Re: Searching For Kennedy--McCain

A follow-up to Bruce Reed's question of whether Republicans can produce the next Ted Kennedy: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker proposed John McCain could be the one, a possibility Reed dismisses by saying the GOP's base hasn't tolerated McCain's bipartisanship in the past. Political Animal's Steve Benen doesn't buy it, not after the partisanship of the 2008 election, and points out that McCain's list of legislative feats isn't as long, either.


Maybe McCain will become the next Kennedy...especially if he dedicates himself, as Kennedy did, to moving bills through the Senate--a diligence to go along with his ideals that's been praised as Kennedy's utmost value. McCain has been burned, more or less, by the fires of his party's partisanship, possibly re-vulcanized against pressure to fight the Dems no matter what. Things got crazy in '08, and many wondered if McCain really wanted to be courting Evangelicals and saying Obama hung out with a terrorist. If Kennedy teaches us anything, it's that a politician can be born again into a new life of effectiveness and work...for McCain, that could mean being reborn, post-2008, as his old self.