Could John McCain Have Prevented the GOP 2013 Government Shutdown?

Could McCain have prevented the Republican Party from shutting down the government on October 1, 2013, by publicly challenging Senator Ted Cruz's words/actions and exposing the Republican ill conceived shutdown the government plot? We may never know the answer to that question but based on his admission on the Senate floor on October 9, 2013, I believe that it is possible.


In Senator John McCain's 2008 concession speech he acknowledged fact that President Obama's election was historic and he addressed it within the context of this nation's racial past. The part of his speech in this video shows that McCain was willing in 2008 to put his country with its democratic form of government first. McCain accept the will of the voters and encouraged his supporters to do the same. Somewhere or sometime during the next four year McCain lost his way and join his party's unsuccessful conspiracy to make President Obama a one term president by denying him health care reform.

In a bold speech on the Senate floor on October 9, 2013, McCain told the nation and the world that the Republican Party did a disservice to America when the Party and Mitt Romney promised to repeal Obamacare.  He stated that the obvious that law was passed in 2010, upheld my the Supreme Court, and that President Obama 2012 reelection confirmed that it would remain the law of the land.

Later Senator McCain appeared on FOX news and laid blame on the government shutdown on members of the Tea Party. His speech on the senate floor and his appearance on FOX are steps in the right direction.  His party is in dire need for someone to lead them because of the void left by President George W Bush and Mitt Romney. McCain can lead his party and help them accept the fact that President Obama is the duly elected president.  He can also put this nation first once again by telling his party that elections have consequences and they must re-open the entire government by passing a clear CR bill with no strings (amendments) attached and raise the debt ceiling limits longer than six weeks.




Vera Richardson
Author of Screwed by Former Governor and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer