Obama, McCain partisanship

David Brooks:

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His weakness is that he never breaks from his own group. In policy terms, he is an orthodox liberal. He never tells audiences anything that might make them uncomfortable. In the Senate, he didn’t join the Gang of 14, which created a bipartisan consensus on judges, because it would have meant deviating from liberal orthodoxy and coming to the center.

How do you build a trans-partisan coalition when every single policy you propose is reliably on the left?

John McCain has cordial relations with Obama, but he is very different. He is most moved by examples of heroism and individual excellence. His books are about individual character and patriotism, not networks or community-building.

He is not a loner (in fact, he dislikes being alone), but whether he is a prisoner of war or a senator, he is acutely aware of how corrupt social pressures encroach on individual integrity. While Obama seeks solidarity with groups, McCain resists conformity. He fights fiercely, though not always successfully, against political pressures in order to remain honest, brave and forthright.

In the Senate, he sits in the back of the Republican policy lunches cracking jokes at the hired spin-meisters. He is allergic to blind party discipline and builds radically different coalitions depending on his views on each issue — global warming, campaign finance, spending, the war. He is most offended by dishonor. He’ll be sitting in his Senate office and he’ll read about some act of selfishness — a corrupt Pentagon contract, Jack Abramoff’s scandals — and he’ll spend the next several months punishing wrongdoing.

McCain’s campaign events are unpredictable. At Obama events, the candidate gives a moving speech while the crowd rises deliriously as one. McCain holds town meetings. People challenge him, sometimes angrily. And if they oppose him, McCain will come back to them two or three times so that there can be an honest exchange of views. Some politicians try to persuade their audience that they agree with them. McCain welcomes disagreement and talks about it.

McCain’s weakness is that he flies by the seat of his pants. If elected, he will have to live in the cocoon of the White House and build an organized and predictable administration. As a pilot, he got used to taking off from aircraft carriers. But as president, he’ll be the guy steering the aircraft carrier.

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That last metaphor is a little too cute. Brooks best point is on Obama's unwillingness to break from partisan Democrat orthodoxy. He just wraps his liberalism in rhetoric about getting along with everyone without offering any real evidence that he can persuade others to give up deeply held beliefs to get along with him. In the Democrat echo chamber this all sounds wonderful because he is preaching to the choir that thinks anyone who does not agree with them is venal anyway, but when he faces real opponents who actually disagree with him on the issues and the facts he will be just another politician trying to get his way.

McCain is one of those politicians the media loves most when he is working against the interest of his fellow Republicans. When he is on the right side of an issue, they think he is committing political suicide. That is why when he really is, such as his position on immigration reform, they miss the story.