Phil Agre summarizes the emerging consensus on McCain in this issue of his notes and recommendations:
“Democrats have a lot to fear in this. Bill Bradley does not remotely have the demographics to win in the fall, and the liberals who support him are living in dreamland. Even supposing that Bill Bradley were a real liberal, as opposed to a guy who last week decided to reinvent himself one small notch to the left of Gore, liberals don’t have the luxury of picking the candidate of their dreams because they aren’t out there rebutting the pious cliches of doctrinaire conservativism in public debate. Liberals can’t afford to lose this one, for the simple reason that the next Republican President will throw a legal switch that effectively makes it impossible for labor unions to represent their members in the political process. And that will be it for the Democratic party. The liberals must therefore throw everything behind Al Gore, they must hope that McCain and Walker annihilate one another, and they must pray that their man gets his act together real soon. In particular, they must pray that Al Gore proves himself equal to the opportunity that Bill Clinton clearly saw but just as clearly screwed up: building an inclusive politics on spiritual values. George Walker maybe they can beat. But if John McCain intercepts that pass then it’s all over.”
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