Posted by
Tim Blessing on Thursday, January 31, 2008 11:44:27 PM
John McCain has been in Congress for 25 years. Can he effect change?
That come's down to a few key skills that do not include vision like John Kennedy's, which we paid for over a 17 year period after his assassination.
The key abilities in this area are insight, political skill, and interpersonal skill.
Nixon had insight into a lot of issues, but his forte was foreign policy.
Franklin Roosevel, Lyndon Johnson, and Abraham Lincoln had the most political skill.
Interpersonal Skills is an important ability. Clinton had this skill in abundance.
Conservatives don't like McCain because he won't toe the party line right down to crossing the t's and dotting the I's.
McCain appeal's to the broad middle of the voting public. Ironically, he is a better general election candidate than a primary candidate.
Conservatives of the ideological variety have litmus tests that no one other than Reagan could pass.
I have no problem with mainstream national security conservatives and mainstream economic conservatives.
My problem and McCain's could be those conservatives who are cultural and religious conservatives.
McCain will never know peace with the right wing. Nixon didn't know it, Eisenhower didn't know peace, Ford didn't know peace, and even Reagan in his own time didn't know have total peace with them.
The Radical Right and the Reactionary Left do not have the country's best interest at heart. They see through the very narrow lense of ideology or the science of ideas.
Meaning, that the extremists in both parties view politics as a science rather than from its practical aspects.
Political Philosophy is based on practical wisdom rather than a science.
McCain symbolize's political philosophy rather than ideology. So he won't appeal to ideological conservatives, but he will appeal to voters who represent the broad middle