Grumpy Old Man: McCain Engages In Same Campaigning He Once "Deplored"
This week, with John McCain behind the wheel, his self-proclaimed Straight Talk Express veered off the tracks of what had been a positive issues-oriented campaign with Barack Obama and plunged headlong into the gutters of negative campaigning that has come to characterize the Rovian politics of recent elections. In doing so, McCain broke his pledge to run a "respectful campaign" and has instead engaged in the same "dishonest and dishonorable" tactics of groups like the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth intent on distracting voters from the smorgasbord of problems facing our country. Can this really be the same John McCain, the former media darling, who once deplored such tactics?
On April 1, 2008, while speaking to high school students at his alma mater in Alexandria, Virginia, McCain pledged to run a "respectful campaign," but expressed skepticism about whether outside political organizations - the often referred to 527's, named after the section in the tax code, 26 U.S.C. 527, from which they operate - would do the same. McCain did not mince words when discussing the tactics of these groups, stating they can "poison the political atmosphere." What McCain apparently forgot to add was "April Fools," as he's reversed his position on this pledge faster than his reversal on the Bush tax cuts that he opposed, then supported, and that now have our country on the verge of economic meltdown
John McCain wasn't alone in this unfortunate reversal. Someone forgot to get Cindy McCain, the candidate's wife, the memo on their position regarding negative campaigning. In a May 8, 2008 interview with Ann Curry on NBC's Today, Cindy McCain made it quite clear that her husband did not, and would not, engage in negative campaigning. When asked about the tone of the campaign, she stated, "None of this negative stuff though, you won't see it come out of our side at all." Curry responded, "None of the negative stuff will come out of your side," to which McCain answered, "My husband is absolutely opposed to any negative campaigning at all." As they say in sports, let's go to the tape!
Ironically, McCain's decision to go negative and attack Obama comes nearly four years to the date when McCain himself called the now infamous Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry's military service "dishonest and dishonorable" and urged the White House to condemn such ads. "I deplore this kind of politics," McCain said on August 5, 2004. "I think the ad is dishonest and dishonorable." With the chips down and the new type of politics heralded by Barack Obama exciting millions of Americans, the time was ripe for McCain to flip flop again. Unfortunately, McCain's change of tune puts him in the same boat with the Swift Boaters, as he's now shown that in abandoning his call for a "respectful campaign" he's willing to do anything, or say anything, to put himself behind the Resolute Desk at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Editorial Boards and Independent Organizations from coast-to-coast were quick to condemn McCain's negative campaign tactics and his double speak. I suppose this is just another case of the media showering its love and flowers on Obama ...
St. Petersburg Times: "The Straight Talk Express has taken a nasty turn into the gutter."
"The Straight Talk Express has taken a nasty turn into the gutter. Sen. John McCain has resorted to lies and distortions in what sounds like an increasingly desperate attempt to slow down Sen. Barack Obama by raising questions about his patriotism. Instead of taking the Democrat down a few notches, these baseless attacks are raising more questions about the Republican's campaign and his ability to control his temper. The most offensive line comes from McCain himself. The Arizona senator has repeated that Obama 'would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.' That is one of the more outrageous statements by a major political party candidate seeking the presidency." [St. Petersburg Times, 7/31/08]
Washington Post: "McCain's Ad Formula Employs Lowest Common Denominator."
"Even some McCain allies have winced at the Paris/Britney spot. Republican strategist Dan Schnur, a former McCain adviser, said that 'most voters won't see the parallels between a presidential candidate and two party girls. So a legitimate point about inexperience gets lost in the appearance of name-calling.'" [Washington Post, 8/1/08]
New York Times: "Low-Road Express."
"Well, that certainly didn't take long. On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove's low-minded and uncivil playbook". [NY Times, 7/30/08]
USA Today: McCain Attack Ad "Baloney," "Cheapens Campaign. More To Come?"
"Even by the elastic standards of political ads, this is more than a stretch. It's baloney. It's also a marker on the path toward the kind of simplistic, counterproductive demonizing that many expect will poison the fall campaign." [USA Today, 7/29/08]
FactCheck.org: McCain Energy, Celebrities ad "False."
"McCain's new ad claims that Obama 'says he'll raise taxes on electricity.' That's false. Obama says no such thing. McCain relies on a single quote from Obama who once - and only once so far as we can find - suggested taxing 'dirty energy,' including coal and natural gas. That was in response to a reporter's suggestion that a tax on wind power could fund education. Obama isn't proposing any new tax on electricity or 'dirty energy' as part of his platform, and he never has. It's true that a coal/gas tax would raise electric rates, but so would a cap-and-trade program to restrict carbon emissions. Cap-and-trade is an idea that both McCain and Obama support, in different forms. Neither candidate characterizes cap-and-trade as a 'tax.'" [FactCheck.org, 7/30/08]
For its part, the Obama campaign was quick to respond to McCain's ad with an ad of its own. The Obama ad, called "Low Road," dispels the "dishonest and dishonorable" claims in McCain's attack ad, and highlights Obama's support of a $1,000 middle class tax cut and an energy policy that takes on big oil and calls for the development of alternative fuels. Maybe not as sexy as Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, but certaintly more promising for our country's future.
Funny, you can't help but notice that McCain attacks a wealthy heiress in his attack ad, Paris Hilton, while McCain, not Obama, is the one married to a wealthy heiress. You can't help but note the irony with his reference to Britney Spears either. While Obama has never met the pop singing bad girl, McCain shared a stage with Spears at the 1999 MTV Music Awards. Hit me baby, one more time! These attack ads are a disappointing twist from an honorable man who only months ago deplored negative campaigns and pledged to stay on the high road. Don't expect the negative attack hits from the McCain camp to stop anytime soon - desperation is a stinky cologne. After adopting the Rovian tactics that have come to symbolize the sad politics of fear and smear of recent Republican campaigns, it is unlikely McCain will turn back to his pledge to run a "respectable campaign." It's too bad, we almost had a debate on the issues, from which we all would have been better off.
Posted by: Josh Swanson on 8/03/2008 at 12:59 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Jokes On McCain As Obama Gets Big Bounce: Gallup Tracking Poll Has Obama +9 After Worldwide Tour
It looks as if the Dark Knight has a challenger. No, this challenger isn't the film's villain, the Joker. Rather, the challenger is only other person, superhero or not, playing to the sort of crowds that have flocked to the box office this July to watch the Caped Crusader in his most recent battle against injustice and turmoil. While this challenger may not wear a cape, or have the cool sorts of gadgets employed by Batman, there is no doubt that Barack Obama is the only other person on Earth right now as popular as the Gotham crime fighter.
And just like the Joker, it appears as if John McCain has hoisted himself by his own petard. In attacking Obama early for not visiting Iraq, McCain has made another serious miscalculation in judgment that could spell serious trouble for a campaign marked by similar missteps in recent months. Toward the end of May, McCain began criticizing Obama for having only been to Iraq once. These attacks were ratcheted up around Independence Day as former GOP candidate and veep auditioner Mitt Romey appeared on Hugh Hewitt's radio show and stated that he simply couldn't believe "a United States senator who is looking to be the nominee of his party" could "simply avoid going to Iraq."
As brilliant as they are over at Barnum & Bailey, otherwise known as the three-ring circus that is the McCain campaign, someone foolishly suggested that McCain and his clown car full of surrogates ought to start spraying the seltzer at Obama for his lack of foreign travel. McCain himself even picked up a cream pie and hurled it at Obama when he suggested that Obama should accompany him to Iraq. The senior senator from Arizona quipped he would "seize the opportunity to educate Sen. Obama along the way." Oh, you funny man you! Keep those jokes coming Senator - you cantankerous jokester you!
Funny thing though, it looks like the joke's on McCain as Obama has the last laugh, for now. McCain's punch line missed fantastically when Obama countered the seltzer and pie by deciding to take McCain's advice. While McCain was busy last week gallivanting around Yankee Stadium with his new buddy, Rudy Giuliani, Obama hopped a plane to Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, and Europe. The blockbuster trip left massive crowds in its wake, as the world cheered the hope and promise embodied by Obama. Back home, the trip may have paid huge dividends as Obama received the much-coveted bounce.
And what a bounce it was. Before he embarked for this trip Obama was struggling to convince the electorate he had crossed the "commander-in-chief threshold." This week may bear witness that McCain's tactic of criticizing Obama for his lack of travel backfired stupendously. It is quite possible that after this trip the electorate now views Obama as having crossed this threshold. The latest Gallup Daily Poll, conducted July 24-26, has Obama +9 in its first poll conducted during/after the trip. On the day before this was poll was conducted, July 23, Obama held a narrow +2 lead over McCain.
The media was quick to seize on the story - an American leader cheered just like Kennedy and Reagan, invoking the images of those two men when they stood in Berlin, one declaring "Ich bin ein Berliner" (translating into I am a Berliner) and the other, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Not a bad image to convey when running for President, an iconic and symbolic image reminiscent of those two strong and revered American leaders. According to Gallup, "The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama's foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March." A picture is indeed worth a 1,000 words ...
Kennedy in Berlin, June 1963
Reagan in Berlin, June 1987
Obama in Berlin, July 2008
The McCain response? It's the media's fault. That's right. The typical Limbaugh-esque mantra that the media is to blame. Threatening to take his can (as in kick-the-can) and take it home, the McCain campaign lashed out at the media for all the attention showered on Obama. In a July 22 statement, the campaign went as far to say that, "It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair." Not so funny now, is it Senator. This whining, woe is me, why aren't you paying me any attention, didn't work for Hillary and it won't work for McCain. As recently suggested by one of McCain's closest economic advisors, Dr. Phil Gramm, sounds like they are just a bunch of whiners.
Bottom line, McCain encouraging Obama to take this trip through his constant attacks was another in a line of poor tactical decisions. It was incredibly poor timing. This argument should have been saved for the fall, post-conventions and post-Labor Day. You could even argue that McCain should have held this card and sprung it on Obama during one of the debates, asking Obama why he'd only been to Iraq once. Before the trip, an ABCNews poll showed McCain held a decisive 72%-48% lead over Obama when asked who would be a good commander-in-chief. This trip may have precipitously closed that gap and McCain can only thank himself for playing this card seven weeks too early.
Posted by: Josh Swanson on 7/27/2008 at 11:30 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Playing With A Full Set Of Clubs
John McCain isn't playing with a full set of clubs in his bag. In fact, of the twelve clubs in his bag, McCain lacks the most important clubs the next President of the United States will need to get the country back on par after eight tumultuous years of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of the cabal. Particularly, McCain seems blissfully content spending more time in the sand than David Hasselhoff, leaving the sandwedge at home -the club needed to eventually get us out of the sand trap in the Middle East. Remember, my friends, we may spend the next 100 years in Babylon, that's how we win wars.
The next President will need both a fully loaded bag and some talented caddies to face the increasingly complex set of problems staring down our nation. It appears, however, that the "Straight Talk Express" is hinging its bets that the sole club in their bag - the Commander-In-Chief Driver - can solve every problem from the collapsing mortgage market to an energy policy handcuffed to foreign oil. This week both Obama and McCain made major speeches detailing their approaches on Iraq and Afghanistan. While it's still early and all signs point towards the economy dominating this year's election, a club McCain doesn't have in his bag, yesterday's ABCNews Poll has to concern the Obama campaign. According to the poll, 72% of Americans say McCain would be a good commander-in-chief. Conversely, only 48% thought Obama would be a good commander-in-chief. Yet, when asked whose plan they preferred for Iraq, more Americans preferred Obama's plan over McCain's.
In a conventional year this race would've been over on Memorial Day, forget the 72-year-old McCain hanging on until Labor Day. But this is no conventional year. In a climate so unfavorable to Republicans, coupled with a lame duck President and a candidate in Barack Obama who can raise money faster than big oil sucking the money out of your wallet at the pumps, McCain, to his credit, has managed to stay in the game. How? Part of this, according to the pundits and politicos, can be attributed to America's unfamilarity with Obama. After 18-months of vetting and scrutiny, are we really that unfamiliar with the Illinois Senator?
Doubtful, the electorate knows Obama, the question is what characticture of Obama do they know. That is, do they see the Obama that the Obama campaign wants them to see - the agent of change, pulled-myself-up-by-my-bootstraps-son-of-a-single-mother, I'll fix Washington bipartisan miracle worker that vanquished Hillary Clinton during the Democratic Primary? Or, do they see the Obama that the Republican National Committee wants them to see -
Politics is perception and whoever masters this shot has a leg-up headed into the turn come the dog days of summer. For better or worse, and whether it's accurate or not, McCain will be viewed as the maverick Republican until someone comes along and paints an accurate picture of the 27-time flip flopper. Yet, while the phenomenon that is Obama has captured and captivated the attention of millions of new voters who turned out in record numbers during the primary process, McCain has remained in the game so far with the only club in his bag, the Commander-In-Chief driver. After eight years of disastrous foreign policy, of which McCain essentially promises four more years of the same, will Americans really select the guy with only one club in his bag?
This map shows the Democratic Primary turnout through March 4, 2008, the date McCain clinched the Republican nomination. The only states with higher Republican voter turnout were McCain's home state of Arizona; the two states that broke the DNC rules - Michigan and Florida; Utah, home of a solid block of Mitt Romney supporters; and Alabama and Alaska, state's that have been reliably red during recent presidential elections. With a landscape that is increasingly blue, should Obama be concerned that he has been unable to break away from McCain thus far? The latest Quinnipiac University national poll gives Obama a 9-point national lead.
The poll is not all good news for McCain. Independent voters split 44 - 44%, and McCain had only a slight 47 - 44% lead among men voters and a 49 - 42% edge among white voters. How damning will the perceptions, such as those embodied in internet innuendo and items like the New Yorker cover, be regarding Obama once the RNC and Rovian smear machine ratchets up the attacks? An indicator will be those two poll numbers - independents and white voters. If these numbers remain stagnant or move towards Obama, the smears will have been ineffective. However, If those numbers start tilting heavily towards McCain, the attacks perpetuated by the agents of innuendo may shift perception, and Obama may have some real problems on the surface.
Will we really elect a spry senior with only the single club in his bag with our economy in shambles - can McCain run the world's largest, er, wait, second-largest economy? That's right, under the leadership of George W. Bush and the predominantly Republican Congress that rammed its wayward economic policies down our throats the last eight years, the United States is no longer the world's largest economy. In 2007, we lost that title to the European Union who produced $14.4 trillion in goods and serivces compared to our $13.86 trillion.
Don't worry, we'll bounce back, right. After all, how much worse could it get? Well, a European group, Belgian based InBev bought the American icon, Anheuser-Busch, for $52 billion this week, the national average price for gas today was $4.11 and the home mortage crisis continued its meltdown as federal regulators recently shut down troubled mortage lender IndyMac in what could be the largest bank failure ever. And the guy without the putter or irons to handle the economic greens wants to spend how many more billion a day overseas?
While McCain has proclaimed numerous times that, "The issue of economics is not something I've understood as well as I should," but don't worry, "I've got Greenspan's book," and is off starting new wars, who will run the economy? Enter Dr. Phil Gramm, former U.S. Senator from Texas and McCain campaign co-chairman. He's literally a doctor, he has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Georgia. While McCain was touting his arm-chair quarterbacking ability to win wars this week, his economic caddy dubbed us "a nation of whiners," telling us we were in a "mental recession." While McCain distanced himself from the remarks, Gramm was brought on board, in part, specifically for his "economic expertise," and close relationship with McCain. If he thinks this way ...
After eight years of economic policy that has cost America and threatened to mortgage our future, can we really afford another four years of the same economic policies? After eight years of foreign policy that has cost America thousands of lives of brave men and women and trillions in treasure, and that has stretched our military to the breaking point while igorning the threats that have manifested themselves in Afghanistan and Pakistan, can we really afford another four years of the same foreign policies? Can we afford someone with only a single club in the bag?
My friends, we need a President who has more than one club in his bag. My friends, we need a President who knows the difference between Sunni and Shiite. My friends, we need a President who is not intellectually lazy, someone who doesn't refer to "current events in Czechoslovakia," a country that officially ceased to exist 15 years ago. My friends, we need a President who is playing with a full set of clubs.
Posted by: Josh Swanson on 7/17/2008 at 12:45 AM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Pawlenty Casts Line Into Veep Waters
The Republican brand name these days is polling about as well as Halliburton, Enron, George W. Bush and big oil. While the GOP name is trading at prices lower than the dollar, one Republican not struggling in this bear market is Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. The two-term Governor from the Land of 10,000 Lakes has drawn a-pawlenty of attention lately as a potential Veep candidate for John "100 more year in Iraq" McCain.
Today, The New Republic, a center-left journal of politics and the arts, featured a rare profile on Pawlenty by Noam Scheiber. The article, Extreme Makeover: Tim Pawlenty's proletarian chic, describes Pawlenty as a "serious vice-presidential contender" with an appeal to the "Sam's Club Republicanism" that "would ease the economic anxieties of working-class voters while promoting old-fashioned virtues like marriage and child-rearing. As political strategy, it would bond Reagan Democrats to the GOP once and for all, something that's grown increasingly urgent amid the attrition of the last few years." But, as the article points out, the Sam Club Republicanism may be more about form than substance.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Talking to Pawlenty at the American Legion hall, I got the impression his strain of Sam's Club Republicanism is largely about marketing. I asked if the party could survive in its present form--with working-class people delivering more and more votes, but wealthy people providing most of the financing. "I don't think it's a class-warfare issue at all," he told me. We were sitting at a brown folding table. Pawlenty kept his hands in his lap and leaned toward me, giving him the look of a dutiful grammar student. "We have to change not [our] values and principles--I want to be clear about that. ... We're going to have to do a much better job about having messengers, messages that resonate. ... It helps if you could say, 'Look, I've been in your spot. Let me tell you how it worked, didn't work for me.'" Pawlenty may genuinely want to ease the strain on working people. But what he's selling them is a self-help manual, albeit in language they can relate to. It's not the party of Sam's Club per se--but of moving from Sam's Club to the country club in ten simple steps.
That's a shame, because Pawlenty seems to have earnest public-policy interests. (One quirky if modest Pawlenty idea: sell Canadian prescription drugs at American Indian reservations.) His former boss Dave Durenberger, who now heads a health policy think tank at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, recalls the young Pawlenty barraging him with policy questions on their many car rides across the state. Durenberger goes so far as to say Pawlenty would have been more comfortable in the U.S. Senate, where he could have embraced his wonkish instincts, rather than the governor's mansion, where he faces constant hectoring from conservatives.
As he moves toward a possible berth on a McCain ticket, Pawlenty is discovering that national GOP politics are, if anything, even more restrictive. He seems to have learned that, in today's Republican Party, the surest way to jeopardize a promising career is to have your fiscal manhood called into question. Back at the American Legion hall, I asked why he thought Mike Huckabee had come up short this year. Pawlenty told me that "social conservatives, faith-based conservatives really liked his message. But there were some economic conservatives who did not." There are certain rules even a barroom headlocker knows he can't break.
While Pawlenty's youthful exuberance and conservative credentials, as well as his standing loyally by McCain while his campaign was on life support have made his name popular among television politicos as a Veep contender, the numbers show that even with Pawlenty on his ticket, McCain is unlikely to become the first Republican to carry Minnesota since Nixon in 1972.
For starters, while the self-billed Sam's Club Republican with the working class St. Paul background is a good story to the independent and middle class voters McCain will need to win this November, Pawlenty was reelected by only 21,108 votes in 2006 (46.7% to 45.7%) -- and the political conditions of 2008 will make 2006 look like a picnic for Republicans. Case in point, on February 5, 2008 - Super Tuesday - 214,066 voters turned out for the MN Democratic Caucus compared to only 62,828 for the MN Republican Caucus. Although he is a walleye angling Republican Governor in a Democratic state, these sort of numbers don't exactly add up to Pawlenty helping McCain take Minnesota's 10 electoral votes. For now, however, Pawlenty's line is cast into the Veep waters and he might just yet pull out the big one.
Posted by: Josh Swanson on 6/18/2008 at 11:00 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
Conrad Tells AP and CNN Obama Vetting Team Discussed 20 Names
CNN's Political Ticker and the Associated Press are reporting that Senator Kent Conrad, D-ND, and several other senior Democratic lawmakers met with Barack Obama's Veep Vetting team and discussed roughly 20 names on Tuesday. "I sensed from this meeting that they are still very much building the list and at the same time evaluating possibilities," Conrad told the AP. "It's very clear they have reached no conclusions, not even tentative conclusions." The AP also reported that Obama's vetting team met with North Dakota's other Senator, Sen. Byron Dorgan, "who confirmed that former military officials were discussed, along with a 'good many names' of other potential candidates." The only other congressional Democrat mentioned as meeting with the VP Team was House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland.
Conrad, who TIME named one of the country's Top 10 Senators, was the first Senator outside of Illinois to endorse Obama. Conrad's key endorsement came on December 29, 2007, just days before Obama's victory in Iowa. It is interesting the Obama camp chose Conrad to leak the "roughly 20 names" story. With as hush-hush and underwraps the Obama Veep Selection process has been, it is unlikely Conrad, a savvy Senate veteran and budget expert extraordinaire, would choose to make this kind of news on a whim or without the tacit approval of the Obama campaign. Here is the CNN story:
Senator says Obama VP search team discussed 20 names
WASHINGTON (CNN) Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential vetting team discussed roughly 20 names with a senior Senate Democrat Tuesday, including some well-known options and others that are outside the box.
Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota told CNN that some of those on the list are top officials now, others are former lawmakers and others are former top military leaders.
Conrad said Obama's team wanted his impressions about the people on the list, including the respect they command and their standing with their colleagues. He termed their discussion wide-ranging.
Posted by: Josh Swanson on 6/10/2008 at 12:48 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink