Erraticism
Actually it’s sad to see. John McCain once was the maverick he claims to be. But his apparently long sought desire to be President led him to conclude that anything he did that would lead to that end was justifiable. So he jettisoned those views that occasionally had him oppose Bush/Republican policies and shifted completely to the right. Once opposed to Bush’s tax cuts as inherently unfair; now he is a strenuous supporter. His claim to be a straight talker and an ethical politician have given way to negative attacks about Obama rather than demonstrating why he has the temperament to be President.
Unfortunately for him, the capture of the right wing base of the Republican Party has correctly saddled him as a supporter of the policies that have led to the worst financial crisis since 1929 and jeopardized his election hopes.
With the need to demonstrate why he deserves to be President despite the Bush record, he has launched a series of what can only be called desperate campaign moves that show a willingness to gamble and an erratic lurching from position to position.
Selecting a woman as a vice-presidential candidate on the heels of the Hilary Clinton supporters’ dissatisfaction was a brilliant political move and really worried me when I first heard it. But the reality of Sarah Palin took about a day to sink in and expose the paucity of the thought processes that led to McCain’s decision.
It turns out she is a flawed candidate, unqualified, disinterested in the world beyond Alaska, but a willing surrogate who will say anything regardless of the truth. The result so far is that she has stirred the passions of the people who were going to vote for McCain anyway (even if he had nominated Dennis Kucinich as VP) and alienated the independents, and women who are appalled at the thought of the setback to women achieving high office if the first woman so elected is so unfit for the position.
When this maneuver didn’t work and Paulsen and Bernanke began ringing financial alarms, in the space of a day, McCain declared the economy to be sound and then after hearing from his advisors publically recognized we were in a crisis.
As his poll numbers began to drop, he dramatically announced that he was placing his campaign on hold to rush to Washington so he could act as the leader he believes himself to be. This led to the breakup of an agreement between Congressional Democrats and Republican by inserting Presidential politics into the middle of very difficult negotiations.
The next day at a meeting at the White House, McCain was essentially silent as the debate raged. During the next week, while Obama was convincing ten or so members of the Black Congressional caucus to change their votes to support of the bill, McCain remained passively in his local office. He then announced his support for the rescue plan.
Back on the campaign trail, he allowed Palin to accuse Obama of terrorist associations, allowed speakers to emphasize Obama’s middle name to draw connections to the false rumor that he is an Arab, and allowed Palin to charge that Obama is different than most Americans. When the revved up crowds responded with hate and viciousness, McCain realized that he had been the catalyst for behavior that was abominable, and he tried to correct the more extreme statements of his supporters, getting booed by them for the effort. The polls though kept widening in Obama’s favor, but the negative ads remained and Palin continues her attacks. In the middle of the financial crisis, she felt it was important yesterday to tell gun owners that Obama would take away their gun rights. Given the current direction of the economy, no one is going to be able to afford bullets, let alone guns.
The McCain campaign has been reduced to a combination of false and misleading accusations of Obama coupled with McCain assertions that McCain knows how to find Osama Bin Laden, knows how to fix the financial crisis, and knows how to win wars. Very little that he has done over the past four years and in managing his election campaign support those extravagant claims.
Unfortunately for him, the capture of the right wing base of the Republican Party has correctly saddled him as a supporter of the policies that have led to the worst financial crisis since 1929 and jeopardized his election hopes.
With the need to demonstrate why he deserves to be President despite the Bush record, he has launched a series of what can only be called desperate campaign moves that show a willingness to gamble and an erratic lurching from position to position.
Selecting a woman as a vice-presidential candidate on the heels of the Hilary Clinton supporters’ dissatisfaction was a brilliant political move and really worried me when I first heard it. But the reality of Sarah Palin took about a day to sink in and expose the paucity of the thought processes that led to McCain’s decision.
It turns out she is a flawed candidate, unqualified, disinterested in the world beyond Alaska, but a willing surrogate who will say anything regardless of the truth. The result so far is that she has stirred the passions of the people who were going to vote for McCain anyway (even if he had nominated Dennis Kucinich as VP) and alienated the independents, and women who are appalled at the thought of the setback to women achieving high office if the first woman so elected is so unfit for the position.
When this maneuver didn’t work and Paulsen and Bernanke began ringing financial alarms, in the space of a day, McCain declared the economy to be sound and then after hearing from his advisors publically recognized we were in a crisis.
As his poll numbers began to drop, he dramatically announced that he was placing his campaign on hold to rush to Washington so he could act as the leader he believes himself to be. This led to the breakup of an agreement between Congressional Democrats and Republican by inserting Presidential politics into the middle of very difficult negotiations.
The next day at a meeting at the White House, McCain was essentially silent as the debate raged. During the next week, while Obama was convincing ten or so members of the Black Congressional caucus to change their votes to support of the bill, McCain remained passively in his local office. He then announced his support for the rescue plan.
Back on the campaign trail, he allowed Palin to accuse Obama of terrorist associations, allowed speakers to emphasize Obama’s middle name to draw connections to the false rumor that he is an Arab, and allowed Palin to charge that Obama is different than most Americans. When the revved up crowds responded with hate and viciousness, McCain realized that he had been the catalyst for behavior that was abominable, and he tried to correct the more extreme statements of his supporters, getting booed by them for the effort. The polls though kept widening in Obama’s favor, but the negative ads remained and Palin continues her attacks. In the middle of the financial crisis, she felt it was important yesterday to tell gun owners that Obama would take away their gun rights. Given the current direction of the economy, no one is going to be able to afford bullets, let alone guns.
The McCain campaign has been reduced to a combination of false and misleading accusations of Obama coupled with McCain assertions that McCain knows how to find Osama Bin Laden, knows how to fix the financial crisis, and knows how to win wars. Very little that he has done over the past four years and in managing his election campaign support those extravagant claims.
posted by John Weiss at 2:45 PM
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