Or is it? Is this a case of like (blunt spoken) father like (blunt spoken) daughter? Or of a loose cannon? Viewpoints differ — as they always do in ever-polarized (with some polarization now occurring within the Republican party itself) America.
As Dennis Sanders noted in his must read post here, she is quickly gaining a reputation as a mega-straight-talker and is calling on her party to evolve and become more inclusive. And now she has taken on Karl Rove:
Meghan McCain loves Twitter — except for the “creepy people.” Like Karl Rove.
In a blog post for the Daily Beast published Monday, McCain says the social networking site has been a “liberating” experience for her — if only her dispatches weren’t being read by the former Bush adviser.
“Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That’s creepy,” she said. “I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It’s allowed me to share the less serious aspects and humorously uncensored moments of my life. But there’s also been a downside: I am now being followed by Karl Rove, and my local sheriff, and God knows how many other political pundits. We need to take Twitter back from the creepy people.”
But she wasn’t done yet:
Later, she wrote: “I can’t shake the fact that Karl Rove is following me-it can be creepy. So watch out.”
The daughter of former Republican presidential candidate John McCain also said she finds Rove’s Tweets “boring,” and speculated that he had a “ghost Twitterer” or an assistant posting his thoughts.
“On the surface, Karl Rove’s Twitter feed intrigues me,” she said. Here’s a guy who for years has been perceived as some kind of inaccessible man-behind-the-curtain figure. And now he Tweets numerous times a day. I’ve never met him in person, which only makes our Twitter relationship even weirder. And to be honest, I find Rove’s Tweets boring. Sometimes he takes questions; other times he talks about his appearances on cable news and other shows. But he doesn’t say anything substantive.”
In her post on the Daily Beast she takes aim at some prominent “new media” outlets as well:
But media-hungry politicians aren’t the only ones creeping me out on Twitter. Certain media outlets seem to want to ruin it for the rest of us, too. I was shocked when Think Progress and The Huffington Post reported on one of my Tweets—and even more shocked when HuffPo made it their front-page story. I replied “Hey HuffPo, I am Twittering in bed in my pajamas, wanna report that too?” It went unanswered, of course.
I refuse to “script” who I am, what I say, and what I do. The only person Tweeting on my account is me. I don’t have an assistant, friend, or spokesperson updating my feed to “represent” me. (Seriously, would an assistant swear so much?) But this made me consider censoring myself. Who knows the next time The Huffington Post will have a slow news day and feel compelled to stick a headline next to a particularly unflattering photo of me? My Tweets are not sound bytes. Of course, I recognize I’m choosing to Tweet, but seriously, can’t journalists find something more important and useful to report?
We’ve often noted here a growing disconnect between the GOP’s most loyal part of its loyal conservative base and other Americans who don’t like the style and attack-content Rove style politics, which is derived from the old Lee Atwater school of Republicanism. Add to that younger Republicans –but that group is not monolithic, as no group is, plus Republicans (read some of our posts on TMV) who aren’t into the GOP’s present talk radio political culture.
The likely response from the younger McCain’s GOP critics will likely be to try and discredit her — either on her wording or because she is not going after Democrats (but her whole point the past few days has been to move away from the kind of Republicanism that is chasing voters away who might otherwise join or vote for the party). They’ll suggest she’s a RINO (or worse over time).
Since the Presidential election, some have wondered if a new Republican voice could emerge, to at least question the party’s approach and urge it to look forward — beyond old battles both of substance and labels (“liberal…lefties..socialists.”).
Doesn’t this too? That’s the usual response on the Internet. But what did your Mother tell you? “If your friends jumped off a cliff does that mean you would, too?”
Meghan McCain won’t jump off the cliff…
BUT THAT’S OUR OPINION SO HERE ARE A FEW OTHER ONES:
Employing her usual writing style, in which she expresses some random thought and never really unpacks that random thought, it remains unclear exactly why she finds Rove following her “creepy.” In all likelihood, it’s another one of her attempts to set conservatives like herself, who find themselves attempting to blindly steer forward a floundering party, apart from the icky old guys like Rove. The problem is that she and Rove have more in common than she comprehends. After all, she’s just a Karl Rove creep in sorority girl clothing.
Rove isn’t the only Republican who offends McCain. She also calls Maricopa County’s infamous sheriff, Joe Arpaio (truly one of the nastier elected officials in the country) a “Twitter Creep.” He’s following her, too…..Let’s see who stands with Meghan in her battle against the GOP’s creeps. Looks like she has no intention of backing down. This is going to be fun to watch.
Instead, referencing the 24-year-old blogger’s speech to the Log Cabin Republicans on Saturday, [MSNBC’s Contessa] Brewer queried, “…Is it time for the Republican Party to be more inclusive of people from all different orientations?” She then asked Bellantoni, “…We talk about Limbaugh, Michael Steele, Sarah Palin, is it possible Meghan McCain becomes the voice of the Republican Party?” How bizarre is it that Brewer was asking if a woman who supported Gore and Kerry, and spoke to an organization of gay Republicans that refused to endorse George W. Bush in 2004, will one day lead the GOP? (In her latest Daily Beast blog, McCain attacked the “creepy” Karl Rove.)
Well, well, there really is a “Maverick” McCain, but it’s not the tired old man who cowered before the right-wing of the GOP and sold out his principles to realize his ambition of becoming the Republican Party’s nominee. No, it is his 24-year old daughter, Meghan McCain. Meghan has been giving the shrill harpies in the conservative media fits for weeks now – I like her, she’s not afraid to speak her mind.
Meghan, better known as the beautiful young protagonist “Meg McCabe” in Meghan’s upcoming unwritten first novel, First Daughter, First Love, exists on the media landscape for one reason and one reason only: She is the daughter of the failed GOP candidate for president last year, John McCain. So, it’s painful to watch Meg try to act troubled by the fact that her father’s colleagues — old Republican political operatives — are “following” her on “Twitter.”
Terrible, right? But there is one bit of comedy in her otherwise “Oh jeez Tina do I really have to turn in another bloggy thing?” essay of the now: She claims, hilariously, that John McCain actually writes that illiterate,,,wingnut prattle on his own “Twitter.”
But, you know, before I begrudge the success of a not-clearly-qualified young blogger/pundit I suppose I’d better the insulation on my glass house. So instead I’ll just say that the fact that Meghan McCain is, apparently successfully, launching a career as a political pundit capable of garnering a book deal worth hundreds of thousands of dollars all based on being the daughter of a failed presidential candidate should give people pause about the meritocratic nature of American capitalism. I mean, more power to her. But I’d sleep better at night knowing she’s going to pay a very high tax rate on that book deal, and the money could be put to use giving Pell Grants and health insurance to kids who don’t have multi-millionaire celebrity dads.
John McCain’s daughter starts a generational war inside the GOP..
It’s bad enough when some of today’s young people believe they know everything. Couple that with the spoiled, rich daughter of a Republican (who once knew he was loved by the media), who now believes she has the answers to all the GOP woes, and like her father, is doing so by publicly distancing herself from the base.
“Meghan McCain warned a group of gay Republicans Saturday that there was “a war brewing in the Republican Party” – a war between the past and the future.”
Such a gathering and statement was struck gold for the media. Despite the stereotypes of Republicans (which Meghan has swallowed whole), they don’t hate or fear gays. Log Cabin Republicans support the positions on issues. It’s ignorant little twits like Meghan McCain and her willingness to be used by the enemy, who perpetuate stereotypes against her own just so she can sell a book.
—Down With Tyranny has this must read post that MUST be read in full. It puts Meghan McCain’s recent comments in context. Here’s a small part of it:
The California Republican Party has erupted into a full blown civil war between mainstream conservatives and ideological extremists from beyond the fringe. They are trying to recall several of their own elected officials and one far right congressman, Devin Nunes, demanded that the state’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, resign. Up in Alaska the Republican Senate president and House speaker joined with a bipartisan majority of state legislators to reject Governor Sarah Palin’s choice of bizarre and extremist loon Anthony Ross as Alaska Attorney General. There’s barely a state in the Union without a fratricidal bloodletting in GOP-land. It’s wrecking the party in Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas, Minnesota, Florida, Colorado and even Utah (despite Rich Frank’s claim today that the Mormons have grown all warm and fuzzy and mainstreamish)! Today’s GOP stands for nothing but obstructionism… to everything. There’s nothing left for them to talk about but secession and cow farts.
Their own base is deserting them in a fit of unfocused rage and ratings-generating ad revenues. As the torment the South Carolina teabaggers put Barrett through showed, the teabaggers are like a genie the GOP and their media allies let out of the bottle. It may be harder to get it back in again.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.