One thing about Senator John McCain, he'd make a hell of a movie.
Picture this: a pugnacious young man becomes a Navy pilot, then a prisoner of war. He ends up as a feisty politician with an independent mind and often foul mouth, who can take more than his share of punches and still persevere.
Even now, at age 71, his war wounds make it hard for him to raise his hands high enough to comb his own hair.
It's why a lot of Americans who don't agree with his politics admire him anyway. And why the Democrats may have a tough time defeating him.
Democrat Senator Barack Obama's 10 consecutive primary and caucus victories got all the attention last week because he needed them so badly. He's in a tight contest with Senator Hillary Clinton and he could lose it.
McCain won last week too, in Wisconsin and Washington states, but that's getting less attention because for the first time in a long time, McCain isn't fighting the odds, he's the clear favorite.
But let's back up.
McCain spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam and was tortured there.
Vietnam colors his politics today: His determination that the US will not withdraw from Iraq in defeat; his vow that if he's elected president, the US will forswear torture of any kind.
McCain prides himself on his independence from his party and even public opinion.
When US President George W. Bush took the enormously popular step of cutting taxes in 2001 and 2003, McCain opposed him both times because he said it would primarily make rich Americans even richer. Republicans don't often vote against tax cuts or forgive those who do.
He was an outspoken critic of the prosecution of the war in Iraq, not because he opposed the war but because he felt it was being fought with too few troops to win. Bush's recent and apparently successful troop `surge' in Baghdad suggests McCain was right. But again, Republicans haven't forgotten that McCain broke ranks.
Americans outside the party haven't forgotten either.
The media love McCain and largely overlook his foibles -- his explosive anger and startling behind-the-scenes profanity. Stories of his fiery outbursts at fellow senators, using words you can't publish in most newspapers, have made their way into the media and McCain doesn't dispute their accuracy.
Salty language aside, voters seem to appreciate his willingness to express unpopular positions.
Polls show that even though this is a terrible year for any Republican, if an election were held today, he would be essentially tied with Clinton and fall just a few percentage points behind Obama.
In other words, the Republicans have found a candidate who could actually win this one.
It would make a heck of a Hollywood ending.
Jonathan Mann is a CNN anchor and correspondent based in London.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After more than a year of review, the National Security Bureau on Monday said it has completed a sweeping declassification of political archives from the Martial Law period, transferring the full collection to the National Archives Administration under the National Development Council. The move marks another significant step in Taiwan’s long journey toward transitional justice. The newly opened files span the architecture of authoritarian control: internal security and loyalty investigations, intelligence and counterintelligence operations, exit and entry controls, overseas surveillance of Taiwan independence activists, and case materials related to sedition and rebellion charges. For academics of Taiwan’s White Terror era —
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
RSS