Good to see that McCain has added another reasonable moderate to his campaign staff. Michael Goldfarb, a commentator for the Weekly Standard and now Deputy Communications Director for Sen. McCain's campaign, has quite the written record. Glenn Greenwald has the details. But here's the short version: According to Goldfarb, when "pursuing foreign policy and war," the president has "near-dictatorial powers," and citizens and corporations "damn well ought to" do whatever the president wants "as a matter of simple patriotism." And the best part is, he actually believes that the Framers of the US Constitution would agree with him.
I really don't have the energy today to go thru the history again, so I'll just say this: Only Hamilton would have agreed with Goldfarb, and at nearly every step of the way, Hamilton's arguments about "an elected monarchy" (his description of "near-dictatorial powers) were soundly rejected. They were rejected at the constitutional conventions, and then they were rejected again in the aftermath of the Alien + Sedition Acts and the election of 1800. This isn't open for debate or subject to multiple interpretations. The historical record really couldn't be any more clear.
Anyway, nice to know that McCain agrees with the idea that the president is a "near-dictator" in foreign affairs. What a bipartisan, centrist, maverick!
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