Obama Admits He Admires McCain … When He Loses

With apologies for the groan inducing headline, we go to the New York Post. (Who actually endorsed Obama this week, by the way.)

Barack Obama says he admired John McCain, the 2000 version. These days? Not so much.

Hours after McCain released an ad citing past praise from Obama, the Democratic nominee said Friday he respected the unsuccessful 2000 primary campaign McCain waged against then-Gov. George W. Bush. Obama noted the Arizona senator’s stand then against negative political attacks.

“I admired him for it,” Obama told a crowd of 25,000 in Des Moines.

“He said, ‘I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land.’ Those words were spoken eight years ago by my opponent John McCain,” Obama said.

“But the high road didn’t lead him to the White House then, so this time he decided to take a different route,” which Obama assailed as “slash-and-burn, say-anything, do-anything politics.”

It would be easy to continue on here with a Saturday morning snark festival, but Obama does bring up a valid, if terribly convenient, point. McCain’s 2000 primary battle against George W. Bush was, in the opinions of many observers, much better managed and organized than his outing this year. And in that contest McCain consistently ran on his extensive record and image as an American hero, a seasoned legislator and a proven leader. He also appeared completely flummoxed as to how he could be losing to the little known, frat-boy Governor from Texas whose resume was far thinner and his military record… well, let us say “somewhat less impressive” than McCain’s to put it charitably.

Mac stuck to the high road and George W. Bush threw him off a bridge. Bush ran one of the dirtiest advertising campaigns we’d seen in a long while and McCain headed back to his Senate seat. Clearly he wasn’t going to make the same mistake in 2008. The 2000 McCain campaign would never have seen appearances where his opponent was described as a “socialist” or as “palling around with terrorists.” But if you’re going to be in this game, you’re in it to win it, and Senator McCain has clearly learned that lesson.

What’s that old saying again? Fool me once. I’m not saying McCain would somehow be in the lead right now if he had stuck to campaigning on the issues and his own record without attacking his opponent, but I can certainly understand why he felt he had to “go there” and give it a try at the end of this run.