McCain Campaign Snubs Penn State University President In Battleground State

The 21st century trend towards mega-partisanship earlier this year seemed notably at odds with candidates pledging to reach across the aisle to increase national unity. But a bit of bad press now swirling around Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s campaign will if anything underscore how some partisans lose sight of important long range goals because they’ve perhaps overdosed on too much partisan rhetoric or listened to too much talk radio.

Is this the way to reach across the aisle?

[NOTE: Some words dropped in editing appeared in the first posted version of this but were corrected within minutes. TMV regrets the error...]

A McCain-Palin campaign official snubbed the president of Penn State University who inquired about attending a campus speech Tuesday by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, university officials told ABCNews.com.

“He’s a big Democrat. Why would he want to meet Palin?” campaign aide Russ Bermel allegedly asked a school employee who was hoping to make arrangements for president Graham B. Spanier to meet Palin, according to Spanier’s office.

Note the word “allegedly,” which is a journalistic hedge. This means McCain’s campaign could deny it. But if it’s a misunderstanding, you have to wonder how with so much at stake in so many short days the campaign could allow any possible misinterpretation — if that’s what it is.

Some voters — perhaps unfairly — will now wonder whether the aides of a President John McCain would similarly give the back of their political hands to Democrats who seek to talk to the new President or Vice President. Even if it’s true, this kind of needless controversy really doesn’t “prove” where a campaign is coming from — but the McCain campaign’s foes will take it and run with it. The story will get big play and won’t help win over lingering undecideds or Democrats in Pennsylvania not yet sold on Obama but sold on the idea that partisanship has gotten way out of hand.

ABC News adds:

The McCain-Palin campaign has been working overtime to become competitive in Pennsylvania, where the Obama-Biden campaign has enjoyed a double-digit lead in the polls.

Some might say that makes it an odd time to snub the president of the state’s largest university. The school enrolls 40,000 students and counts a quarter-million alumni living in Pennsylvania alone.

“I welcome eminent visitors to our campus everyday, including lots of Republicans, but [the McCain-Palin campaign] didn’t want me to greet her or even attend the event,” said Spanier.

This kind of story makes it seem as if the McCain campaign is only campaigning for the votes of those who already want to vote for McCain. That would be gross political incompetence — and this is just the reported alleged action of one aide — so that’s not it.

But what can you call purportedly telling the President of a major university in a battleground state where undecided voters count and where you’re trying to pick up Democratic voters to get lost — that it will somehow infect the Vice Presidential candidate if a prominent avowed Democrat meets her?

TALKING POINTS MEMO:

Way to make friends with the locals, Sarah. I guess Graham didn’t meet the “pre-conditions”? Not only does State College, PA, stand as one of the largest population centers in PA, it’s smack-dab in the middle of the rural part, far from Philly and Pittsburgh. I wonder if Joe Pa was given the cold-shoulder as well.