DroppinScience
10-27-2008, 12:54 AM
New York Times has two brilliantly written articles on what the presidency would be like under these two men based on their character, personality, and past experiences.
Barack Obama -- forever sizing up (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27387762/)
[...]Winning the presidency would be the latest in a lifetime of dramatic, self-induced transformations: from a child reared in Indonesia and Hawaii to a member of Chicago’s African-American community; from an atheist to a Christian; from a wonkish academic to the smoothest of politicians; and now, just possibly, from an upstart who eight years ago was crushed in a Congressional race to the first black commander in chief of the only superpower on earth.
Turning deficits into assets — a skill Mr. Obama learned in his 20s as a community organizer — could well be called the motto of his rise. With his literary gifts, he transformed a fatherless childhood into a stirring coming-of-age tale. He used a glamourless state senator’s post as the foundation of his political career. He mobilized young people — never an ideal base, because of thin wallets and historically poor turnout — into an energetic army who in turn enlisted parents and grandparents. And even though his exotic name, Barack Hussein Obama, has spurred false rumors and insinuations about his background and beliefs, he has made it a symbol of his singularity and of America’s possibility. [...]
John McCain -- flexible aggression (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27386955/)
[...]The conflicting impulses toward deliberation and aggression have been the alternating currents of his singular career and, if Mr. McCain wins the White House, could shape his presidency. As a Navy pilot, Mr. McCain has written, he let his “cockiness” deafen him to the risk of a buzzer warning of enemy fire. But as a returning prisoner of war he drew nuanced conclusions about political leadership and public opinion that have left him at some times a dove (Lebanon, Somalia ) and others a hawk (the Balkans, Iraq).
In the Senate, he is almost as well known for his handwritten apology notes as for his outbursts. (“I think I learned a few things in prison but possibly one of the most important things was the value of friendship,” Mr. McCain wrote in one note provided to The Times. “Chalk it up to the ‘McCain temper.’ ”) He fires advisers who disappoint or embarrass him, but then keeps seeking their advice. He frets publicly that his ambition might tempt him to compromise his principles, but he also races headlong into battles in pursuit of political power.
If elected, Mr. McCain would arrive well-scarred at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: 72 years old, the oldest president to enter office, the first Vietnam veteran, a survivor of five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison camp who could also have a son at war. Jimmy McCain, a Marine, recently returned from Iraq, while his brother John Sidney McCain IV, a Naval Academy midshipman, could be on the way.
Driven as much by his notion of honor as by ideology, Mr. McCain could make an unpredictable — his critics say “erratic” — chief executive. By default he is a limited-government conservative, but he readily bends those convictions if a cause seems worthy. He has regularly picked fights with both parties over everything from the tax policy to the war on Iraq, but also knows how to force through bipartisan deals. [...]
Barack Obama -- forever sizing up (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27387762/)
[...]Winning the presidency would be the latest in a lifetime of dramatic, self-induced transformations: from a child reared in Indonesia and Hawaii to a member of Chicago’s African-American community; from an atheist to a Christian; from a wonkish academic to the smoothest of politicians; and now, just possibly, from an upstart who eight years ago was crushed in a Congressional race to the first black commander in chief of the only superpower on earth.
Turning deficits into assets — a skill Mr. Obama learned in his 20s as a community organizer — could well be called the motto of his rise. With his literary gifts, he transformed a fatherless childhood into a stirring coming-of-age tale. He used a glamourless state senator’s post as the foundation of his political career. He mobilized young people — never an ideal base, because of thin wallets and historically poor turnout — into an energetic army who in turn enlisted parents and grandparents. And even though his exotic name, Barack Hussein Obama, has spurred false rumors and insinuations about his background and beliefs, he has made it a symbol of his singularity and of America’s possibility. [...]
John McCain -- flexible aggression (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27386955/)
[...]The conflicting impulses toward deliberation and aggression have been the alternating currents of his singular career and, if Mr. McCain wins the White House, could shape his presidency. As a Navy pilot, Mr. McCain has written, he let his “cockiness” deafen him to the risk of a buzzer warning of enemy fire. But as a returning prisoner of war he drew nuanced conclusions about political leadership and public opinion that have left him at some times a dove (Lebanon, Somalia ) and others a hawk (the Balkans, Iraq).
In the Senate, he is almost as well known for his handwritten apology notes as for his outbursts. (“I think I learned a few things in prison but possibly one of the most important things was the value of friendship,” Mr. McCain wrote in one note provided to The Times. “Chalk it up to the ‘McCain temper.’ ”) He fires advisers who disappoint or embarrass him, but then keeps seeking their advice. He frets publicly that his ambition might tempt him to compromise his principles, but he also races headlong into battles in pursuit of political power.
If elected, Mr. McCain would arrive well-scarred at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue: 72 years old, the oldest president to enter office, the first Vietnam veteran, a survivor of five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison camp who could also have a son at war. Jimmy McCain, a Marine, recently returned from Iraq, while his brother John Sidney McCain IV, a Naval Academy midshipman, could be on the way.
Driven as much by his notion of honor as by ideology, Mr. McCain could make an unpredictable — his critics say “erratic” — chief executive. By default he is a limited-government conservative, but he readily bends those convictions if a cause seems worthy. He has regularly picked fights with both parties over everything from the tax policy to the war on Iraq, but also knows how to force through bipartisan deals. [...]