The Financial Times published an op-ed by Anatol Lieven, a British academic (who sidelines as an American think-tank-er), titled “Why we should fear a McCain presidency.” In the piece, Lieven schools his British compatriots on the danger that “a natural incendiary” like Republican Presidential candidate John McCain poses to trans-Atlantic relations.
Leiven explains: “The problem that Mr McCain poses stems from his ideology, his policies and above all his personality. His ideology, like that of his chief advisers, isneo-conservative. In the past, Mr McCain was considered to be an old-style conservative realist. Today, the role of the realists on his team is merely decorative.”
Leiven aims for straight for his fellow Briton's sensibilities when targeting McCain's temper as an especially damaging element of his persona. “Mr McCain's policies would not be so worrying were it not for his notorious quickness to fury in the face of perceived insults to himself or his country. Even Thad Cochran, a fellow Republican senator, has said: "I certainly know no other president since I've been here who's had a temperament like that."
In his conclusion he rallies his compatriots to get scared… get very scared over the next nine months: “Not just US voters, but European governments, should use the next nine months to ponder the consequences if Mr McCain is elected and how they could either prevent a McCain administration from pursuing pyromaniac policies or, if necessary, protect Europe from the ensuing conflagrations.”
If the the British public buys into Leivin's argument, they must now be thinking: “If President Bush turned Tony Blair into his “lap dog,” just imagine what McCain could to do Gordon Brown…”
