What if Bush fired Rumsfeld 1/20/05 and replaced him with John McCain

What if Bush, sensing displeasure both at the Iraq war and with Rumsfeld personally eliminated him at the start of his second term. McCain was a vocal critic of the handling of the occupation and was in favor of flooding the country with troops to suppress the militias and end the lawlessness

So what do we think would happen?
 
Bush bringing McCain into his Cabinet? Umm, that's as likely as RFK-LBJ, Pelosi-Hoyer, Palin-Huckabee, or Jindal-Vitter becoming BFF. Which is to say borderline ASB.

2000 aside, McCain was a vocal opponent of Gitmo, waterboarding, torture in general, and Bush's early Iraq policy in general. Banner Headline: "Bush Does 180 on Iraq strategy."
 
Bush bringing McCain into his Cabinet? Umm, that's as likely as RFK-LBJ, Pelosi-Hoyer, Palin-Huckabee, or Jindal-Vitter becoming BFF. Which is to say borderline ASB.

2000 aside, McCain was a vocal opponent of Gitmo, waterboarding, torture in general, and Bush's early Iraq policy in general. Banner Headline: "Bush Does 180 on Iraq strategy."

a lot of the gitmo/waterboarding torture stuff hadn't come out yet...Bush could say something like, I and all Americans are unhappy with our progress in Iraq and feel our troops great sacrifice must take us farther so I have in turn appointed a long time soldier and patriot to the post etc etc

McCain is a servant of the public at heart, I can't see him turning the position down
 
a lot of the gitmo/waterboarding torture stuff hadn't come out yet...Bush could say something like, I and all Americans are unhappy with our progress in Iraq and feel our troops great sacrifice must take us farther so I have in turn appointed a long time soldier and patriot to the post etc etc

McCain is a servant of the public at heart, I can't see him turning the position down

If McCain ends up getting the credit for this ATL surge, and part of that is assumed to be the kinder gentler handleling of prisoners...

Probably even a stronger candidate for the NOmination and the Presidency.
 
A McCain with unresolved presidential ambitions is not going to accept a position in the cabinet. Especially not when the sitting president is in as big a shit as Bush was in his second term.
 
There only one problem with this. McCain would have liston to his generals! Rumsfeld told them how to their jobs and screw many general over. When I was in the army I knew of three different times a two star general retire before he would work for Rumsfeld.

But if this did happen the course in both Iraq and Afghanstan would be alot better than it is today. But I still see McCain losing in 08.
 
There only one problem with this. McCain would have liston to his generals! Rumsfeld told them how to their jobs and screw many general over. When I was in the army I knew of three different times a two star general retire before he would work for Rumsfeld.

But if this did happen the course in both Iraq and Afghanstan would be alot better than it is today. But I still see McCain losing in 08.

If the wars are going better this hurts Obama who got a lot of support from the anti-war people.

Could end up McCain vs Hilliary.
 
There only one problem with this. McCain would have liston to his generals! Rumsfeld told them how to their jobs and screw many general over. When I was in the army I knew of three different times a two star general retire before he would work for Rumsfeld.

But if this did happen the course in both Iraq and Afghanstan would be alot better than it is today. But I still see McCain losing in 08.

One would assume he could build working relationships with the relavent generals... he has the necessary experience as an officer and consensus builder

It would be interesting to see the surge come off in 2005 when the repubs still control congress and get the situation under control while the public was still "mixed" about the war
 
If the wars are going better this hurts Obama who got a lot of support from the anti-war people.

Could end up McCain vs Hilliary.
True but McCain still losses the election because people where tried of Bush and want him gone. War goes better maybe no were near as angey but McCain still losses.
 
Quite apart from what I posted above, I doubt McCain has the temperament to be in the cabinet. He'd be like Rumsfeld on acid.
 
I predict McCain will resign as SecDef anyway after the 2006 mid-terms in an attempt for some revenge from 2000 and into the new Congress, around January 2007 and begin a Presidential bid. This would probably see Gates in as per OTL or maybe someone like Gordon England.
 
I predict McCain will resign as SecDef anyway after the 2006 mid-terms in an attempt for some revenge from 2000 and into the new Congress, around January 2007 and begin a Presidential bid. This would probably see Gates in as per OTL or maybe someone like Gordon England.

If he was "personally" responsible for getting Iraq under control, the public would likely hold him in higher regard than otl... plus it keeps him more in the news between 2000 and 2006 which allows him a clearer path to the nomination, and as an early frontrunner, he would probably have more financial resources much earlier to run a more effective campaign against Hillary (I can't see Obama emerging in a situation where Iraq is a mess for a much shorter time... Hillary's vote wouldn't hurt her so much)
 
A McCain with unresolved presidential ambitions is not going to accept a position in the cabinet. Especially not when the sitting president is in as big a shit as Bush was in his second term.

Bush would have already won his second term, and this is still pre katrina where his reputation falls apart. McCain could probably set a number of preconditions in return for becomming secdef... including being given carteblanche to run the war he sees fit (the repubs still control congress and he has a lot of friends on the hill)
 
It wouldn't happen for the same reason Powell was replaced by Rice-McCain would be too independent. Bush already had a Vice-President generally considered an independent power in himself; he didn't need (or at least want) Cabinet members likely to follow their own agendas.
 
I believe that Bush did consider doing this after the 04 election. But it was James Baker who he considered as Rummy's replacement, not McCain.
 
I think Bush's people were far too loyal to him, even more than LBJ and his bunch. Bush was a president who demanded personal loyalty to him and did not want anyone who saw a cabinet post as strictly a job and nothing more.
 
The surge would have come earlier, with the same results. The troops come home and McCain is the next president.
 
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