Let The Big Tack begin!

McCain gave a speech on foreign policy this week (the full speech is here). And thus begins the tactic of tacking away from President George W. Bush. McCain has to be careful, because his image of a straight shooter who speaks his mind, will be a strong leader and doesn't shilly-shally around is at stake if he tries to tack too far away from his support of a bellicose foreign policy.

But it has to be done, due to the Democrats' strategy against him. And it will be tough. There's plenty of video out there to exploit. McCain is a clear supporter of the single most unpopular aspect of a deeply unpopular presidency.

Robert Novak wrote this week: "An economist who once headed the Congressional Budget Office, he wrote a dense, non-political account that was absentmindedly cleared by the campaign's managers without serious consideration. Indicating that the undermanned McCain campaign is not ready for prime time, the senator's own economic speech in Orange County, Calif., a day later was no better."

Well, my reaction to watching McCain's speech was that the candidate himself is not ready for prime time. He kept on reading from the teleprompter to a degree that detracted from any sense of genuine conviction. Every time he came to a line that he wanted to say with some sense that he passionately believes it, he didn't have the line memorized, and was so scared that he flub it up that he would look back to the teleprompter. Very distracting.

He kept on limiting America's friends to "democracies." Yet isn't this what got us into the mess in Iraq, a focus on only seeing a regime as good and helpful to our interests if it's like us in its political form?

McCain's foreign policy is exactly Bush's. Yet the media reported the speech as if it was some kind of critique of Bush's policies. McCain only benefits from the inordinate attention given to the Democratic race. He can come out and get media attention on his own terms, without such a gigantic spotlight on him, and thus shape the narrative: "McCain criticizes Bush's foreign policy." Well, no he didn't. There's no daylight between the two politician's views, but also less daylight between his and other national leaders than is commonly assumed.

The 100 years comment confirms this. Charles Krauthammer complains about that comment being twisted to being fighting a war for 100 years. And yet, we didn't have an exit strategy in Iraq because we weren't going to leave--hence all the permanent bases we have built there. This is the way American foreign policy operates, through a network of bases in other countries. This doesn't necessarily make the 100 years comment less disturbing, unless you believe as Krauthammer and most national politicians do, that the permanent presence of the US is necessary all around the globe. But the 100 years comment will still be used against McCain, and rightfully so, since it brings to light a fundamental aspect of American foreign policy that should be debated in an election: is the US empire of bases sustainable and does it actually provide necessary security?