It is easy to convince yourself that John McCain is able to be president. He has served in the Senate for years and is a veteran of our Armed Forces. Sounds pretty much like a textbook president. Except he’s not fit. The presidency requires more than a militaristic view of the country and world. The economy can’t be run with an iron fist; it must flow and have a life of its own, with the government protecting the economy’s ability to thrive, not force-feeding it fertilizer in the hopes it would grow faster. McCain, by his own admission, doesn’t “get” economics (for more on McCain and his economics squad, read this article from the Weekly Standard and you’ll see the people he cites as advisers have economic views that are antagonistic with the others).
The problem with not “getting it” is that national security and the economy are married issues. You can’t get one and not the other. In an interview between Nathan Gardels and Nobel laureate Joe Stiglitz (Nobel Prize winner in Economics in 2001), Mr. Stiglitz responds to this lack of knowledge on McCain’s part:
Gardels: The economic costs have now come back to undermine the whole post-9/11 security effort. When John McCain says he’s not interested in and doesn’t understand the economic aspect of things, and only knows about how to keep America safe, what does that say about his leadership capability?
Stiglitz: If he doesn’t understand the economy, he doesn’t understand security. If we had infinite resources, we might be able to have perfect security. But America, like every other country, has resource constraints. That means you need to be smart — that is, economic — about the money we spend. If you weaken the American economy, you won’t be able to find the resources you need for security. The two cannot be separated.
Sadly, this critique can be made of the two front-runners in the democratic race as well. What we need is a candidate who gets the economy and foreign policy. Hmm, Michael Scheuer knows all about bin Laden and foreign policy and he is on record as saying that only Ron Paul gets it. Dr. Paul is also the only candidate that can go toe-to-toe with Ben “I’m Alan Greenspan in a bigger man’s body” Bernanke, head of the Federal Reserve and make him squirm. So Dr. Paul gets the economy.
A candidate that gets foreign policy and the economy?!? Incredible!
And yet, because of the nanny state our country has devolved into, people seem to not question the media’s anointed Republican candidate. A man riddled in controversy (Keating 5, improper relationship with female lobbyist), lacking in moral integrity (dumping wife after she has an accident and marrying trophy wife a couple months later), embraces more war-mongering (stay in Iraq 100 years, bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran), and an ardent supporter of Bush Co.; no, John McCain is not fit to run this country.
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