McCain Flashes His Sore Thumb

I have been saying that I will support McCain for the sake of humanity and security in foreign policy. And I will support him for the sake of getting sober judges on which he will be advised by people like Ted Olson. rather than having to suffer Obama’s completely untethered presumptuous dictators. And, I will support him because he will exercise some restraint of runaway spending, which is especially important as America now faces an entitlement tidal wave, in the face of which Obama would ravage America with tax increases, benefit cuts/medical rationing, and monetary inflation, and still be unable to meet the demand, in fact making matters worse. And, al of that still holds.

However, I have also long said that McCain is philosophically incoherent, which was again showcased today. When reporters challenged McCain about the “unfairness” of insurance companies covering Viagra for men but not birth control for women (and McCain had in fact, voted against coercing insurance companies), he froze and stammered, finally saying he would get back to them, later. Here's how CBS reported it. This was not exactly a lucid and confident statesman leader, which a Republican candidate has to be. Republicans don’t win by ambiguous dithering.

There are a few essential components to an effective Republican response to such questioning: 1) you must understand that the question about some nebulous idea of “fairness” is irrelevant. Even if it were a good idea, which it isn’t, for Congress to mandate how businesses to operate, the hanging untrue assumption of the question is that government can really enforce a superior product for the customer, which it can’t. And a Republican has to be able to stride directly into that confusion and explain that in a positive way to the public.

Suppose that Congress concludes that it is unfair for insurance companies to cover ED drugs but not birth-control for women. So, Congress passes a mandate for insurance companies to cover birth-control for women. Now, will things be all better because wise government has imposed “fairness?” No, the cost will go up for everyone. The companies have established policies in the interest of controlling cost and offering a competitive cost. This will not hurt their competitive position because it will apply to all of their competition as well. But, it will impose additional cost on all of them and in finality, increase the price of insurance, which everyone already says is too high.

This simple-minded costly government arbitration of judgments like “fairness” on private operations is the province of irresponsible and/or foolish Democrats. A Republican who can’t even make a decent effort to clear the fog is no clearer alternative for voters to choose. Again, it requires the clarity to immediately grasp this and the facility to express this to the public in a positive way for a Republican to distinguish himself as a superior option. I can only hope and pray that it will get better. I know that conservatives have foolishly swallowed rash and wild criticisms of Mike Huckabee. But, he would have immediately picked up on this and, at McCain’s side would advise him about engaging a clueless media.