This may seem peculiar, but one of my fondest-but-craziest desires after this long presidential campaign is to see Barack Obama appoint John McCain to his cabinet.
Before anyone readies the flame mail, hear me out. This idea first crossed my mind as I watched McCain give his concession speech. It was a great speech – actually better than Obama’s. It was conciliatory and calm and supporting and moderate – everything McCain was not for the last nine months. It was the old McCain, the one I liked so much in 2000.
I wondered if that old McCain was dead. Turns out he was only sleeping. I want that guy back. If McCain were to join the Obama cabinet it would serve both politicians, and America, exceedingly well.
Why it would help Obama:
Obama has campaigned as a reach-across the aisle type of a guy. He has to prove his mettle here. McCain would be a stunner, a real Hail Mary, razzle-dazzle play. Most Republicans would like it, and Dems would grouse a lot but finally admit McCain’s experience can only help the inexperienced Obama.
Obama needs to convince the 50 million people who voted against him that he will not run roughshod over conservative politics. McCain would be his brakeman. Liberals don’t want a brakeman, I know, but remember, McCain is not an extreme conservative. He just looks like one on TV. That makes him an even better choice, because he can play the conservative when necessary and work the middle behind the scenes.
Obama and the Democrats are banking on cost savings from an Iraq withdrawl to pay for some of the initiatives they have in mind. But Iraq has to be scaled down skillfully. It is true that McCain has campaigned for our prolonged presence in Iraq, but I don’t think the two are far apart on this issue. Both want to get out, but McCain wants to be more cautious. Obama could use a cautious whisper in his ear. Too many doves could make him repeat the mistakes Bush made in the opposite direction.
McCain’s military credentials will make Obama’s strategic moves in the Middle East easier to sell to the public and to the soldiers.
Like every political leader, Obama needs a voice of dissent in his cabinet. McCain would be that, bone fide.
Why it would help McCain:
McCain is not the leader of his own party any longer, so this would permit him a new life. The extreme right sees McCain as a leader who lost to a hated opponent because he never went in fully for the old school culture wars. He’s lost their respect anyway. The boos at his concession speech tell us what the party base really thinks. Why not cut ties and move on?
At 72, McCain is in the twilight of his career. He’ll never run for president again, and his party is ambivalent about him. He’s like Michael Dukakis in 1989. Certainly McCain thinks he has more to give, but he won’t be successful playing out the string in the Senate. He needs a new gig, and Obama can give it to him.
I have always felt Obama and McCain were not that far apart on major issues. On those issues where they agree, McCain could achieve some of the same things he might have as president. He could even get his name on them, for history’s sake – remember the Marshall Plan, the Powell Doctrine, George Kennan’s plan of strategic containment?
McCain has said that he wants to reduce the size of the intelligence system, which he thinks is too big and unwieldy. He wants to slash the CIA and replace it with a smaller, more nimble intelligence agency. Obama can’t do this without being hammered by conservatives. McCain, with his military cred, can.
McCain could also be the point-man for shutting down Guantanamo Bay and rewriting torture policy. He is superbly qualified to do this, probably wants to do it, and it would be a wonderful legacy for his career.
But where would McCain go? This is a sticky question, and until I came up with an answer, I had my doubts about this idea. First, McCain needs to be in a top position. Obama can’t stick him with EPA – that would be an insult. He shouldn’t be Secretary of State or of Defense, because he has been a bit to vocal in his criticism of Obama on foreign policy in the past. Bad fit.
No, the best fit is Secretary of Homeland Security. It puts McCain high in the cabinet, and gives him some real red meat to work with. He can be significantly involved in Iraq policy from DHS, without his fingerprints being on anything. And DHS is, in my opinion, the most unwieldy and wasteful of all the big government departments. Its creation was one of Bush’s biggest mistakes. McCain could supervise its dismantling, and he would do that job well.
What’s more, if McCain dismantled Homeland, he would have a graceful exit. Once that job, and the reorganization of CIA is done, McCain could, like a corporate raider of the 1990s who has bought a company and sold off its parts, declare his mission complete, sell his stock, and gallop into the sunset.
I’d like to see McCain’s career end like that. I still like him, after all the water under the bridge.
But, some critics may ask: What about Hillary? Shouldn't she be the top priority, instead of a vanquished Republican opponent?
I have a theory about Hillary. My theory is that, in that one hour meeting she and Obama had just before she suspended her campaign, that Obama made her an offer. I think he promised her a seat on the Supreme Court. I’m betting Hillary Clinton doesn’t get a cabinet post, and may not want one. She knows she’s headed for a higher place.