McCain vs. McCain

Commenters to this blog never tire of complaining that the much-reviled MSM does not point out the inconsistencies between John McCain’s reformer image and his current campaign tactics. To me, that suggests they are not reading the MSM. In fact, a major storyline of this campaign is the fight between McCain and, well, McCain. I wrote about it last December , in a story for TIME that included this powerful quote from Ken Duberstein, who was White House chief of staff under Ronald Reagan and one of the few GOP establishment figures to support McCain in 2000:

A profile in courage can become a profile in unrestrained ambition. He has to remember who his friends are and not spend his integrity on one-night stands with those who will never fully trust him.

That theme has also become very much a part of the stories about McCain in the major newspapers, including this one and this one, which appeared within a day of each other in the New York Times. But no one has done such a thorough job of pointing out the contradictions as frequent blogosphere target John Solomon, who did a lot of legwork for the story that appears in today’s Washington Post.

Related Topics: Uncategorized
  • Latest on Swampland

    Why Romney Is Dodging the Press

    Joe, the Romney campaign’s control-freakery makes for bad democracy, but I suspect it’s a smart strategy. Consider the way Mitt’s personal approval rating has bounced back over the past several weeks. As the GOP primaries wrapped up, Romney was roughly as unpopular as late-era George W. Bush. Now he’s about even with Barack Obama.

    Since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney’s favorable-unfavorable rating has jumped to 50%-41%, his best ever and in the same neighborhood as Obama’s 52%-46% standing.

    What changed? Well, for one thing, other Republican rivals are no longer attacking Romney. That helps. But it’s not like he’s had a free ride: the Obama camp has picked up where Rick and Newt left off. An alternate explanation would be that Americans are simply seeing less of Romney, and that makes them like him better.

    For Obama, gay marriage stance born of a long evolutionHuffPost Politics

    Crossroads, Super PACs and the Incumbent Advertising Gap

    In a recent piece about the Obama-Romney ad wars, Michael Scherer made the smart point that this election is different from past ones in that the incumbent no longer gets a free hit on his rival during the period immediately following the primary. The reason: super PACs have the cash to cover that gap while the challenger collects enough general election funds to keep pace.

blog comments powered by Disqus