Word: mccains
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What works for a legislator - who picks and chooses his battles - might be impossible for a President, however. Given the relentless, unscheduled traffic of crises through the Oval Office, he needs a reliable roster of allies. McCain would probably court the center by appointing some Democrats to his Administration - a move he has signaled throughout his campaign. (He shocked his party when he suggested New York liberal Andrew Cuomo to head the Securities and Exchange Commission and said he would love to have Obama supporter Warren Buffett as his Treasury Secretary.) He might be able to sign...
...deeper level, the McCain years would see a constant tug-of-war between the President's pragmatic head and his instinctive, idealistic heart. His impulse to denounce pork barrelers - "I will make them famous," he likes to promise - would compete with his need to curry favor with as many allies in Washington as he can find. His desire to leave a mark on history - by signing a Democratic energy bill or health-care-reform bill, say - would clash with his gut-level identification with the gop. Washington veterans agree that McCain's conservative ideas for tax cuts and health-care...
...would be pulling for him through thick and thin though? No matter how much the Democrats might like striking deals with McCain, in the end they would be planning his demise in the next election. Meanwhile, given his age (72) and the long history of mistrust between McCain and the Republican right, his other flank would be in danger too. Conservatives would probably demand a steady stream of vetoes of Democratic legislation, and any failure to deliver would strengthen his younger gop rivals. The McCain-Palin relationship would be Washington's answer to King Arthur and Mordred...
...pictures of McCain's final push...
...McCain would find himself on a tightrope, surrounded by people trying to push him off. The last President to operate in such straitened circumstances was Richard Nixon. In 1969 he was inaugurated with a weak mandate, shaky popularity, a fractured party behind him and a Democratic majority on the Hill. Lurching left on domestic policy, veering right in his speeches, promising to end the war in Vietnam even as he escalated the bombing, Nixon infuriated his critics and confounded his allies. The roller coaster finally ended with his landslide re-election just as he was stepping off a cliff into...