What if McCain Does Win?

What if McCain does pull it off? What kind of presidency does he get?

Well, he starts off 2 years older than Reagan was in 1981. He
celebrates his 73rd birthday in July 2009. That means when he runs
for re-election, he has hit the average male life expectancy of 76
years old.

Even if McCain pulls off a win, his best case scenario with Congress
is stemming Republican losses. Democrats are predicted to pick up 6
Senate seats and another dozen House seats. No one predicts the GOP
has any hope of gaining seats, let alone retaking Congress. Given
that midterms usually go against the President, McCain is looking at 4
years of Pelosi-Reid running a solidly Democratic Congress.

McCain is also unpopular with conservatives, and has never been
considered for leadership in the Senate. Republicans will naturally
lean towards their president in the minority status, but most Senators
know him well and many have mixed to negative feelings towards him.
If Republicans have only 43 Senate seats, as predicted, and a dozen or
so Republicans regularly vote against him, McCain will find himself
with little support on Capitol Hill.

Economists predict pathetically slow growth for the US through 2009,
as low as less than 1%. Gas prices are going to skyrocket, some even
predicting $7/gallon. With high inflation and rising unemployment,
McCain faces Stagflation not seen since the Carter years.

Given the rising deficits that our haunting the dollar and causing
rapid inflation of import prices (namely, oil!), McCain's tax cuts are
highly unlikely to pass the Democratic Congress. He may be able to
cut some "earmarks", but without a line-item veto, he will pretty much
have to accept Congress's budget priorities just as George H.W. Bush did.

His next biggest problem will be Iraq, where support for the war will
plummet even further unless the 5 year trend line reverses itself.
Democrats will be even more emboldened to push for removing US troops,
and McCain's 100 year pledge will not sit well.

War with Iran is almost out of the question, as Americans are tired
two unfinished, interminal wars in the Middle East already. It would
take a draft and major tax hikes to fund such an effort, dooming it
from the start and threatening to put Republicans in near extinction
in the 2010 election.

This puts McCain in the position of one of the weakest presidents in
recent history. He starts off with a weak economy, rising inflation,
and a highly unpopular war, both blamed on his own party. He has
little power in Congress. His age makes people wonder how the strains
of office, which dramatically aged younger men like Clinton and Bush.
He would face re-election with a nation even more uneasy with
Republicans, as the President's party always gets the blame no matter
who controls Congress.

Republicans should ask themselves, "Is this the future we want for our
party?"