We broke for a few minutes for a bathroom break but then resumed, only this time on my ‘philosophy’ of governing.
Tom: “What do you think is the most important thing for a President to do?”
Me: “Learn to say NO, and say it over and over. And not just to the other party, either. It’s even more important to say it to your own party, and louder and more often.”
Tom: “What do you mean?”
Me: “Well, saying no to the other party is easy. After all, as a Republican it’s pretty easy to say no to raising spending and creating new programs and agencies that the Democrats want. What’s much more difficult is to say no when the Republican Party is demanding that you cut taxes or go to war someplace or do something else that will totally screw things up for the country. No, no, no! Just say it over and over.”
Tom: “Which is more dangerous, the economy or foreign relations? Where do you say no more often?”
Me: “In the short run, foreign relations, but in the long run, the economy. With foreign relations, we have the most powerful military in the world, bar none, and everybody wants us to use it. The Republicans wanted to invade Afghanistan — No. Iraq — No. Iran — No. North Korea — No. Venezuela — No. The Democrats wanted to send the same army everywhere else, to get into the middle of civil wars and make everybody on the planet behave and be nice. No! You only use the military when you have to, not when you want to.”
Tom: “And the economy?”
Me: “Again, the magic word is No. No, I am not going to raise Social Security and Medicare and food stamps and everything else under the sun. No, I am not going to cut taxes and borrow money from the Chinese. Deficits matter. You can go in the hole on occasion, but you have to pay it back. It’s the same whether you are an individual, a family, or a nation. If you don’t pay the bills, the economy gets weaker and weaker and weaker, and then, very suddenly, you’re not a great nation anymore. So you just keep saying no, over and over.”
Tom: “That doesn’t make many friends. They could say that you are breaking campaign promises.”
Me: “Campaign promises are made by people who don’t have the responsibility of being the President. The job looks different when you aren’t kibitzing from the cheap seats.”
Tom: “Does Vice President McCain plan to continue the Buckman Doctrine?”
Me: “We never really had any specific ‘Buckman Doctrine.’ We always handled foreign relations problems on an issue by issue basis, and Vice President McCain was fully involved in any discussions.”
Tom: “You may not have had a formal doctrine specified, but certainly there quickly came to be an understanding that any nation that militarily attacked American interests was going to be the recipient of a fearsome retribution. You effectively destroyed both the governments and the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Me: “If you are going to play in the big leagues, don’t be surprised by big league rules. If you attack America, or you attack our allies, nations we have formally promised to protect, don’t be surprised when we return the favor. How we do that, that is up to the President and his advisers, but the fact that there will be a response should be understood.”
Tom: “There have been persistent calls by both the left and the right to use military force to clean up the world, to topple dictators and act as a policeman. You have steadfastly refused to even discuss those topics.”
Me: “It is not in America’s interest to throw our weight around like a bull in a china shop. If people think that we can make the rest of the planet act nice and play well with the other children, they are astonishingly naïve. As for dictators, sooner or later their own citizens will figure out what to do and take care of the problem. If we get involved, nobody will benefit, least of all us. I’ve said it before; we can’t be in the business of running around and shooting jackasses just because they are jackasses. We’ll run out of bullets long before we run out of jackasses. Again, this is just one more example of the need to say no.”
After the interview was broadcast, my thoughts made a bit of a stir. For one thing, NBC investigated my comments about my medical prognosis, and turned that into a special report. As I knew they would find out, my family had a real history of Alzheimer’s and strokes. My father’s mother had died of a massive stroke and his father had died of Alzheimer’s. Both of Mom’s parents had died of ‘senility’, but they died before Alzheimer’s became a common diagnosis. My father had died last year of Alzheimer’s, and both his sisters were currently in homes suffering from the disease. Only my mother was still healthy; I suspected sheer bile kept her going, hoping to see me dead before she gave up.
Neither the conservatives nor the liberals liked what I had to say about policy. The forces I had been fighting were still present. The neocons wanted us to conquer the world and remake it in our image; the liberals wanted us to police the planet and make people behave. The Republicans wanted to lower taxes and the Democrats wanted to increase spending. Everybody figured that I was a cynic and pessimist.
John didn’t say anything to me. I think he was finally starting to feel the pressure, as the demands started landing in his lap, for him to do something after he was sworn in. At one point, following a morning staff session, he asked, “Your advice?”
I smiled and simply said, “Learn to say NO.”
“You’re a lot of help.”
I laughed. “This businessman gets tapped to take over as the boss of a big company, so he goes to the old boss and asks for some advice. ‘What should I do to turn around the company?’, he asks. The old guy tells him there are three envelopes in his desk, and that when things go bad to open the envelopes in order. So, about a year later, things look bad, and he opens the first envelope. Inside is a note that simply says, ‘Blame everything on your predecessor.’ So the fellow calls a press conference and does just that, and things calm down. A year later, things are turning to crap all over again, so he opens the second envelope. Inside is a note that says, ‘Announce a reorganization.’ So he calls another press conference and announces that he plans to reorganize the company. Things settle down again, but another year goes by, and things are looking really bad, so he opens up the third envelope. Inside is a note that says…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. ‘Prepare three envelopes.’ I’ve heard this one before,” he finished.
“Now you know the secret of my success.”
“Like I said, you’re a lot of help!” he said with a smile.
“Welcome to the club, buddy. Now get out of here and let me get back to work,” I replied with a smile of my own.
By the end of December the transition team had the basic structure of the McCain administration laid out. Bob Gates and Condi Rice were staying in place at Defense and State, though Condi privately told me she wasn’t sure how long she would stay. On the other hand Frank Keating was going back to Oklahoma, albeit on good terms. He was cooperating in a search for his replacement, helping with the interviews of several Federal judges with a reputation as being tough on crime. Liz Warren was also history after the 20th; John was talking to a partner over at Goldman Sachs about Treasury, Liz was talking to a couple of the Ivies about a full professorship.
Mitt was going to take over Health and Human Services; now all I had to do was get John to let him create a decent health plan. I debated to myself about letting John in on the secret of the American Renaissance Initiative. Mike Brown was getting Transportation. Other assorted fundraisers and supporters were divvying up other Cabinet positions. That was a pretty standard method actually. You were always careful with the Core Four, but for the others you generally just needed a political figurehead you could fire in case the shit hit the fan. Other supporters would become ambassadors somewhere around the world, the niceness of the posting varying depending on how much money they raised during the campaign. Again, you had professionals in the State Department to handle the details and clean up what their amateur bosses screwed up.