John McCain on David Cameron

30 September 2006

In this exclusive interview, the Republican presidential front-runner tells Matthew d’Ancona why he is speaking at the Conservative conference, and says that Cameron has the youth, exuberance and determination to be a Tory JFK

For now, however, not even his candidacy is declared. So early in the race, one would expect a politician as prominent as Sen. McCain to hedge and trim when asked about the volatile British political scene. Should he be inaugurated as the 44th President in January 2009, he will almost certainly have to deal — at the very least until the election — with Prime Minister Brown. But the swashbuckling side of the McCain character has led him to reach a quick and unequivocal judgment on Mr Cameron.

Asked what he likes about the young Tory leader, he lists ‘his youth, enthusiasm, willingness to embrace new ideas based on conservative policies’ — and pays particular tribute to the Conservative party’s fresh emphasis on the environment. He sees Mr Cameron (to whom he has spoken at length but will meet in the flesh for the first time this weekend) as ‘a breath of fresh air on the political scene’.

It is not hard to see why the Cameroons have wooed Sen. McCain, and why he feels a kinship with them. His politics has long been based on the principle that elections are won by transcending a party’s core vote — or ‘base’, as it is called in the US. His comparatively liberal positions on gay marriage, stem cell research and immigration have not endeared him to the Republican Right; he will face stiff opposition in the primaries if he runs. Beyond that, however, anything is possible.

Such is his cross-party appeal that in 2004 John Kerry even offered him the vice-presidential spot on his ticket — the office to be combined, uniquely, with the powers of the Secretary of Defense. McCain is a convert to environmentalism, and co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Al Gore’s running mate in 2000, to curb greenhouse gas emissions (he also voted against President Bush’s plan to allow oil drilling in the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge). He has campaigned with Teddy Kennedy for a Patients’ Bill of Rights. Much of his popularity is based on what voters perceive as a non-partisan sincerity. Does he see a symmetry with his own politics and what Mr Cameron is trying to do?

‘I believe so. I think that the Conservative party has been in the wilderness for a period of time, and they are now getting more in tune with the great centre of the British electorate. I think our Republican party needs to do more to get into the great centre of the American electorate.’