Just a Third Bush Term? A Response.

The Democrats seem to believe if they repeat Obama's disingenuous mantra 'third Bush term' enough that the average American voter will internalize it:

• On Iraq, John McCain differs from the incumbent in that he has directly been in combat; he knows the horror of war firsthand. He also has a material stake in the military, namely two of his own sons whom are proudly sustaining the long McCain family tradition of honorable military service. He will insist on improved foreign intelligence, work more closely with our allies and international bodies, use military force only as needed, with a more credible, imminent threat to national security, and avoid long-term Iraq-like occupations. Given his military education and career, Senator McCain has a better understanding of military strategy, will challenge and not simply rubberstamp recommendations, and will hold the military brass accountable and on a shorter leash.
• McCain has publicly opposed or criticized the Bush Administration on a number of occasions, including the 2001/2003 tax cuts (for failing to constrain the spending side of the equation), the Medicare Drug Benefit, inadequate military staffing and strategy to combat insurgency during the Iraq conflict/occupation as early as 2003, Bush's leadership and management of the Katrina disaster, the interrogation techniques of prisoners in Cuba, environmental policy, and the administration's inability to hold down spending and veto wasteful earmarks, even in dealing with a Republican-led Congress.
• Obama ironically seems to be a closer fit with Bush in that both lacked military and foreign policy experience in assuming a national candidacy, they had/have no substantive legislative accomplishments on the national level, and they both had/have unrealistic expectations of bipartisanship in Washington based on their experience with state legislatures. (This comparison is somewhat unfair to President Bush because Obama does not have executive or business experience.) One might wonder, given the more challenging environment and problems of 2008, whether the nation has the time and patience for Obama to learn on the job and whether we might experience an even more serious mismanaged debacle than Iraq or Katrina.
• The Bush White House has worked closely with Congress and the Democrats on an infrequent and often contentious basis; John McCain has worked with the Democrats on a number of reform compromises (campaign reform, torture policy, lobbyist/ethics, climate change, and immigration) , often at odds with his own party, and was part of the bipartisan Gang of 14 which defused a Senate crisis over floor votes on judicial nominees. In contrast, Barack Obama as a state senator cast a number of "present" votes on politically-sensitive issues; a President cannot vote "present" but has to be willing to make the hard decisions, even unpopular ones. Obama has been voting in lockstep with the majority of his Democratic colleagues instead of challenging them, as John McCain did on his colleagues' use of earmarks. However, we do have a one moment of direct comparison: McCain in 2006 had invited Obama to a bipartisan group looking to strengthen lobbyist/ethics reform. Obama decided to leave the group in short order in favor of throwing his support behind the minority Democratic bill and letting McCain know of his decision via a press release. Was this an example of Obama's much-hyped post-partisan politics?
• McCain is his own man and had his own constituency when he competed with Bush in the 2000 primaries and defeated him by a large percentage in the New Hampshire primary. Over the 2008 primary campaign, he lost evangelical voters to Governor Huckabee and many media conservative voters to Governor Romney. He was a strong supporter of the surge strategy proposed by Bush at the end of 2006, but that's largely because the change in strategy accommodated McCain's earlier, consistent criticisms on the record. The unpopularity of McCain's high-profile advocacy of the surge resulted in the collapse of his frontrunner status last year. We know about McCain from his campaign slogan: "Putting the Country First"--not party, not himself, but our country. We learn about McCain from the Presidents he admires: the anti-trust populism and conservationism of Teddy Roosevelt, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln in reuniting our country and eliminating slavery, and the pragmatic conservatism of Ronald Reagan, whom compromised on payroll taxes and immigration. We know about McCain as a father by his refusal to exploit for political reasons his own Marine son's prior service in Anbar province. We learn about McCain's values from his books exploring the themes of courage, hard decisions, and character. We recognize how others perceive him by his unanimous selection as the 2005 recipient of the Eisenhower Leadership Prize for exemplifying the soldier President's integrity and leadership through "steadfast, thoughtful, and reasoned leadership in the Congress and for his distinguished public service throughout his life".