As she's done so often, Peggy Noonan offers a different and provocative take on the political scene, this time concerning John McCain.
[T]here is a sense about his campaign that . . . John McCain has already got what he wanted, he got what he needed, which was to be top dog in the Republican Party, the party that had abused him in 2000 and cast him aside. They all bow to him now, and he doesn't need anything else. He doesn't need the presidency. He got what he wanted. So now he can coast. This is, in the deepest way, unserious. JFK had to have the presidency—he wanted that thing. Nixon had to have it too, and Reagan had to have it to institute his new way. Clinton had to have it—it was his destiny, the thing he'd wanted since he was a teenager.The last person I can think of who gave off the vibe that he didn't have to have it was Bob Dole. Who didn't get it. And who had a similar lack of engagement in terms of policy, and philosophy, and meaning.
For myself, I'm not so sure that McCain isn't serious; he may just be such an eclectic candidate that his campaign seems all over the place, even incoherent. Or maybe it's just symptomatic of the summer political doldrums; neither campaign seems very coherent right now. We'll know more by Labor Day.
Posted by Alan at June 27, 2008 10:28 PM