We've been saying that John McCain is running for George W. Bush's third term. That makes a certain amount of sense for these reasons: 1) It would be a continuation of the Republicans holding the presidency; 2) John McCain has been very supportive of Bush's policies on the war and on the economy, Bush's two biggest failures; 3) A Republican win would be a vindication of George Bush, since he has such a low approval rating in the country. What he started would continue. It's really nothing against McCain; it's just the facts as they stack up.Now John McCain says that Barack Obama's presidency would be the second term of Jimmy Carter! That's a headscratcher. Why? There's no continuity, since Carter's presidency was over with in Jan. 1981. There are no particular Carter policies to be continued after all this time. And Obama's election would have nothing to do with vindicating, or in anyway impacting Carter's legacy. So, to me, this is just John McCain not making sense again. It'd make more sense to say Bill Clinton, at least in terms of the timeframe.
But if anyone can be fulfilling anyone else's term or continuing it, why not say Obama would have the second term of Kennedy? The living Kennedy brother supported him, and seemed to be "passing the torch." Obama seems to be the kind of guy who could be transformative to his generation in a way that JFK was inspirational to many in his. Or why not say Obama would have the fifth term of FDR. Or the next term of Harry Truman. Sure, there's no continuity, no vindication, no policies that are overtly being fulfilled. In the case of FDR, we had the depressing presidency of Hoover, kind of a parallel in a loose way to George W. Bush. We need to be lifted out of the ashes again, and there's no way McCain will do that. He's running for president to be president period.
Maybe we could see Obama as the next term of Lincoln. He freed the slaves, all that, and what could be more symbolic in those terms than our first African-American president?
As to who else's term McCain might be continuing, besides the obvious, George W. Bush, well, I already mentioned Herbert Hoover. But the only one that makes any sense is McCain and Bush, because of continuity.
