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McCain Echoes Apathy for Midterm Elections
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
October 22, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Expecting a low voter turnout on the 2014 Midterm
elections, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) admitted that voters seem turned off by
both parties. “What I’m hearing
from my pollster friends is that people don’t like Republicans and they don’t
like Obama,” McCain told his daughter Megan, hosting Pivot’s “TakePartLive.” When President Barack Obama beat
McCain in 2008, few expected that nearly six years into a two-term presidency,
Obama would only have a 40% approval rating.
While better than the 28% that former President George W. Bush left
office in 2009, it’s not the 60% Obama enjoyed shortly after taking office. Voters looked forward to a
post-partisan president, hoping they could turn the corner on one of the most
bitterly divided periods in American history.
Swept up in the 2008 Democratic landslide in Congress, Obama let House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
dictate his first term agenda.
Pelosi and Reid hit Obama’s new presidency with a wrecking ball, pushing
national health care legislation known as the Patient Protection and
Affordability Act. By the time
Obama signed the legislation March 23, 2010, the damage had already been done to
his approval ratings. Relentless
Republicans attacks from Capitol Hill and from every conservative media source
eventually turned the public against Obama.
All because Pelosi and Reid believed it was the nation’s best shot at
national health care. When the plan
morphed away from a single-payer system to one of using the private insurance
sector, the well-intentioned program gave way to endless challenges,
complications and roadblocks. While
generally accepted today, Obamacare assured another bitterly divided presidency. Juggling many balls especially in
U.S. foreign policy, Obama shot himself in the foot with Obamacare.
Just like Bush’s Iraq War transformed his presidency into one of the most
unpopular ever, Obamacare did the same thing to Barack. Obama couldn’t save himself with
soaring rhetoric, letting the conservative media juggernaut define his
presidency. Now that he’s pivoted to a new war against the Islamic State in Iraq, his approval
ratings are looking up. Democrats
hope to hang onto their slim majority in the Senate but most pollsters predict a
narrow GOP victory on Election Day.
While Obama’s current approval ratings don’t help Democratic Senate candidates,
any losses reflect more on candidates’ strengths than Obama’s lack of coattails. “And they’re very, very turned off. And I’m afraid we are going to see a
very low voter turnout in this election, and that’s not healthy for, obviously,
any of us,” said McCain, though highlighting the same dilemma for Democrats Nov.
4.
Obama’s pivot away from domestic issues to starting a new Mideast war
carries certain risks for Democrats heading into November. While there’s little that will
happen between now and the election, Obama’s handling of the war against ISIS
could impact the 2016 presidential election.
Some call for the White House to pull the plug on more involvement
against ISIS. Yet if ISIS sacks Baghdad, which is a growing possibility, then Democrats’ chances grow
dim in 2016. Already blamed by
conservatives for the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Obama must find the right
balance in Syria and Iraq to reclaim lost U.S. credibility. Cutting-and-running would hand ISIS
Baghdad on a silver platter.
Whatever mistakes Bush made, it’s up to Obama to find a reasonable fix, not make
matters worse. Baghdad falling to
ISIS would cause Democrats problems for generations, not just 2016.
Before retiring as Secretary of State in 2013, Democrat’s expected 2016
presidential candidate, former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, agreed with McCain
to start bombing Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.
Once Obama decided to punt the Syrian question of al-Assad’s alleged use
of chemical weapons to Congress, Democrats have had a hard time defining a
coherent foreign policy, until Obama decided Aug. 8 to start bombing ISIS in
Iraq and Syria. McCain has been one
of Obama’s biggest critics, especially on foreign policy. When McCain went to Syria in 2013
and met with Free Syrian Army leader Brig. Gen. Salim Idris, he concluded that
Washington should back moderates’ attempt to topple al-Assad. McCain hasn’t said much after Idris
parted ways with ISIS after reclusive 44-year-old leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
started seizing large swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Democrats’ fate in 2016, including a successful bid by Hillary, depends
on Obama making the right moves in Iraq and Syria. If Obama continues to insist on no
U.S. ground troops to stop al-Baghdadi’s forward advance on Baghdad, Hillary’s
going to have a tough time explaining the fall of Baghdad. Obama’s air strikes haven’t yet
stopped ISIS advance on Kobane and other border towns near Turkey. While broadening an air war against
ISIS with neighboring Gulf States, Obama hasn’t yet accepted military analysts
and world leaders, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who
insist that only ground troops can stops ISIS. With ISIS closing in on Baghdad, Obama better get off the fence when it comes to ground
troops or brace for the fall of Baghdad.
Complaining about the battered Iraq military won’t stop al-Bagdadi from
pursuing his namesake.
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