McCain faces some overwhelming odds

Washington: Senator John McCain is trying, he really is. But not since Democrat George McGovern in 1972 and Republican Bob Dole in 1996 has a presidential candidate faced such overwhelming political odds, both personally and philosophically.

McGovern wasn't much of a candidate, personality-wise, but he tried to ride the tidal wave against the unpopular Vietnam War. He botched it. President Richard Nixon won re-election anyway. If only we knew about Watergate then!

Dole was experienced and personable, but he was up against another incumbent president, Bill Clinton, who was better at everything than Dole except controlling his wandering eye and hands. And nobody cared. They loved him anyway and he was too popular to bring down!

McCain is not necessarily stuck with a beloved president - Bush's latest job approval ratings are 28 per cent overall, 20 per cent on his handling of the economy. That's about the level at which you deserve to be consigned to chains in the basement.

But McCain is glued to a party controlled by the very big-business interests that have given us the economic problems we have today. He listens to the wrong people, such as former Senator Phil Gramm. He has, during his Senate career, tried to shake off some of those shackles, but in his bid to win the presidential nomination he went running back to the worn-out orthodoxy of the party base. It's a shame.

No break

McCain doesn't seem able to catch a break. He's taken three foreign trips in the past four months, most of them yielding little more than a stifled yawn from the media.

Compare that to the unseemly spectacle of all three major television anchors dutifully trailing along with Democratic contender Barack Obama's visit to Europe - wow! Big deal trip, never before made by a possible presidential candidate! - spiced up with a quickie, not to-be covered show-up in the real problem areas, Afghanistan and Iraq.

McCain's problem is not his alone. The Republican Party under the Bush dynasty has deteriorated into Karl-Rove-designed narrow wedge issues that are, thank goodness, in decline - gay-bashing and religious piety, to name a few. Oh, and hooray for the American flag! These are symbols, not policies. Empty slogans. He was charming when talking to a major Hispanic organisation, and indeed he has been more understanding of their problems than his party's right wing. But does that mean votes?

He may have a chance with them unless Obama makes inroads with Latino voters that he wasn't able to achieve in the primaries. If you dig into his economic prescriptions, even without the ominous presence of Gramm, it is backward-looking.

Talk about old ideas. More drilling in Alaska. Oh my!

We've heard all this stuff about balancing the budget while protecting and increasing tax cuts to the rich, funding wars at will, vaguely trimming "entitlement" programmes - code for funds that go to education, poor folks, old folks, you name it.

This had a ring to it when Ronald Reagan proclaimed government was the problem, but that was decades ago. If it ever worked, it doesn't.