lock him in the East Wing, then let his VP run the country. Lordy, he really scares me!
August 20th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Good point.
It’s instructive to compare McCain to an actual TV pundit with a similarly pugnacious personality, Pat Buchanan. The irony is that the foreign policy views of the real pundit, Buchanan, have evolved over the years toward moderation and restraint (there’s not all that much difference these days between Pat and Matt on foreign policy), while the potential President’s views have gone from sensible 20 years ago to overly-exicted today.
August 20th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Moderation and restraint? You mean this Pat Buchanan?
August 20th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
If you read Buchanan on Antiwar.com and elsewhere, he’s very much against starting wars with Iran and the like – McCain, not so much. I think that’s what Sailer means.
Meanwhile, these obsessive posts from Matt about how McCain is a hysterical war monger are becoming boring. We KNOW all that, Matt. How about some suggestions about how Obama might actually try defeating McCain – not that Obama listens to YOU – rather than going down with the ship as he appears destined to do at this point.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:05 am
Being anti-war is not necessarily a reliable indicator of moderation and restraint. During the Hitler-Stalin pact elements of America’s extreme right and extreme left joined to oppose US entry into the Second World War. Buchanan, of course, sides not just with opponents of the Iraq war, but also with those extremists who in the past opposed fighting Hitler. More here.
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