Quote Of The Day: McCain’s Last (Anti-Bush) Stand?

The political Quote of the Day comes from MSNBC’s indispensable First Read’s solid Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Carrie Dann on Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s finally starting to really distance himself from President George W. Bush in a newspaper interview:

Be sure not to miss McCain’s exclusive interview with the Washington Times, in which the Arizona senator lashes out at President Bush. “Sen. John McCain on Wednesday blasted President Bush for building a mountain of debt for future generations, failing to pay for expanding Medicare and abusing executive powers, leveling his strongest criticism to date of an administration whose unpopularity may be dragging the Republican Party to the brink of a massive electoral defeat. ‘We just let things get completely out of hand,’ he said of his own party’s rule in the past eight years.”

A very senior GOP strategist emails Politico’s Mike Allen in response: “Lashing out at past Republican congresses instead of Pelosi and Reid, and echoing your opponent’s attacks on you instead of attacking your opponent, and spending 150,000 hard dollars on designer clothes when congressional Republicans are struggling for money, and when your senior campaign staff are blaming each other for the loss in The New York Times [Magazine] 10 days before the election, you’re not doing much to energize your supporters.” Oh snap.

Oh, snap is right…

McCain’s problem: it’s too late in the game now to win over voters who have concluded that he is no longer the independent 2000 version of John McCain. And, as this quote shows, by aiming some political fire at Bush right now he risks angering the people who are sticking by him when some other Republicans are jumping ship faster than scuba diving students during their final exam.