The Fix (a WaPo political blog) asked its readers to name the "most overrated Senator". They responded by naming John McCain (R-AZ), by a reasonably healthy margin. But The Fix writer is incredulous! Don't readers know that this is John McCain we're talking about? The maverick-y maverick of the Senate?
I concede that McCain has legislative accomplishments. What makes him overrated isn't that he doesn't do anything, it's that he's considered to be some sort of level-headed, sober independent, when in reality he's a pretty doctrinaire conservative on most issues, with a bad temper and a foreign policy disposition that basically boils down to "war rocks". Yet he gets trotted out on media talk shows with what can only be described as a reckless indifference to the scope of the contribution he makes to the public discourse. Hence, overrated.
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As a recent constituent and as someone who has had a few chances to see him interact with people in small-group settings ... he's totally overrated.
Kyl (the other Arizona senator) is uberconservative, and I'm no fan, but he's much smarter and wonkier and into the nitty-gritty of policy than McCain. And he actually gets stuff done for the state.
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