f a medal for political valor in this year's presidential campaign were awarded today, Senator John McCain would win easily. His forays into the unconventional are sensible as well as bold.
McCain earned a reputation as a maverick during his 14 years in the Senate and has reinforced that image during the campaign. He has told Iowa corn farmers he wants no part of their wasteful ethanol subsidy. He has flouted common political wisdom by suggesting that America's senseless economic sanctions against Cuba might be lessened if Fidel Castro became less repressive. He has ripped into the free-spending tobacco industry with righteous vehemence.
Mavericks often cut an attractive figure, but many of them turn out to be ineffective. Their strengths become their weaknesses. McCain, in his personal dealings, can be impatient and brusque. His Senate record, however, lends confidence that he can work effectively in Washington, even though he has been at odds with Republican leaders in Congress on key issues.
Could McCain, as president, secure passage of badly needed campaign finance reforms? McCain rightly points out that significant reform already enjoys majority support in both branches and that the election of a candidate who so clearly embraces reform would supply a heavy mandate to push the issue over its last parliamentary hurdles.
Certainly McCain could be counted on to change the military dramatically and for the better, jettisoning new Seawolf submarines, helicopter carriers, and other high-ticket hardware in favor of combat readiness and better treatment of the men and women in uniform. If Congress is allowed to continue funding needless weaponry, he joked last week, '' we'll have a B-2 bomber in every schoolyard.''
McCain stands apart from the other Republican candidates for his competence on an array of foreign policy issues ranging from military strategy in Kosovo to the subtleties of diplomacy between China and Taiwan to the impact of telecommunications advances on global markets.
We disagree with McCain on some issues and believe he showed poor judgment in interceding with government agencies on behalf of financial backers - undercutting his own core attack on special interests. We also would like to see fuller proposals on health care and education.
Overall, however, McCain has distinguished himself by running a campaign that would translate well from the primaries to the general election. His tax cut proposal, for instance, is deep enough to please many conservatives but tilted toward relief for low- and middle-income taxpayers in an overt effort to narrow the nation's troubling income gap. Many other Republican candidates, by contrast, are focusing on their party's conservative wing by taking extreme positions on abortion or tax cuts or by blasting campaign finance reform as harmful to the party, even though it is popular in the nation.
The courage McCain demonstrated in a North Vietnam POW camp has developed into a fearless independence in the Senate and a bold presidential campaign. Added to it is a dollop of healthy populism, raising the hope that McCain might inspire people to shake off their alienation and participate.
Risk inevitably accompanies mavericks like McCain. But the Republican Party would be well served with a nominee who carries a whisper of Harry Truman about him, a candidate who speaks his mind boldly and is willing to suffer the consequences - and reap the benefits.
McCain is an underdog on the national scene. But we would like to see more of him, and we hope New Hampshire voters will give him a chance to fight on another day. The Globe endorses McCain for the Republican presidential nomination in the primary on Feb. 1.
