Whither John McCain?

Move over, Nostradamus. The political prognosticator for our times is legendary television producer Aaron Sorkin, the creator of The West Wing. It was only this past summer that I finally got hold of the final season of that brilliant show (season 7, 2005-06), which ended with the Bartlet presidency being succeeded by the Matt Santos administration. (Whoops... that was a spoiler.)

Season 7's story line is eerily parallel to the political goings-on this side of the reality-fantasy threshold (including Russia going to war during the election year!). Santos, a young and ethnic Democratic senator (played by Jimmy Smits) is catapulted into the national spotlight largely on the strength of his own charisma. In political hand-to-hand combat he defeats the more established candidates to win the Democratic Party nomination. His challenger on the Republican side, four-term US senator Arnold Vinick (played by Alan Alda of M*A*S*H fame), is not a social values conservative but a moderate of high principles who is largely reviled by the conservative members of his own party. 

If this is already sounding like Obama and McCain, it gets even better. Vinick ends up being saddled with a running mate meant to appease the right-wing base of his party, which has threatened not to come out and support him. Sarah Palin, anyone? Meanwhile, ObamaSantos has picked an old hand as his vice presidential candidate to bolster his own perceived shortcomings but who also tends to stumble during debates. (Pssst... that's Biden.)

So far this isn't earth-shatteringly strange. Anyone who tuned in to right-wing talk radio over the past few years could have seen McCain-Palin coming from a mile away, and Obama—despite his name rhyming with Osama—wasn't that much of a long shot. 

In both our world and the world of The West Wing, Republican Vinick is doing fine until a major national catastrophe forces him to eat his own words. In the reality of our reality, that was the once-in-a-century financial collapse not long after McCain had declared that everything was just fine and okay. In the parallel universe of The West Wing, it was a major disaster at a nuclear power plant in California (Vinick's home state), a short time after which video is found and rebroadcast ad nauseum of Vinick having declared (before the disaster) that nuclear power is perfectly safe. 

The beginning of the end for both Vinick and McCain, despite both of them being what would have been in any other time (2000 for McCain) the perfect candidate for the presidency. 

Vinick narrowly goes down to defeat, resists the urge to drag American through a challenge to the results, and graciously congratulates his opponent. But it is eating away at him that he came so close and lost primarily due to this unforeseen circumstance (the nuclear accident) and he plots how he might run again four years later (okay, so this is different from McCain, as far as we know). 

In the world of The West Wing, however, politicians make up in wisdom what they lack in vindictiveness, and Santos decides that, since he and Vinick on balance have almost identical views on international issues, his best choice for Secretary of State should be Vinick himself. Vinick, sensing a trap (keeping him from running?) is at first skeptical, but he accepts. In the West Wing universe, Americans have won two great leaders for the price of one.

Maybe Aaron Sorkin was on to something. I seem to remember from 10th grade something about early presidencies where the runner-up became the VP. That, of course, was forced on the new president, but in cases where the winner and loser still are friendly and see eye to eye on some issues, why not bring in the also-ran as a valuable member of the administration? 

I think Senator McCain would make a fine Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense. He is knowledgeable and—despite his Palin pick—highly respected by many in the US and around the world. I dare say that to the rest of the planet, he is the most favored of any Republican other than Colin Powell (who lost points for play front man for Cheney's war). As long as McCain feels he can represent Obama's foreign policy, this would be a fine position for a statesman such as McCain, at least for one term. 

I think putting McCain in the position of Secretary of Defense would also be a stroke of genius, if McCain would be willing to take the position. Obama's most pressing military task would be to extricate us from the Iraq War while ensuring that we don't end up losing the war in Afghanistan. If McCain is resigned to the inevitability that we will get out of Iraq sooner rather than later, perhaps he would like a say in handling that delicate task (and it is delicate: like an arrow that has shot halfway through the body, is it best to pull out quickly or push it all the way through?). And he certainly would love to oversee a successful reworking of the situation in Afghanistan. 

So I offer that idea to Obama and his people: McCain for Secretary of Defense. 

Obama has already expressed interest in having Republicans in his cabinet (see this Wall Street Jounral list of possible candidates). There has been a lot of talk about Nebraska US Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican who was always opposed to the Iraq War, being picked for SecDefense. Obama's promised departure from Iraq is going to meet strong resistance from the right, so perhaps it's better to get someone from the right to handle it. And that means Hagel or McCain. 

I'd rather not see McCain as Secretary of State, just because that elevated position should go to Democrats worthy of the position. Hillary Clinton's name has been thrown about, and Senator John Kerry has been jockeying for the position. I've even heard Bill Clinton suggested. 

But I think the job should go to New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Despite the mainstream media virtually ignoring his run for the presidency in favor of Hillary and Obama, his résumé is more substantial than either of them, and it includes a great deal of diplomatic experience, for both Democrats and Republicans. He is someone who has shown results when dealing with countries that don't care much for the United States (including North Korea) and all signs point to him being an effective representative of the US overseas. 

Not only is he among the best qualified and most capable, but he also deserves it on the basis of political favors. When he dropped out of the presidential race, he became an active campaigner for Obama. I believe he had quite a hand in several western states (e.g., New Mexico and Colorado) flipping to blue. 

So those are my picks: Richardson for Secretary of State (putting him in a position to be the next Democratic nominee, though he will be eight years older in 2012... but won't we all?), McCain or Hagel for Secretary of Defense. [And though I like Richardson much better for SecState, I could see Obama putting Hillary Clinton in that role as well, despite media-generated buzz about Hillary and Obama not being able to get along at all.]

I think it would be good to pick Hillary as Secretary of Health and Human Services with it clearly understood that she would be at the forefront of the effort to expand health care. Yeah, yeah, I know that has echoes of 1993 and 1994 when the un-elected First Lady seemed to be overstepping her bounds and pushed for a radical change many Americans were simply not ready for. A decade and a half later, after many Americans have become bankrupt or otherwise seriously hurt by America's failure to ensure that we take care of our own, it's a different story: maybe the United States is mostly ready for a prophetic Hillary Clinton, now elected or appointed, to get back to work on that issue that is near and dear to her heart. That would also ensure that she is a major contender for the White House in 2012 (when I'd like to see a Richardson-Clinton or Clinton-Richardson ticket). 

But back to McCain. If the good senator from Arizona is not offered or does not accept a position within the Obama administration, then I sincerely hope he plays an active role in building bridges between the majority Democrats and the minority Republicans. Believe it or not, there's still a lot of common ground, and even where there's not much, it's good to have a voice who knows how to reach out to the other side. 

As I also said several months ago about a silver lining to a McCain win, I also think McCain is a good person for the Democrats to work with on campaign finance reform and environmental issues. Even as last Tuesday's loser, that's still true. 

McCain is a valuable statesman. Let's not let that go to waste.