The Case for McCain

The New Yorker has the best piece of political journalism I’ve read this year. George Packer gives an interesting and insightful narrative following the currents of the conservative movement from Nixon to Bush, discussing how the dialogue of this presidential race reflects the shifts in the conservative base which has been a long time coming. The most important part of the piece comes at the very end, as Packer discusses how McCain has broken from the Modern Conservative base, how he is feared and shunned by much of the far right which has controlled the Republican Party, but how, in this political climate, that is the only chance for a Republican candidate this fall.

In its final year, the Bush Administration is seen by many conservatives (along with seventy per cent of Americans) to be a failure. Among true believers, there are two explanations of why this happened and what it portends. One is the purist version: Bush expanded the size of government and created huge deficits; allowed Republicans in Congress to fatten lobbyists and stuff budgets full of earmarks; tried to foist democracy on a Muslim country; failed to secure the border; and thus won the justified wrath of the American people. This account—shared by Pat Buchanan, the columnist George F. Will, and many Republicans in Congress—has the appeal of asking relatively little of conservatives. They need only to repent of their sins, rid themselves of the neoconservatives who had agitated for the Iraq invasion, and return to first principles….

It was a remarkably subdued performance. McCain doesn’t try to stir a crowd’s darker passions or its higher aspirations. He doesn’t present himself as a conservative leader; he is simply a leader. His favorite book, according to Salter, is “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” because it’s the story of a man who struggles nobly even though he knows the effort is doomed. McCain says to audiences, Here I am, a man in full, take me or leave me. This might be the only kind of Republican who could win in 2008.