What can I say, John McCain just loves surges.
Reading from a prepared text at an event in Ohio today, McCain said, “What we need today is an economic surge. Our surge in Iraq has succeeded militarily, now we need an economic surge to keep jobs here at home and create new ones. We need to reduce the tax burden on businesses that choose to make their home in the United States of America. We need to open new markets to U.S. products. And we need to reduce the cost of healthcare. And we need to end the out of control spending in Washington that’s putting our debt on the backs of our children.”
I’m a little surprised McCain didn’t mention the role of energy policy in his economic plan, but whatever.
The important thing to remember here is a point we discussed the other day: If you’ve got a problem, John McCain has a surge.
In Iraq, of course, McCain loves the surge so much, he’s willing to credit the surge for events that occurred before it even began. When a policy starts working before it actually begins, you know it must be an effective policy.
In Afghanistan, McCain opposed sending additional troops, that is until a few weeks ago, when McCain announced he supports a … wait for it … surge in Afghanistan.
Over the last several days, McCain has become so enamored with this child-like formulation — surge = problem solved — that he’s now willing to extend it to policies that have nothing to do with the military or foreign policy. On Saturday, addressing the Urban League, McCain talked about his approach to inner-city crime. He recommended a surge.
“You go into neighborhoods, you clamp down, you provide a secure environment for the people that live there, and you make sure that the known criminals are kept under control,” he said. “And you provide them with a stable environment and then they cooperate with law enforcement.” The way he described it, his approach sounded an awful lot like the surge.
It’s become so reflexive, the McCain campaign, two weeks ago, was talking about the debate over energy policy, and said, in relation to Obama’s position, “This is the domestic policy equivalent of the surge.”
But this is especially odd given today’s remarks about the economy. What’s the difference between McCain’s economic policy yesterday and his new-found support for an “economic surge”? Nothing, except now, McCain’s policy is surge-rific.
I’m curious — if McCain was challenged to give a speech without the word “celebrity” or “surge,” could he do it? I really doubt it.
