George Bush ran as a "compassionate conservative" before arrogantly relabeling himself as The Decider, the dupe of neocons whose bumper sticker should be "Love Democracy or We'll Kill You."
But, during his 2000 campaign, Bush wanted to grab the GOP conservative base while still appealing to more moderate independents. It was only after he was elected to his second term that he dropped the pretense and proclaimed his true power-grabbing Decider ideology.... neither compassionate nor conservative as he continued to recklessly trash American lives, treasure, culture and good name in the pursuit of his petulant "I'm better than Daddy" crusades.
Grabbing pages from The Decider's sly two-prong playbook, last March McCain labeled himself a "realistic idealist".... just as a White House-aspiring then-governor of Texas Bush called for "realism in the service of ideals," playing to both neocon idealists and pragmatists.
James Mann explains today in "What Will the Pillars of His Foreign Policy Be?" the two factions vying for the upper hand in a McCain cabinet.
On one side is the inspiration for McCain's "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" warbling.... neocon favorite Joe Lieberman. On the other side is longtime McCain friend Richard Armitage who as deputy to secretary of state Colin Powell was an Iraq war skeptic who distrusted the hawks nesting with vice president Dick Cheney and then-defense secretary Don Rumsfeld.
Unfortunately, voters won't know what foreign policy pillar McCain's "realistic idealist" campaign sloganeering favors until he is ensconced in the Oval Office as The Decider II. Pray we'll never have to find out.
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