The wheels fall off the Straight-Talk Express
DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images More than any other U.S. politician, John McCain is routinely lionized in the press as a “maverick” who takes bold stances against the reigning orthodoxy of his party, be it on climate change, tax cuts, immigration, torture, or what have you. There’s some truth behind this straight-shooting image, as we noted when ...
DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images
More than any other U.S. politician, John McCain is routinely lionized in the press as a “maverick” who takes bold stances against the reigning orthodoxy of his party, be it on climate change, tax cuts, immigration, torture, or what have you. There’s some truth behind this straight-shooting image, as we noted when McCain told Michigan autoworkers bluntly that globalization means that their old jobs weren’t coming back.
But even St. McCain, at the end of the day, is just another politician trying to win an election—as he proved this week while campaigning for Tuesday’s Florida primary. Speaking in “Cuban-American hangout” in Miami, McCain called for the indictment of Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Referring to the controversial Brothers to the Rescue incident from 1996, when the Cuban air force shot down two planes operated by a Cuban-American exile group opposed to the Castro regime, McCain had this to say:
I would be prepared to open that investigation immediately. It seems to me that the radio intercepts show very clearly that the shoot down of that airplane was orchestrated as an act by the Cuban government.”
Orchestrated as an act? It’s a tragic incident, but Cuba had been warning for months that it would shoot down planes that violated its airspace. McCain has also vowed to continue the U.S. embargo against Cuba until the regime holds free and fair elections. I’m no fan of the Castro regime, but even prominent Cuban exiles are now starting to say that the embargo has been counterproductive. I think McCain is letting his eagerness to win Florida get in the way of his better instincts.
More from Foreign Policy


At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.


How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.


What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.


Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.