2008 talk already?

Sorry but I seem to be on a political bent of late. Plus, since I'm short of blogging time these days, I love to take opportunities to mooch off others. So, here's Greg Mankiw via Daniel Drezner on things he's looking for in a 2008 candidate of either party:

John McCain gave a speech to the Economic Club of New York yesterday....

The whole speech is worth reading. Here are my two favorite passages:

1. A tsunami of entitlement spending is threatening our economy, while providing no real security to retirees. We have made promises that we cannot keep. Under moderately optimistic scenarios Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will in the decades to come grow as large as the entire government is today. Someday the government will be forced to make drastic cuts in these programs, or crippling increases in taxes on workers – or both. The longer we
   wait to make the hard choices necessary to repair these programs, the harder the problem becomes. My children and their children will not receive the benefits we will enjoy. That is an inescapable fact, and any politician who tells you otherwise, Democrat or Republican, is lying....
   
2. A global rising tide of protectionism and a retreat from market-based economic policy is threatening the entrepreneurs of developed and developing countries alike. Free trade is the key to global economic growth, and a key to U.S. economic success. We need stand up for free trade with no ifs, ands or buts about it. We let trade and globalization be politicized at our own peril.
   

By my reckoning, any candidate who is not willing to put some version of
these two paragraphs into his or her speeches doesn't pass the test of
intellectual seriousness.

I couldn't agree more. Seriously, these are two issues on which we must move past populism and soundbites and get to the heart of the matter. Dan Drezner points out that Hillary recently gave a speech touching on similar issues to the Economic Club of Chicago.

So two of the early frontrunners seem to be talking about issues of concern to me. I should be pleased, right? Well I guess I am, but I'm also skeptical. Both McCain and Clinton were speaking to "economic clubs" so I suspect their messages may have been tailored to their audiences. I would be more pleased if I didn't think they'll both waffle when/if they get to Iowa -- where entitlements and anti-globalization both will be popular issues.