Lindsey Graham

Let's All Stop for a Moment to Consider a President Lindsey Graham

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Don't even get him started on what's hiding in the closet.
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Heads up, potential Republican presidential candidates! Start working on that war-mongering. If you're not hawkish enough, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will jump in to show you how it's done.

The Weekly Standard got the exclusive in an interview with the senator for a recent magazine piece titled "The Return of the GOP Hawks," subtitled "Not that they ever really left." And since this is The Weekly Standard, the not-very-subtextual unstated second subtitle is "Yaaaaaay!"

Even though Sen. John McCain was trounced in 2008 by a war-weary public, some conservatives, neo or otherwise, seem to think there's new life in the calling for intervention today, intervention tomorrow, and intervention forever. According to The Weekly Standard, McCain told Graham to consider running:

In our interview, Graham repeatedly spoke of the challenges that will face the next president because of the mistakes made under Obama. And he suggested that he might just be the one to fix them.

"If I get through my general election, if nobody steps up in the presidential mix, if nobody's out there talking?—?me and McCain have been talking?—?I may just jump in to get to make these arguments," Graham said.

I asked Graham about [Florida Sen. Marco] Rubio. Hasn't he been making many of the arguments you'd be likely to make? Graham wasn't impressed. "He's a good guy, but after doing immigration with him—we don't need another young guy not quite ready," said Graham. "He's no Obama by any means, but he's so afraid of the right, and I've let that go."

So Graham could run as the next McCain, but without the charisma, or an alternative to Rubio, but without the youthful appeal or energy (or charisma). But who can resist the charms of a presidential candidate who believes that ISIS is coming to kill us all, each and every one of us? Who can better instill the belief in American Exceptionalism than the guy who keeps screaming about monsters under the bed?

Read the full story here. Lindsey Graham coverage and occasional mockery in our Reason archives here.