3.16.00
Spinning the Dark Side of Success

3.10.00
A Country for McCain:
Thailand

hen Speaker Sam Rayburn was asked his opinion of Dwight Eisenhower as president, he said, “Good man, wrong job.” Given John McCain’s passion for cleansing politics of negative ads (he says that if he could find a way to do it constitutionally, he would outlaw them) and rationing political speech generally (using restrictions on contributions and expenditures, and forbidding issue-advocacy ads to mention a candidate within 60 days of an election), perhaps it should be said of McCain: Good man, wrong country. He should be a politician in Thailand.

A reporter for the Washington Post recently accompanied a campaigning candidate for Thailand’s first elected senate as he walked through apartment buildings and shopping malls. When people asked why they should vote for him, or what he would do if elected, he replied: “The election rules don’t permit me to answer that question.”

He told the Post reporter, “I cannot even say, ‘Please vote for me.’ I just say I’m running for the Senate, my ballot number is 144, and the election is on the fourth of March.” The Post, an enthusiastic supporter of McCain’s campaign-reform ideas, explains political life in McCainized Thailand:

“In an effort to curb the role of money and special interests, Thailand has embarked on campaign reform of a most radical and controversial variety: It is trying to take the campaign out of the election. The election commission has barred Senate candidates from expressing political views, affiliating with political parties or even saying what they would do in office.

“They cannot advertise on television or radio, or talk to supporters with the aid of a microphone. Debates and rallies are verboten. And forget about those American-style tactics of phone banks and direct mail solicitations.”

But what would a Thai McCain call his bus? It could not be the “Straight Talk Express,” talk of all sorts being banned.

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