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For McCain: Better Late than Never?

October 10th, 2008
By PETE ABEL, Managing Editor

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The last few days, I’ve been very critical of the McCain camp — and by extension Sen. McCain — for their potentially mob-inciting rhetoric.

And while I seriously doubt Senator McCain reads TMV, much less anything I write, somehow, the message got through, at least a little. Sadly, the mob won’t let it go.

I know some of you won’t be as forgiving, but at this point, I honestly pity the Senator, and I suspect he has learned another in a series of painful life lessons. No matter your party or allegiance, I hope you’ll agree that it’s all such an incredible shame.



This entry was posted on Friday, October 10th, 2008 at 6:59 pm and is filed under Newsweek Blogitics, John McCain. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Viewing 12 Comments

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    I completely agree with you Pete. I've been critical of McCain and was critical of Hillary before him, but as we see, campaigning can bring out the side we least want to see in some people - including the supporters and detractors. The mob psychology aspect is particularly unpleasant and while I think McCain made his own bed, I still hate to see things devolve in this way.
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    I believe that McCain is trying to cling to a vestige of his 2000 self, he honestly would like a respectful campaign, but he wants to be president more. He let the genie out the bottle and he picked a holy warrior to be his VP. Its really just a lack of leadership ability. In the clips I saw he ends up figuratively face-palming his VP.
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    I voted for McCain in 2000. But now you have to count me in the camp of those who will have a hard time forgiving. You are right, though, that now is not the time for partisan temperatures to run high.

    My hope is that McCain will facilitate my ability to forgive him by following up on his good gesture today. That means no double-talk of the sort where he says that Obama would rather lose a war than lose an election one day, and then claims that he's not challenging Obama's patriotism the next. It would be especially helpful if McCain could acknowledge that he's stirred up sentiments that were better not stirred -- but the man I've gotten to know this election cycle would seem to be incapable of that sort of genuine decency. Yeah -- I've a ways to go on the forgiveness thing. But I'll at least try to leave the door open.
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    He did the right thing by quelling rather fueling the anger. I commend him for that. But I have say, the whole argument about questioning Obama's association with Ayers in the first place is a bit strained. McCain said several days ago something to the effect that "we don't care about some tired old former terrorist. That's not the point. The point is, Obama wasn't entirely truthful about his relationship with him." Well, if the former isn't important, why bring up the latter? That makes no sense.

    Of course, some of McCain's other comments -- even comments he made today -- makes it clear that he wants to imply that the former is important, so he's not being entirely truthful either. Further, it seems to me that in order for it to be important one would have to assume that (a) once a terrorist always a terrorist, no matter what other achievements were attained in the interim and/or (b) any association with said terrorist, even years later, and no matter how benign the topic of the association, makes you subject to catching terrorist cooties or something.

    Maybe I'm wrong (I hope I am), but I don't think McCain and his campaign intend to stop questioning Obama's association with Ayers -- or Michelle's association with his wife. In fact, it's gotten to the point where he almost can't. Both Obama and Biden have called McCain out for a face-to-face confrontation. Even members of McCain's audience are calling him out to challenge Obama in the next debate. So it seems to me he's concocted a very volatile brew. I hope he knows what he's doing -- for everyone's sake.
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    Good on you for posting this, Pete.
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    McCain is obviously very uncomfortable in this role. He's using Bush campaigners and their tactics do not fit the candidate at all. Now, he's had to douse the fire that he and his running mate have foolishly started. Its a relief to see the real John McCain, but it will only add to the erratic picture that voters are getting of him. He should stick to his strengths and resist the pressure from the right wing to engage in demeaning character attacks that are really dated.
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    It is the right thing to do. It would have been a shame if McCain's legacy coming out of this campaign was tied to all of the negative attacks. Win or lose, if he stops listening to the Rovians in his campaign staff and returns some dignity to this race, he will come out the other side in a better position.
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    "I believe that McCain is trying to cling to a vestige of his 2000 self"


    He's not trying that hard. Hiring those who perverted the campaign against him on 2000.

    He deserves what will be his "legacy". Because he paid for it.
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    I saw the news report with the man and then the woman from the MN rally. When McCain said there was nothing to fear from an Obama presidency he was booed.

    For me it was like coming to know two different McCains, the first one I've seen most of the time since January or February. This "Mr. Hyde" McCain was (is) willing to stoop to the lowest depths (including implying his opponent is a Muslim terrorist and perhaps even a traitor) to win the presidency. The other "Dr. Jekyll" McCain wants the presidency but is also an honorable man.

    To see McCain in front of the cameras answering these base charges was sad. The "Dr. Jekyll" McCain stood in front of these two people, listened to them with his head bowed, took the microphone from them, shaking his head "no" in disagreement and said that they had nothing to fear from Obama.

    It seemed to me that in this rally McCain had just awoken from a long nightmare in which he dreamt that he threw away his honor and values nad had promulgated fear of his opponent solely for the pursuit of the presidency. Only McCain realized he wasn't waking up from a nightmare... that McCain had indeed sown the seeds of discord and hate which he was now reaping. To me it was a very sad moment and I felt very sorry for him.

    A less dramatic analogy might be when one is so involved with accomplishing something (or just trying to win an argument) that one loses sight of the big picture. But then one steps back, takes a deep breath and realizes what an ass (or fool) he (or she) has been.

    It will be interesting to see what McCain does now. It will also be interesting to see if Palin continues as VP. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if McCain dumped Palin a week or two before the election and choose Lieberman as his running mate, hoping to ride a new wave of excitement and support of independents into the White House.
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    Sister Soljah moment? I hate that term, so I want to use it. The problem is a good Soljah moment loses very few votes. McCain always had a tenuous hold on the farther right part of his party and could lose a large number of base supporters. We will see in a few weeks. Perhaps tomorrow Obama will be a bad man again.