McCain's Makeover: Is It a Sellout to the Right?
Senator John McCain wants to be President. In the worst way, it appears. The moderate maverick has been undergoing a radical makeover the past year to appeal to the extreme religious right of the GOP. He's even kissing up to George W. Bush though not as literally as Joe Lieberman. Recalling the vicious campaign Karl Rove engineered against him in 2000 on behalf of Bush this really makes me wonder what kind of man McCain is. This level of forgiveness is either unheard of in a mortal or is complete pandering.
One thing people have always admired about John McCain is his strength of character. He didn't pander to anyone. He knew who he was, was comfortable with who he was and what he believed, and he wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed. People and voters greatly admire those qualities in their politicians and leaders. They'll vote for it even if the person represents the other Party.
McCain threw all this out the window though when he decided to begin pandering to these Republican extremists. Somewhere along the line he decided he wanted to be President more than be John McCain. He abandoned the "old" John McCain and reinvented him as a typical politician. It's obviously impossible to win the Republican nomination without the support of this key demographic so he began kissing some serious Bush behind.
What's interesting is how he started doing this just as the rest of the country began awakening to Bush's incredible failures of leadership and string of lies. McCain snuggled up to the White House as the rest of the country was pushing it away. Will this miscalculation do him in? After all no one but the Senator and Lynn Swann seem to want to have anything to do with Bush these days. Being tied to the President is the kiss of death for Republicans in 2006. Odds are 2008 will only be worse.
Let's recap what happened in South Carolina in 2000. Bush and McCain came out of Iowa and New Hampshire with the Arizonian running strongly. In South Carolina Rove engineered a push poll asking whether voters would view McCain differently if they knew he had a Black child out of wedlock. If you know anything at all about South Carolina, especially Republicans in that state, you know there's a huge amount of racism still running rampant.
It so happened that Senator McCain and his wife had recently adopted a child, a girl, who had dark skin. When the voters who received those telephone calls saw this extended family on stage at events, well...you don't need me to tell you how they voted.
This dirty trick cost McCain the nomination as Bush won SC and went on with that momentum to garner the nod at the convention. That McCain would completely dismiss such an awful maneuver and cozy up to those who committed it says something about the man. Either he's the second coming or he's sold out everything he was as a man in order to be President. Far be it from me to rule out the former but my money is on the latter.
There was a time I could have been unafraid if John McCain won the White House. Not any more.
One thing people have always admired about John McCain is his strength of character. He didn't pander to anyone. He knew who he was, was comfortable with who he was and what he believed, and he wasn't afraid to stand up for what he believed. People and voters greatly admire those qualities in their politicians and leaders. They'll vote for it even if the person represents the other Party.
McCain threw all this out the window though when he decided to begin pandering to these Republican extremists. Somewhere along the line he decided he wanted to be President more than be John McCain. He abandoned the "old" John McCain and reinvented him as a typical politician. It's obviously impossible to win the Republican nomination without the support of this key demographic so he began kissing some serious Bush behind.
What's interesting is how he started doing this just as the rest of the country began awakening to Bush's incredible failures of leadership and string of lies. McCain snuggled up to the White House as the rest of the country was pushing it away. Will this miscalculation do him in? After all no one but the Senator and Lynn Swann seem to want to have anything to do with Bush these days. Being tied to the President is the kiss of death for Republicans in 2006. Odds are 2008 will only be worse.
Let's recap what happened in South Carolina in 2000. Bush and McCain came out of Iowa and New Hampshire with the Arizonian running strongly. In South Carolina Rove engineered a push poll asking whether voters would view McCain differently if they knew he had a Black child out of wedlock. If you know anything at all about South Carolina, especially Republicans in that state, you know there's a huge amount of racism still running rampant.
It so happened that Senator McCain and his wife had recently adopted a child, a girl, who had dark skin. When the voters who received those telephone calls saw this extended family on stage at events, well...you don't need me to tell you how they voted.
This dirty trick cost McCain the nomination as Bush won SC and went on with that momentum to garner the nod at the convention. That McCain would completely dismiss such an awful maneuver and cozy up to those who committed it says something about the man. Either he's the second coming or he's sold out everything he was as a man in order to be President. Far be it from me to rule out the former but my money is on the latter.
There was a time I could have been unafraid if John McCain won the White House. Not any more.
posted by PA progressive @ Monday, August 28, 2006
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