malaria in Africa

[Gautam Mukunda]

Doug wrote: 
Hi Gautam, how are you?  I hope you'll stay with us for a while.  I'd
especially be interested in your perspective on the Presidential contest
which continues to be one of the most interesting in my lifetime.  What do
you think of McCain?  I know your buddy George Will has expressed
reservations.

You're back in the Boston area, eh?

Doug
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Hi Doug.  I am indeed - I've been here for 3.5 years now.  I have huge disagreements with McCain.  I think McCain-Feingold has been a disaster (as some of you may recall, I can at least claim that I thought that _before_ it was passed).  There are several other issues.  

That being said...Dan is right, I'm a big McCain supporter.  He's actually the first Presidential candidate that I've ever given money to (and I gave it to him before NH when everyone still thought he had no chance).  I don't know if he'll be a great President.  I don't even know, really, if he'd be a good one.  But there's no doubt in my mind he's a great man (as David Brooks wrote in his column).  He's the only politician in America I can think of who really would rather be right than President.  John Dickerson wrote an article in Slate comparing Obama and McCain (and I like Obama a lot too) pointing out that Obama says he's going to tell you hard truths in his speech - and then never does.  McCain sometimes doesn't do anything else.  He began town hall meetings in NH in a Republican primary by saying "Global warming is a big problem and we have to do something about it."  He attacked the ethanol subsisy in Iowa.  He (correctly) said that the old
 manufacturing jobs in Michigan weren't coming back.  There simply isn't another politician who does things like that.  I don't know what it would be like to have a President that committed to saying the truth and doing what's right for the country, but I'd really like to find out.  When he won (I think) the NH primary, I put a link to this clip from the West Wing on my Facebook page: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAXz6j4Yj9M.  It seemed appropriate, somehow.  

Beyond personal qualities: McCain is the one person I'm sure will make torture illegal, which is, to me, a matter of national honor and thus absolutely non-negotiable.  I think he will handle Iraq responsibly (Hillary's pledge to start removing troops in 60 days is, to me, the perfect example of everything that's wrong with her as a candidate, and a good start at what would be wrong with her as President).  The war has been mishandled horrendously, but extricating ourselves from it is something that must be done carefully, to put it mildly.  On economic issues - he surely doesn't know them as well as I would wish.  But, look, there are lots of policy issues where we don't really know what the right thing to do is.  I don't _know_ what the right thing to do in Iraq is.  I have some ideas, but I'm really not sure, and I don't trust anyone who is.  But one issue where we do actually _know_ what the right thing to do is, is trade.  Free trade is the right
 policy.  And McCain is right on that (as, sadly, both Democrats, repudiating one of the greatest achievements of the Clinton Administration, are wrong).  If I can't trust someone to get the right answer in an area _where we actually know what the right answer is_, I don't see how I can trust them to get it right on the issues where it's a lot harder.  Anyways, all of that being said - I think Obama is fantastic.  I don't think he's quite ready, but he is something special.  The best political talent of his generation, surely, and the best speaker I've ever seen, bar none.  Amazing.  I don't see how you can look at him, know that, right now, a man who _in his own lifetime_ would not have been able to use buses and waterfountains in half this country, and know that he's the person most likely to be the next President and not be enormously proud of this country.  I think the searching for the Messiah aspects of his candidacy are quite troubling, but he is
 the incarnation of the American Dream, and I would be proud to have either as my President.

Gautam


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