Uncompromising McCain happy to see heads roll

Published on Saturday 18 October 2008 19:41

If the way John McCain has run his presidential campaign is any indication of the way he would run the White House then 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue may need a revolving door to the Rose Garden.

The turnover of McCain's advisers has been so bewildering that if it is repeated in government there won't be many of his team left at the end of 100 days.

President John McCain's approach to the problems facing the US will be very different to his Democrat opponent's. His first response to the US economic crisis was to threaten to sack Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox (Cox pointed out that he couldn't be sacked by the President and that he wasn't going to be in post next year anyway). Whereas Obama seems temperamentally more suited to looking for structural flaws, McCain is quite happy to set heads rolling.

"The biggest challenge facing McCain will be the need to compromise," said Leon Panetta, former congressman and White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton. "McCain will do some outreach, but because he's been there longer he will react more from his experience in the Senate rather than on the advice of others."

As a former military man, McCain's administration may be more welcoming to military top brass than Obama's. McCain makes many of his decisions at a gut level, and as a seasoned Washington hand won't seek the detailed kind of advice Obama will be relying on.

McCain's Cabinet choices could be surprising. Independent Senator and long-term McCain friend Joe Lieberman could well end up with a job, as could a senior military figure such as General David Petraeus.