McCain's Campaign Platform: "Less Jobs, More Wars"

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 5:24 AM on January 30, 2008.

During the coverage of this evening's Florida primary results, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough discussed the impact of John McCain's victory with Pat Buchanan. The Republican establishment will rally around McCain and say "he's the guy," Buchanan said, but he cautioned that McCain's vision for America was foreboding.

"What does he say? The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we're gonna have a lot more wars," Buchanan said of McCain. Scarborough remarked that McCain's "inviting" presidential platform for the fall consists of "less jobs and more wars":

BUCHANAN: Here's a guy, basically, what does he say? The jobs are never coming back, the illegals are never going home, but we're gonna have a lot more wars.

SCARBOROUGH: We're gonna start a lot of wars! He has promised, for the record Keith, John McCain's platform -- and it certainly looks inviting for the fall -- he has promised less jobs and more wars. Now that's something we can all rally behind.

While campaigning in Michigan earlier this month, McCain said some Michigan industries cannot be resurrected. "I've got to give you some straight talk: Some of the jobs that have left the state of Michigan are not coming back," he said.

And just this weekend, McCain told a crowd of supporters, "There's going to be other wars. ... I'm sorry to tell you, there's going to be other wars. We will never surrender but there will be other wars."

UPDATE: Matthew Yglesias writes, "Oddly, though, McCain keeps picking up the votes of Republican primary voters disgruntled with the Iraq War despite being, in reality, the candidate most fanatically devoted to the cause." More here.

Tagged as: mccain, florida, republican party, romney, buchanan, scarborough

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.