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  • Would Someone Get Bush Off Campaign Trail, Please
    By Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow for Economic History
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  United States, Economics, Foreign Policy History, U.S. Election 2008

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  A 'Teachable' John McCain Is One Laughable Idea

  Author:	Amity Shlaes, Senior Fellow for Economic History

  February 7, 2008
  Bloomberg

  That’s the adjective you hear from John McCain’s advisers. The economy may not be the Republican front-runner’s favorite topic. But the man is “open” and “capable of learning.” With the right teaching, McCain could be another Ronald Reagan.

  This argument is laughable. On economics, McCain is about as impressionable as the statue of General Ulysses Grant on the National Mall.

  To McCain, tax proposals aren’t teachables. They are tradeables, something you give up in exchange for concessions from colleagues in other areas that matter more to McCain. No wonder talk-radio dragons have so much fun scorching the senator.

  But McCain doesn’t have to be teachable to be worthy of endorsement. Even endorsements by Reaganauts.

  The best way to explain why McCain won’t be Reagan is to consider the nature of the presidency. Within hours of their inauguration, presidents find that the pressure of events gets to them. The mammal brain—the glad-handing part—and the lizard brain—the part that will do anything to survive—take over.

  View full text of article

• 

  New CFR Books

  

  In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.

  

  In Regional Monetary Integration, Peter B. Kenen poses an important question: Should various country groups follow the lead of the European Monetary Union and form similar full-fledged monetary unions?

  

  Walter Russell Mead recounts the story of the centuries-long rivalry between the English- speaking peoples and their enemies in God and Gold.

  Complete list of CFR Books.

  

  

  New from the Council: Policy Options Papers

  Kenya

  In this POP, Adjunct Fellow Michelle D. Gavin suggests steps the Bush administration could take to promote political and ethnic reconciliation and to restore the viability of Kenya’s governing institutions.

  Pakistan

  In this paper, Senior Fellow Daniel Markey poses a set of recommendations for the United States to consider in response to Pakistan’s ongoing political crisis.

  

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