Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Night Out East

I went to Pasadena to see Matt Welch, editor of Reason, give a speech on his book about John McCain. Matt talked about the many myths of John McCain--for instance, how he has the "Straight Talk Express," but prevaricates as much as any politician, or how he's painted as a man who won't take us rashly into war but, after having seen the light about a decade ago, has been a leader in supporting preemptive strkes. McCain, he explained, isn't especially ideological. The one point he cares about most, no matter how it's expressed, is that we should live for something bigger than our petty self-interest. That wouldn't be so bad if it didn't mean that McCain wants to have the government take care of this problem for us.

He predicted Obama would win the election, but then said he's always wrong about these things

I went out with Matt and his wife Emannuelle (who is seven months pregnant) afterward. Matt is glad to see Obama versus McCain--not because he's thrilled that we've got two big government candidates, but because it at least represents an unusually stark choice. Matt, as you might guess, is no great fan of McCain. He admits the best argument for him is gridlock.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's the stark choice?-Don't disagree that McCain/Obama are very different in the way that Republicans and Democrats are usually very different but I think you are referring to something else-what stark choice were you specifically referring to? There's Young v. old; White v. black; Unpredictable vs. nontraditional (quick- which is which)?

They both have a kind of a non-ideological appeal. To go out on a limb, it seems that but for the nature of the rhetoric and background of the cronies appointed, their presidential policies won't be all that different--i.e. "100 years" vs. "peace now" will I suspect result in the same gradual wind-down- think 1973-75.

6:31 AM, May 15, 2008  

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