Justin Logan notes that the "McCain's no neocon" theory is a bit hard to square with the fact that McCain also blurbed Robert Kagan's book. It's true that Kagan (this Kagan!) is the neocon writer who's most likely to garner praise from non-neos, but he's still very much a true believer in that approach to foreign policy and the McCain blurb reflects how deeply enmeshed McCain is with that circle of thinkers.
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Blurbs
11 Apr 2008 05:13 pm
Comments (8)
You're missing the point -- presidential candidates don't just blurb any old book. Whether or not McCain has read the book (seems unlikely) the decision to do the blurb indicates an intellectual and political investment in the author, his ideas, and the general neocon group.
I don't think McCain is a NeoCon. He doesn't buy into any of their abstract theories. He's just a plain old garden variety warmonger.
I don't know. Now, I think McCain _is_ a neocon, at least on foreign policy, so the discussion is sort of moot. But, suppose he were not. Might he still do this? I'd say yes, because people blurb books all the time that they don't agree with and haven't read for all sorts of reasons, and here one reason might be to signal those people who do read this book that they should support him without his having to actually do anything. Since I think he actually does support such views I guess it doesn't matter, but I think the reason he blurbed the book is probably more to signal that those who read it should support him than anything else. Given that, I don't think you can draw any inference from this act.
McCain's blurb is about the "End of History", and that's very non-neo-con. For awhile the "End of History" was one of the dumbo ideas that neo-cons were really hepped on. Or maybe it's one of the tenets/secret-handshakes of the neo-cons to just rebut their own ideas as if they couldn't believe anyone was so dumb etc.
McCain doesn't have the brains to be a neocon - just the lunacy.
McCain is the most dumb (or at least disinterestd) major party nominee since forever.
The guy still can't get Shia/Sunni correct. Bush is a geo-political genius compared to McCain. Seriously.
Not to mention that he was the Navy's worst aviator, and the NVAs best one.
Comments closed April 25, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Of course this assumes that a blurb implies that the blurber agrees with, likes, or even has read the book blurbed. As often as not, especially with famous blurbers, that's not the case. I'd not be surprised if McCain hadn't even read the book. (He's clearly a neocon on foreign policy, but I don't think having done a book blurb shows anything about that.)
Posted by matt (not the famous one) | April 11, 2008 5:41 PM