Obama Meets McCain: What Will Come of Today’s Meeting?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


President-elect Obama is hosting John McCain in Chicago as I write this. Over at his other space, David speculates on how that conversation is going. Here’s a snippet:

B: Can I get right to the point?

J: Straight talk? Sure, fire away.

B: It was a tough campaign. But now it’s over. And as I said on the campaign trail, I respect all you’ve done for this country. All you have given and sacrificed. I do. But now it’s time to talk about what comes next. For you.

J: (Slightly sarcastic.) Thanks for thinking of me.

B: John, you’re not going to have a lot of friends back there. There’s Lindsey, Joe and…well, that’s about it–

J: You don’t have to worry about me–

B: I’m not worrying–

J: And you want to be my friend now?

B: Not your friend. Your partner. Listen, there’s a lot we disagree on. But there are several big things we see eye-to-eye on. Guantanamo, torture, global warming, political reform. And I’d like to ask you, what would you now like to accomplish? What legislation would you like to pass? What do you want your legislative legacy to be?

I think this raises a great point. What direction does John McCain take in the post-presidential period of his life?

Since at least the mid-1990s, John McCain has had his eyes set on the presidency. For the first time in many years, he doesn’t have to fit his actions and statements to the narrow proprieties of a presidential candidate. Instead, he has a legacy to think about.

I think that means McCain turns into a pragmatist. He’s smart enough to realize that he has to put his stamp on some major legislation if he is going to be known as anything other than the guy who passed campaign finance and lost two presidential contests. In order to do that in Obama’s Washington, McCain will have to buck his own party (which he has always relished doing) and he will have to work with the man who just defeated him (which today’s meeting, depending on Obama’s behavior in it, could make more likely).

Luckily, there is plenty of opportunity here. Obama and McCain were two of Capitol Hill’s foremost reformers (of course, that’s like being the tallest building in Topeka, Kansas) and they could easily collaborate on a new ethics bill. McCain says he hates lobbyists (despite keeping an awful lot of them in his inner circle) and Obama has promised to weaken lobbyists’ hold on Washington. Lobbying reform is low-hanging fruit for this pair.

They also agree on closing Guantanamo Bay, ending torture (where McCain tried to take the lead until he ran into opposition from the Bush Administration), and taking serious action on climate change. They both support comprehensive immigration reform. If McCain can pass a landmark bill on one or two of these subjects in the next eight years, he will likely enter history not as a presidential loser, but as one of the most productive and successful senators in a 15-20 year span.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate