McCain: You Have A Problem, I Have A Table

Grandpa will solve the world's problems by sitting at a table, no policy, no detail. Must be his charm that will win them over.

via The Washington Monthly:

This came up again last night when the debate turned to Social Security. McCain argued:

"Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before.

"I saw it done with our -- our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O'Neill from Massachusetts. That's what we need more of, and that's what I've done in Washington."

Look, I know it's nice to think well-intentioned people can sit down in a room and resolve complex problems through discussion and negotiation. But this is just an intellectually lazy way of approaching policy challenges.

Iraq? McCain wants to sit Sunnis and Shiites down at a table. Social Security? McCain wants to sit Democrats and Republicans down at a table. The moral of the story is, if you've got a problem, John McCain has a table.

Source: Steve Benen