Three Democrats

It is said that Bill Clinton likes to tell people that he governed as an Eisenhower Republican. There is a lot of truth to the claim (especially with regard to the last six years he was in office). His administration featured balanced budgets, restrained federal spending, and low inflation. It was a time of peace, progress, and prosperity. There were no new large federal mandates or controls. He was a generally successful president and a better one than either of the Bushes.

Seen in this light, one could say that the two presidential elections of the 1990s were contests between Republicans – in 1992 between an Eisenhower Republican and a Rockefeller Republican and in 1996 between an Eisenhower Republican and a Dirksen Republican. So I guess it’s fair at least in some sense that the 2008 election is now down to a contest among three Democrats.

John McCain is the Scoop Jackson Democrat. He is aggressive and vigorous on foreign policy. He likes big government and reveres civilian “public service”. He is seriously ignorant about and really disdainful of markets, economics, and business. He is at heart a command and control guy who has shown he won’t let the Constitution be an impediment to getting what he wants done.

Hillary Clinton is the Lyndon Johnson Democrat. She has the power mania, the expansive agenda of programs and controls, the dishonesty, the slimy associates, the vindictiveness, the mean spirit, the penchant for abuse of power. She’s got it all. She almost could be a junior grade Lyndon.

Finally there is Barack Obama. He is the Kennedy Democrat. The question is which Kennedy. He strives to be seen as a John Kennedy Democrat. However, based on his past and record, he is a Ted Kennedy Democrat. If he has undergone a transformation from a Ted to a Jack, he can show us. He has time.

If not, old Scoop is the lesser of the evils, at least on the surface. However, there is the fear that Scoop would have compliant Republican senators for his bad schemes, while Lyndon or Ted would have filibustering Republican senators for theirs. Against that there is the near certainty that Lyndon or Ted would appoint terribly bad justices to the Supreme Court versus only a fifty percent or so chance that Scoop would. Figuring out what to hope for is a tough and interesting question to consider.