Palin pick means McCain is like Bush

By PAUL BEGALA | 9/16/08 4:49 AM EDT

McCain may be trying to distance himself from Bush, but his VP pick tells a different story.

As the political class prattles on about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, we are overlooking the most important aspect of her selection as the GOP running mate: what it says about John McCain.

And what it says is, he’s just like George W. Bush.

In choosing Palin, McCain was in full Bush mode. Like Bush, he followed his gut, ignored advice from experts and acted on impulse. In fact, McCain’s rash and reckless choice of Palin makes Bush look downright careful by comparison — so McCain may well be more Bushian than Bush himself. If you liked eight years of a president who went with his gut, acted on impulse and gambled our nation’s future on a hunch, you’ll love John McCain.

Let’s take a test. Who does the following describe: A wealthy and hot-tempered rebel, he spent half his life fighting to live up to a famous father and grandfather, encouraged always by an indomitable mother. A self-described moderate on the campaign trail, he courts ultra-right-wing preachers behind the scenes and promises to appoint stridently conservative judges. A multimillionaire who supports more tax cuts for more millionaires, he surrounds himself with supply-siders and calls for policies that would drive us deeper into debt. The chief cheerleader for the war in Iraq, he said we’d be “welcomed as liberators” and angrily challenges anyone who questions his distorted and out-of-touch view of reality.

A self-styled reformer, his Kitchen Cabinet is stocked with Washington lobbyists. Deeply out of touch on economic issues, he repeats nostrums like “the fundamentals are strong” even as the fundamentals are deteriorating. He carefully courts the press, who suck up to him even though he supports authoritarian policies like wiretapping Americans without a court order. He is supported by oil company lobbyists and supports drilling in some of our most sensitive ecosystems. Although he gladly accepts government health care for himself, he would abandon you to take on colossal insurance corporations on your own. Charming and disarming at first blush, his wit masks a petulant temper and a self-righteous streak that even members of his own party worry about.

If you guessed George W. Bush, you’re right. And if you guessed John McCain, you’re also right.

Aided by a team of a dozen researchers and writers, I spent months going through McCain’s record. In ways both large and small, frightening and funny, on matters of both style and substance, and on issues of policy and politics, McCain represents a continuation of the Bush years. His defenders — and they are legion in the national press corps he accurately calls his “base” — will howl, but a clear-eyed reading of the record makes a compelling case that on nearly all of the things that matter most, John McCain would be more of the same.

The war hero part of McCain’s biography is indeed real. But the notion that he is a maverick and the argument that he’s a reformer are myth. McCain has in fact voted with President Bush 91 percent of the time, and yet otherwise sensible people call him a maverick. Sports fans, being less gullible than politicos, would never call a baseball player who hit from the right side of the plate 91 percent of the time a lefty. Yes, there have been brief apostasies (apparently 9 percent of the time), but even when he has broken with Bush, over time he has recanted his heresy and fallen back in, as he has done on taxes. McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts in 2001, but now he proposes making the Bush tax cuts permanent. That’s like marrying a girl you wouldn’t date.

And, like Bush, McCain has a remarkable affinity for lobbyists. His campaign has, by my count, 134 lobbyists serving as bundlers or advisers or staff members. He has chosen to associate himself with people who have lobbied for foreign dictators, big oil companies and every corporate special interest you can think of. And yet he gets away with calling himself a reformer. Now, 134 lobbyists are not lining up to support McCain because they actually believe he’s a reformer. If John McCain’s a reformer, I’m a Hassidic diamond merchant.

If Barack Obama can get every voter to learn just two numbers, he will be president. Those numbers are 91 and 134. If by Election Day every American knows McCain votes with Bush 91 percent of the time and has 134 lobbyists in his campaign, then the myth of the maverick reformer will be dead. And with it, McCain’s chances of following his unlikely soul mate as president.

Paul Begala is a political contributor to CNN. He served as counselor to the president in the Clinton White House. This column is adapted from his new book, “Third Term: Why George W. Bush Loves John McCain” (Simon & Schuster).