PERRspectives: Take the Lindsey Graham Challenge: "Good Luck Making McCain George Bush"

May 5, 2008

Take the Lindsey Graham Challenge: "Good Luck Making McCain George Bush"

The record of politicians issuing challenges to the press is not a happy one. Just before his Donna Rice scandal broke in 1987, Democratic frontrunner Gary Hart dared the media to "follow me around." The rest, as they say, is history. Now, South Carolina Senator and John McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham has issued a challenge of his own. Claiming on CNN McCain "is his own guy," Graham then threw down the gauntlet, "Good luck making him George Bush."

Challenge accepted.

As it turns out, John McCain in his eternal quest for the Republican presidential nomination has adopted virtually the entire Bush agenda. In so doing, the supposed "maverick" McCain has repeatedly reversed long-held positions, compromised core principles and swallowed his pride in order to curry favor with both the leading lights of the conservative movement and right-wing Republican primary voters. No doubt, Americans are right to view a John McCain victory in November as a third term for George W. Bush.

Permanent American presence in Iraq. Of course, McCain's perpetuation of a third Bush term starts with Iraq, but hardly ends there. Both have argued for an extended U.S. military presence, which in McCain's telling could last 100, 1000 or even a million years. At a January 2008 town hall meeting, McCain showed his commitment to upping Bush's ante in Iraq:

Q: President Bush has talked about our staying in Iraq for 50 years - (cut off by McCain)
McCAIN: Make it a hundred.

Making the Bush tax cuts permanent. No area of policy foreign or domestic reveals John McCain's transformation in the second coming of George W. Bush than in his gymnastic flip-flop on the Bush tax cuts. Despite twice voting against Bush's tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans who need them least ("I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortunate among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief"), McCain now wants to make them permanent. Worse still, an analysis by the Center for American Progress shows the McCain tax plan wouldn't merely blow a $2 trillion hole in the U.S. budget; it is even more regressive than his predecessor's.

Broken promises on the deficit. Like George W. Bush, John McCain has been quick to abandon his promises to slash the federal budget deficit. On track to produce a $400 billion deficit this year, President Bush has stopped talking about his bogus 2004 pledge to halve the deficit by 2009. Self-proclaimed "deficit hawk" John McCain likewise has already given up on his February 2008 promise to offer a balanced budget by the end of his first term. It's no wonder Douglas Holtz Eakin, McCain's top economic adviser, declared in April, "I would like the next president not to talk about deficit reduction."

Health care redux. Last week, McCain unveiled what is essence a warmed version of the Bush health care plan, one which was dead on arrival. As the Miami Herald noted, both put health insurance tax credits at the center, "Bush proposed tax credits of up to $3,000, but they were never enacted. McCain has upped the ante to $5,000." Like Bush, McCain would end the employer health care deduction. And like President Bush, John McCain would leave most of America's 47 million uninsured without coverage and those with pre-existing conditions in jeopardy.

Opposed the expansion of S-CHIP. President Bush vetoed the expansion of the effective - and wildly popular - State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP). And John McCain was with him, calling the veto a "right call by the president." Of course, that didn't stop McCain from making an appearance at a Florida children's hospital last week, a hospital that happened to support the S-CHIP expansion he opposed.

Social Security privatization. Social security privatization may rank among President Bush's greatest failures, but that hasn't stopped John McCain from adopting it as his own. In March, McCain confirmed for the Wall Street Journal that "As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it - along the lines that President Bush proposed."

Conservative Supreme Court Justices. Desperate to quell an insurrection among the GOP's hard right, John McCain made it clear he would follow George W. Bush's lead on appointing only the most conservative judges to the Supreme Court. Having previously expressed misgivings about Samuel Alito, McCain in January 2008 told the National Review's Byron York:

"Let me just look you in the eye. I've said a thousand times on this campaign trail, I've said as often as I can, that I want to find clones of Alito and Roberts."

Overturning Roe v. Wade. McCain also removed any ambiguity about his preferred future of Roe v. Wade. Having declared in 1999 that "I would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade," John McCain by November 2006 told ABC's George Stephanopolous that he joined President Bush both in wanting Roe overturned and in backing a constitutional amendment banning abortion.

These and countless other examples demonstrate that, to paraphrase Lindsy Graham, John McCain has made himself George W. Bush.

Which is a huge problem for McCain and his Republican allies. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed that 43% of Americans think John McCain is too closely aligned with President Bush. (As MSNBC's Chuck Todd noted, that makes George W. Bush - and not Jeremiah Wright - "the biggest political albatross heading into November.") Given that over 70% of Americans disapprove of President Bush and more than 80% believe the country is on the wrong track, it's no wonder Karl Rove, Lindsey Graham and the coordinated efforts of the McCain campaign and the White House are trying mightily to create the facade of distance between George W. Bush and his would-be successor.

Let's make sure they don't get away with it. Take the Lindsey Graham's McCain challenge ("Good luck making him George Bush") today.

UPDATE: In the latest example of McCain's transformation, Arianna Huffington asserts - and the McCain camp denies - that John McCain told her "I didn't vote for George Bush" in 2000. Presumably, McCan will also deny rejecting George W. Bush's embrace during a 2000 South Carolina debate, telling his future mentor, "Don't give me that shit. And take your hands off me."

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