May 15, 2008 2:24

If you like index funds and nukes, you'll love John McCain

John McCain gave a speech (warning: the accompanying ad starts playing as soon as you get to the page) this morning about what the world will be like in January 2013 if we go and elect him this fall. It's a clever conceit, and while there's an awful lot of what I guess you could call wand-waving involved (on Iraq: "Civil war has been prevented; militias disbanded; the Iraqi Security Force is professional and competent..."), it does give you some sense of his priorities. Such as Social Security reform:

The reforms include some form of personal retirement accounts in safe and reliable index funds, such as have been available to government employees since their retirement plans were made solvent a quarter century ago.

And energy policy:

A cap and trade system has been implemented, spurring great innovation in the development of green technologies and alternative energy sources. Clean coal technology has advanced considerably with federal assistance. Construction has begun on twenty new nuclear reactors thanks to improved incentives and a streamlined regulatory process.

And job retraining:

Americans, who through no fault of their own, lost jobs in the global economy they once believed were theirs for life, are assisted by reformed unemployment insurance and worker retraining programs. Older workers who accept lower paying jobs while they acquire new skills are provided assistance to make up a good part of the income they have lost. Community colleges and technical schools all over the country have developed worker retraining programs suited to the specific economic opportunities available in their communities and are helping millions of workers who have lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.

In the end, though, you get the sense--as I almost always do with McCain--that he's far less interested in this issue stuff than in the tone he wants to set:

For too long, now, Washington has been consumed by a hyper-partisanship that treats every serious challenge facing us as an opportunity to trade insults; disparage each other's motives; and fight about the next election.

That could have come right out of a Barack Obama speech. And now it looks like the two of them will spend the next six months trading insults and disparaging each other's motives in an effort to be the one allowed to rid Washington of hyperpartisanship. Big fun.