THE DANGEROUS MYTH OF JOHN McCAIN

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JOHANN HARI, SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER - A lazy, hazy myth has arisen
out of the mists of New Hampshire and South Carolina. Across the
pan-Atlantic press, the grizzled 71-year-old Vietnam vet, John McCain,
is being billed as the Republican liberals can live with. He is "a
bipartisan progressive," "a principled hard liberal," "a decent man" --
in the words of liberal newspapers. His fragile new frontrunner status
as we go into Super Tuesday is being seen as something to cautiously
welcome, a kick to the rotten Republican establishment.

But the truth is that McCain is the candidate we should most fear. Not
only is he to the right of Bush on a whole range of subjects, he is also
the Republican candidate most likely to dispense with Hillary Clinton or
Barack Obama. . .

Rage seems to be at the core of his personality: describing his own
childhood, McCain has written: "At the smallest provocation I would go
off into a mad frenzy, and then suddenly crash to the floor unconscious.
When I got angry I held my breath until I blacked out." But he claims he
was transformed by his experiences in Vietnam -- a war he still defends
as "noble" and "winnable," if only it had been fought harder. . .

McCain has distinguished himself most as an uber-hawk on foreign policy.
To give a brief smorgasbord of his views: at a recent rally, he sang
"Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran," to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara
Ann." He says North Korea should be threatened with "extinction."

McCain has mostly opposed using U.S. power for humanitarian goals,
jeering at proposals to intervene in Rwanda or Bosnia -- but he is very
keen to use it for great power imperialism. . .

So why do so many nice liberals have a weak spot for McCain? Well, to
his credit, he doesn't hate immigrants: He proposed a program to
legalize the 12 million undocumented workers in the U.S. He sincerely
opposes torture, as a survivor of it himself. He has apologized for
denying global warming and now advocates a cap on greenhouse gas
emissions but only if China and India can also be locked into the
system. He is somewhat uncomfortable with the religious right (while
supporting a ban on abortion and gay marriage).

It is a sign of how far to the right the Republican Party has drifted
that these are considered signs of liberalism, rather than basic
humanity.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/348434_mccainonline24.html?source=mypi


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