Anybody that knows me knows that I am generally p-o’d at John McCain for whatever cause he happens to be championing. Whether it’s stifling free speech with campaign finance "reform" or seemingly protecting the "rights" of terrorists, I regard him as more harm than good for many of the issues important to me. Many crusades upon which he embarks appear designed for publicity and to distance himself from policies of the Bush administration.
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That being said, given the poor polling numbers that continue to dog President Bush, there may be- and it’s a big "may"- some "method to his madness." If large numbers of voters continue to allow themselves to be misled by the President’s detractors (main stream media, Democrats, etc.), the only way for any Republican to be successful in ’08 may be by being the "anti-Bush." Do I like this possibilty? No. In a perfect world, more people would wake up, see the soundness of the present administration’s overall strategy, and choose a candidate running a campaign based upon a continuation.
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The world is not perfect.
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McCain isn’t always wrong, either. He scored 2 positive points with me this week. First, he guest blogged at Captain’s Quarters (which, now that I think of it, earns him another point) on the North Korea situation. He did this nation a great service by reiterating the folly of the ’94 Clinton administration deal with the communist regime, helping people to recognize that mistake so that we don’t repeat it.
The worst thing we could do is accede to North Korea’s demand for bilateral talks. When has rewarding North Korea’s bad behavior ever gotten us anything more than worse behavior?.I would remind Senator Hillary Clinton and other Democrats critical of Bush Administration policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure. The Koreans received millions in energy assistance. They diverted millions in food assistance to their military. And what did they do? They secretly enriched uranium..Prior to the agreement, every single time the Clinton Administration warned the Koreans not to do something — not to kick out the IAEA inspectors, not to remove the fuel rods from their reactor — they did it. And they were rewarded every single time by the Clinton Administration with further talks. We had a carrots and no sticks policy that only encouraged bad behavior. When one carrot didn’t work, we offered another..This isn’t just about North Korea. Iran is watching this test of the Council’s will, and our decisions will surely influence their response to demands that they cease their nuclear program. Now, we must, at long last, stop reinforcing failure with failure.
Amen! This is "straight talk" of the kind that I only wish was more common. What’s not to understand? What is surprising about this from McCain is that he followed it up with another correct statement on an important issue- the Iraqi front in the war.