a crazy person that would’ve made him look bad if he had agreed
The bitter truth was that McCain’s political instincts sucked. He should have doubled down and gone with the crazy, rather than trying to play at respectability politics and wait to sabotage Obamacare from the cloak room of the Senate. His base didn’t want to hear about how Obama’s plan was a moderate reform to shore up a broken private system. They wanted to hear that the scary black man was going to kill whitey.
His policies were still along the same lines as trump (and as bush before him).
McCain took a full 180 on a litany of policies - climate change, health care, immigration, balancing the budget - the moment Obama stepped into the White House. But that’s SOP for “moderate” Republican congressmen. Spend 20 years going to Think Tanks, agreeing with everyone, and saying you’re going to deliver reform. Then torch a mountain of legislation because your rival hurt your feelings when he didn’t let you win.
The bitter truth was that McCain’s political instincts sucked. He should have doubled down and gone with the crazy, rather than trying to play at respectability politics and wait to sabotage Obamacare from the cloak room of the Senate. His base didn’t want to hear about how Obama’s plan was a moderate reform to shore up a broken private system. They wanted to hear that the scary black man was going to kill whitey.
McCain took a full 180 on a litany of policies - climate change, health care, immigration, balancing the budget - the moment Obama stepped into the White House. But that’s SOP for “moderate” Republican congressmen. Spend 20 years going to Think Tanks, agreeing with everyone, and saying you’re going to deliver reform. Then torch a mountain of legislation because your rival hurt your feelings when he didn’t let you win.