mccain's first 100 days

Walter Shapiro writes the alternative history:

Even before McCain took office, his selection of his personal vice-presidential favorite Tom Ridge (vetoed as a running mate because he failed the anti-abortion litmus test) as White House chief of staff circumscribed Palin's orbit. An authoritative late March story in the conservative Washington Times quoted "sources close to the vice president" complaining that Palin felt marginalized by the "macho culture" of the White House. Coincidentally, McCain was overheard by reporters two days later in an open-mike snafu saying about Palin, "Shouldn't she be off at a funeral somewhere far away?"

In his first NYT column, Ross Douthat does something not entirely dissimilar and imagines what would have happened if Dick Cheney had discovered his hunger for publicity a year or so ago and actually run for president:

As a candidate, Cheney would have doubtless been as disciplined and ideologically consistent as McCain was feckless. In debates with Barack Obama, he would have been as cuttingly effective as he was in his encounters with Joe Lieberman and John Edwards in 2000 and 2004 respectively. And when he went down to a landslide loss, the conservative movement might – might! – have been jolted into the kind of rethinking that’s necessary if it hopes to regain power.

Nah. They'd have blamed the media and turned up the radio.

I agree with Douthat's main point, though: America's debate about the methods used during the war on terror would have been better aired during the election (but McCain was anti-torture anyway and Obama saw no profit in taking it up as a theme). A Cheney candidacy would have played a genuinely useful role in that regard. Still, better late than never: I think Cheney's loud defence of his administration's tactics is a good thing, because it does force these issues out into the light. The convention that presidents or vice-presidents don't criticise their successors is mere etiquette and shouldn't get in the way of this.

Comments

[MKS]

If this scenario had taken place, and Mr. Cheney or some other conservative had been soundly defeated at the polls, I, as a conservative, would not change my position. Conservatives do not waver merely because their policies and opinions are unpopular. They simply believe in: (1) political freedom, and a strong military to protect it, and (2) economic freedom, and a low tax rate to support it. That will not change, regardless of the amount of time out of power, or loss of popularity. Conservatives count on freedom loving people, and count on them waking up to assert that love of freedom.

[Marbury]

There you have - it's the American people who need to 'wake up', not the conservative movement, who see no need to change a losing formula. This is, in short, why the GOP will remain out of power for quite a few years yet.