John McCain -- Taking on the Mantle of the 'Know Nothing' Party for 2008?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Amy Weiss

George W. Bush has shamed many Americans with his incoherent and anti-intellectual approach to the presidency. Now here comes John McCain.

In 1854, an anti-immigrant, fiercely Protestant political party called the Know Nothings fielded one losing presidential candidate before many of their adherents folded into the newly forming Republican Party. Could it be that the Know Nothings are back, with John McCain at the top of their ticket?

John McCain doesn't know where he stands or how he's voted on birth control issues. He doesn't know that Czechoslovakia has been two separate countries since 1993. He doesn't know much about economics. But somehow he knows he's the best choice for president.

Campaigning for president is undoubtedly hard work. Lack of sleep, constant travel, and thousands of speeches will lead to the occasional verbal mistake by a candidate. They happen in nearly every campaign and are usually blown out of proportion by the media for a few days before becoming old news. With Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), however, the gaffes seem to be numerous and could be indicative of something more than fatigue.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Planned Parenthood have already turned a few sound bites from McCain's disastrous week into television ads. The DNC ad shows McCain calling social security funding methods an "absolute disgrace" and highlights his preference for privatization. The Planned Parenthood ad shows McCain's confused, awkward response to being asked about birth control (also watch Jon Stewart's hilarious take). Are these ads just typical opposition ads taking advantage of unfortunate sounding quotes, or are they actually revealing a greater concern about John McCain -- that he really isn't mentally up for the job?

It's possible that McCain's age is somewhat responsible for lack of knowledge. Poor memory, especially of relatively recent events, can be a problem that increases with age. Thingsyoungerthanmccain.com, a humorous blog that pokes fun but also raises serious question about McCain's ability to lead, posted part of a transcript from President Bush's Tuesday press conference:

Q: Thank you, sir. Following up on Bret Baier's question --
THE PRESIDENT: What was the question, Olivier? I'm 62, I'm having trouble remembering a lot of things.
Q: It was about Afghanistan, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Good, yes.

After a brief reminder, Bush recalled the question and no harm was done. The president's self-deprecation, however, reminds us of the reality that as we age our memories begin to lag. So at almost 72, it makes sense that McCain might experience some memory problems.

Maybe that's why two days in a row he hasn't remembered that Czechoslovakia is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Now, this is the kind of stuff you give your grandparents a pass on, because it doesn't really matter. They're not running for president. McCain's campaign staff seems to think it's a problem. They carefully corrected the statements in the transcripts.

In addition to age and memory issues explaining McCain's knowledge gaps, his less than stellar academic chops may account for some of it as well. He graduated from the Naval Academy 5th from the last of an almost 900 person class. He admitted in March, "the issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should."

The word "should" is interesting, as if he knows a working understanding of economics is something the president should have, and he's hoping for a pass. So because he recognized his own shortcomings, he hired economic advisers to articulate his views and policies for him. Enter Phil Gramm. The former Texas senator, McCain's chief economic adviser, spoke about the economy, as his job would warrant, and called us a "nation of whiners" in a "mental recession." McCain then announced that Phil Gramm does not speak for him, he speaks for himself. Maybe he just forgot he hired Gramm to speak for him.

Republicans love to ask, "After only four years in the Senate does Barack Obama have absolutely all the experience to be President?" Of course not. But after 26 years in Congress, neither does John McCain. The proven ability to lead and a fundamental understanding of issues is very important, but the idea that there is a measurable quota of experience and information necessary to be president on "day one" is a farce. No one can ever be prepared for every hypothetical situation that may arise while he or she is in office.

So in 2008 it comes down to choosing between the former president of the Harvard Law Review, who has a clearly powerful intellect and ability to learn quickly, or the guy who doesn't really understand the economy after decades of voting on legislation that deals with it, and whose knowledge base will likely deteriorate while in office.

Doctors insisted that President Reagan, despite serious debate, had not experienced early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease in the White House. The New York Times wrote:

Mr. Reagan had been portrayed by many pundits and political opponents as absent-minded, inattentive, incurious, even lazy. And his Presidency was marked by a succession of very public mental stumbles -- most notably his dismal performance in the first debate of the 1984 campaign, and his confused and forgetful accounting of his role in the Iran-Contra affair ...

If the doctors were right, then forgetting his role in a major foreign policy operation was just typical memory loss for a man in his seventies. If that's typical -- and McCain's behavior suggests it might be -- should we really be willing to accept it?

When we go to the polls in November, remember what eight years of choosing the guy we wanted to have a beer with over the guy we resented for being smarter than us has gotten us.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS