After McCain trip Europe worried that he could be even more disastrous for the world than Bush

[BurtWorm]

I don't remember American pundits talking about what a flop McCain was across the pond. I seem to recall them saying that while the Dems were self-destructing, McCain had the luxury of being all presidential and cozying up with his peers in Europe. But if this is how McCain wastes luxury, the Eiropeans definitely may have a point.

This commentary is from Down with Tyranny:


http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2008/03/now-that-theyve-gotten-chance-to-see.html

McCain just got back from a taxpayer financed campaign junket to Europe and the Middle East. The British are still laughing about his pretentious-- and patently absurd-- claims to be related to Scottish royalty. Other Europeans aren't laughing so much as worrying. Sales clerks are still calculating all the funds he and Cindy spent on their last minute shopping spree in London while Fleet Street mainstay the Financial Times speculates that a McCain presidency would be even worse than Bush's 2 terms, something that is difficult to imagine for anyone who hasn't closely followed McCain's career beyond the slick hype from his well-oiled PR machine.

It may seem incredible to say this, given past experience, but a few years from now Europe and the world could be looking back at the Bush administration with nostalgia. This possibility will arise if the US elects Senator John McCain as president in November.

Over the years the US has inserted itself into potential flashpoints in different parts of the world. The Republican party is now about to put forward a natural incendiary as the man to deal with those flashpoints.

The problem that Mr McCain poses stems from his ideology, his policies and above all his personality. His ideology, like that of his chief advisers, is neo-conservative. In the past, Mr McCain was considered to be an old-style conservative realist. Today, the role of the realists on his team is merely decorative.

Driven in part by his intense commitment to the Iraq war, Mr McCain has relied more on neo-conservatives such as his close friend William Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor. His chief foreign policy advisor is Randy Scheunemann, another leading neo-conservative and a founder of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Mr McCain shares their belief in what Mr Kristol has called “national greatness conservatism”. In 1999, Mr McCain declared: “The US is the indispensable nation because we have proven to be the greatest force for good in human history?.?.?.?We have every intention of continuing to use our primacy in world affairs for humanity’s benefit.”

Mr McCain’s promises, during last week’s visit to London, to listen more to America’s European allies, need to be taken with a giant pinch of salt. There is, in fact, no evidence that he would be prepared to alter any important US policy at Europe’s request.

...Mr McCain’s policies would not be so worrying were it not for his notorious quickness to fury in the face of perceived insults to himself or his country. Even Thad Cochran, a fellow Republican senator, has said: “I certainly know no other president since I’ve been here who’s had a temperament like that.”


The writer, Anatol Lieven, is a distinguished professor at Cambridge and he ends his piece by asking U.S. voters and European governments "to ponder the consequences if Mr McCain is elected and how they could either prevent a McCain administration from pursuing pyromaniac policies or, if necessary, protect Europe from the ensuing conflagrations." What he doesn't do is give even passing consideration to the fact that McCain isn't just worse than a mirror of Bush's worst international tendencies but that he's also as bad as Bush on domestic issues.

The International Herald Tribune is jointly published in Paris by the NY Times and Washington Post and is widely read by Americans living, working and traveling abroad. They are far more concerned with domestic American policy matters than the Financial Times and, like most American economists, they find a great deal to worry about in regard to McCain's economic agenda. If you are skeptical-- or outraged-- about Bush's policies of redistribution of wealth upward-- resulting in a hugely increased income gap and even a life expectancy gap-- you'd better prepare yourself for even worse if the corporate media succeeds in assassinating Barack Obama with soundbytes.

[AzDar]

1. And Europe would be correct.

[samdogmom]

2. He was a fumbling debacle over there, Lieberman was his "savior"!

Whatever. The guy is a walking time bomb! Who knows when he's going to blow????

[Tesha]

3. Perhaps they'll invade, and through "Regime Change", liberate us?

In a few decades, with careful stewardship by the Eurozone
Coalition Forces, we might even have a functioning democracy
again.

Tesha