USA Today 02/18/00
FOREIGN POLICY: McCain says he'd support, in some fashion, forces trying to overthrow regimes in ''rogue states'' such as Iraq and North Korea. He'd also ''use our primacy in world affairs for humanity's benefit.''
Bush, too, counsels against isolationism but has emphasized more than McCain that the United States should intervene in conflicts when it is in the nation's direct interest to do so.
Sometimes we forget that, while Bush held positions in the 2000 primaries (and up to 2002) that originated from Colin Powell's camp, McCain was already touting the neoconservative inspired model of regime change in Iraq. In fact, the title "McSame" is a little disingenuous, as it forgets the actual struggle within the 43rd administration between the State Department and the neoconservatives, and the period up to the first part of 2002 where Bush followed Powell's advice.
USA Today 02/18/00
FOREIGN POLICY: McCain says he'd support, in some fashion, forces trying to overthrow regimes in ''rogue states'' such as Iraq and North Korea. He'd also ''use our primacy in world affairs for humanity's benefit.''
Bush, too, counsels against isolationism but has emphasized more than McCain that the United States should intervene in conflicts when it is in the nation's direct interest to do so.
Sometimes we forget that, while Bush held positions in the 2000 primaries (and up to 2002) that originated from Colin Powell's camp[1], McCain was already touting the neoconservative inspired model[1996][1998] of regime change in Iraq. In fact, the title "McSame" is a little disingenuous, as it forgets the actual struggle within the 43rd administration between the State Department and the neoconservatives, and the period up to the first part of 2002 where Bush followed Powell's advice[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].
McCain, on the other hand, was already aligned with the neoconservatives in 2000[16], and in 2008, McCain's national security team still features a strong neoconservative presence[17]. Much as they proved problematic to Reagan[18], and Bush 43[see links above][19], (Bush 41 called them crazies in the basement and kept them out[20]), neoconservative advisers, like Randy Scheunemann is already posing problems for McCain, even before the election[21]. Slogans like 8 more years and McSame may be catchy, but they don't adequately capture the events of the last 8 years, and they certainly don't fully capture concerns about neoconservatives and McCain.