From: Randall Parker 


http://www.reason.com/0004/co.vp.the.html
   Excerpt:
But there is something palpably strange about this year's presidential
race. It is nearly free of issues. It looks more like a high school student
council contest than a choice of historical moment. Candidates dutifully
introduce ideas, following the scripts of their predecessors-- universal
health care if you're a Democrat, big tax cuts if you're a Republican--but
voters mostly yawn, interested in personalities, not policies. John McCain
may claim his supporters are excited about campaign finance reform, but
exit polls say they like his story and his style.

Voters have learned something from the last 12 years that the candidates
haven't yet grasped: Nowadays, you never know what the president is going
to do from what he says on the campaign trail. This isn't simply a matter
of empty promises. It's a reality principle. Presidents don't plan
civilization. They react as it changes rapidly and unpredictably.
Presidents face questions, challenges, and constraints that never came up
in their campaigns: The Soviet Union collapses, Iraq invades Kuwait, the
Internet booms, Asian economies crash, tax receipts pour in and wipe out
the deficit. It's the age of the in-box president.

President Bush was, in his peculiar way, ahead of his time. His
administration lacked activist initiatives. Bush waited for the problems to
come to him. In his day, that was damning. Today, it would be good
politics.

Interestingly, the truest heir to Bush in this race is not his son but
McCain--a war hero of generally conservative instincts but little political
philosophy, the scion of a family of public servants, a man who promises
little more than to uphold the national honor and do the right thing.
McCain sings the praises of Teddy Roosevelt, but his agenda is surface
sentiment. Nothing about his impossibly vague platform suggests a genuinely
activist agenda. He merely promises to support truth, justice, and the
American way.

McCain says again and again that he wants "to inspire young Americans
to commit themselves to causes greater than their self-interest," but
rarely provides examples of such causes. He offers neither a Clinton- Gore
list of wonkish specifics nor a Reaganesque strategy of a few big ideas.
The most he promises is to be a good man, vetoing obviously foolish
expenditures.

For all his talk of reform, McCain is a status quo candidate whose
supporters say they're generally satisfied with the state of the country.
They trust him with the nation's in-box because they like him. He's upbeat
and funny and courageous. His history recalls an age of heroes without
asking us to re-enter it. He appears to speak his mind-- or at least not to
guard his tongue, which among talking points and spin control seems like
the same thing.

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