Word: mccain
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...John McCain's claim that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," uttered just before the financial crisis turned dire, may go down as one of the great blunders of presidential-campaign history. "Senator McCain, what economy are you talking about?" Barack Obama exclaimed hours after the words escaped his opponent's mouth. The mocking TV ads soon followed, and as the weeks wore on and financial jitters gave way to near collapse and certain recession, McCain's statement began to evoke unsettling memories of Herbert Hoover, who said similar things in the early 1930s...
...wins, Obama may partly owe the presidency to McCain's claim that our economic fundamentals are strong. But once in office, the winner's job will be made a lot easier if it turns out, as seems likely, that McCain was right...
...McCain suggests that Obama is risky because he never takes any risks. When has he ever stood up to his own party? McCain asks. "What has this man ever actually accomplished in government?" The questions are legitimate because we know there are times when a President has to gamble, and yet we know very little about Obama's appetite for it. When George H.W. Bush marshaled dozens of allies to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, when Ronald Reagan stared down the Soviets with intermediate-range missiles, when F.D.R. went off on a Caribbean cruise and dreamed up the lend...
...other hand, if Obama has run a risk-averse campaign, and McCain at times a reckless one, it may reflect reality as much as reflexes. "Two candidates aren't starting on a level playing field," argues Russell Riley of the Miller Center of Public Affairs. "We hear a lot about John McCain throwing Hail Mary passes. Well, there are certain times in football games when a Hail Mary pass is called for." At a time when the gop is in shambles and its brand worth about the same as mortgage-backed securities, any Republican candidate would need to change...
...what's necessary to win. For Obama, that meant trimming positions on offshore drilling, gun control, nafta, Cuba, public campaign funding, fisa. And in choosing Joe Biden, he acknowledged that when it comes to making change happen, a working knowledge of the old ways may still be useful. McCain has reinvented himself as well, arguing against the Bush tax cuts when they were temporary but now wanting to make them permanent, which is like marrying someone you didn't want to date. Eight years ago, he waffled on Roe; now he wants to overturn it. He now denounces Supreme Court...