McCain’s Dirty Campaign Beginning to Backfire Against Him

Many of us liberal bloggers have been critical of how McCain’s campaign has recently taken the low road in adopting dishonest Rove/Clinton style political attacks, along with dwelling on nonsense attacks such as bringing up Paris Hilton and Britney Spears.  Obama has responded both in today’s ad and while campaiging, such as with this statement:

I do have to ask my opponent– Is that the best you can come up with? Is that really what this election’s about? Is that what is worthy of the American people?

For such criticism of McCain to matter it is necessary for the mainstream media to report on the dishonesty shown by McCain’s campaign. There have been several recent examples, with two more seen today. The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial blasting McCain for going From ‘straight talk’ to smear campaign.

The Straight Talk Express has taken a nasty turn into the gutter. Sen. John McCain has resorted to lies and distortions in what sounds like an increasingly desperate attempt to slow down Sen. Barack Obama by raising questions about his patriotism. Instead of taking the Democrat down a few notches, these baseless attacks are raising more questions about the Republican’s campaign and his ability to control his temper.

The most offensive line comes from McCain himself. The Arizona senator has repeated that Obama “would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.” That is one of the more outrageous statements by a major political party candidate seeking the presidency. The looming choices about the long-festering war in Iraq are not between winning and losing but about how quickly or slowly the United States can reduce its military forces without jeopardizing recent security gains. Even McCain acknowledges that, and insulting Obama in such a reckless way is not presidential.

That is only one example of the darker tone enveloping the McCain campaign since several of Karl Rove’s acolytes took the wheel. A new McCain ad suggests that while Obama traveled abroad last week he “made time to go to the gym but canceled a visit with wounded troops. Seems the Pentagon wouldn’t allow him to bring cameras.” That’s a compelling punch line, but it’s below the belt.

What actually happened: Obama planned to visit wounded troops at a medical center in Germany until the Pentagon said it would not allow him to bring a retired Air Force major general who is one of the campaign’s foreign policy advisers. The Democrat may have been poised to blur the line between political events and official troop visits by members of Congress. But there is no evidence that he was snubbing soldiers because he could not appear with them on television.

McCain has even attempted to plant doubts about whether Obama is a socialist. He said earlier this month that the Democrat’s voting record “is more to the left than the announced socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.” Asked whether he thought Obama is a socialist, McCain responded: “I don’t know. All I know is his voting record, and that’s what people usually judge their elected representatives by.”

This is a classic smear campaign. As the Times‘ PolitiFact notes, the National Journal rated Obama the most liberal senator by analyzing just 99 of 442 votes last year. He did not finish near the top in two previous years, and other ranking services rate his record as significantly less liberal than Sanders’. But McCain was not troubled by the details. He mentioned Obama and socialist in the same sentence, and the seeds of doubt were planted.

Virtually all candidates, including Obama, distort their opponent’s record. But McCain has gone beyond reasonable bounds. The self-described “happy warrior” in the 2000 presidential campaign has turned sour in 2008, and the candor and straight talk that once made him such an attractive candidate are rapidly disappearing.

Joe Klein’s attitude towards McCain has also changed. While this comes from a blog post, most likely this change in attitude will also be reflected in his published articles. He writes:

A few months ago, I wrote that John McCain was an honorable man and he would run an honorable campaign. I was wrong. I used to think, as David Ignatius does, that McCain’s true voice was humble and moderate, but now I’m beginning to think his Senate colleagues may be right about his temperament. From what I can gather, Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, a Republican, reflected the views of many of his colleagues earlier this year when he said:

“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine…He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

The erratic nature of McCain’s campaign seems to be confirming that judgment. The McCain I used to know would never have touted his own courage as he did a few weeks ago when he said:

“I had the courage and the judgment to say that I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war.It seems to me that Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.”

Courage is grace under pressure. McCain showed it when he was a prisoner of war, and on many issues–yes, even on his stubborn insistence that the surge would work–but he is not showing it now. He is showing flop sweat. It is not a quality usually associated with successful leadership.

Resorting to dishonest attacks did not help Hillary Clinton. McCain apparently thinks this tactic will help him as it helped George Bush in previous elections, but so far it looks like Obama is being successful in neutralizing such attacks.

4 Comments

  1. 1
    Christopher says:

    The Crackpot Express has definitely jumped the shark and the track.

    May the PUMA loons enjoy voting for this whack-job! 🙂

  2. 2
    C J Little says:

    On Experience;

    First let it be known that every male member of my family all the way back to 1775 has stood the field as a member of the military in the service of this nation.
    I served IN Southeast Asea. I left the service in 1972.  I am quite certain that the emotional/ mental torture Mr McCain suffered has left its mark.  I am not at all certain that five years in the worst hell hole that can be imagined has helped his reasoning ability, rather I would think that it would cause him to crumble under stress, but that is not really my point here.
    There is so much talk about lack of experience that I thought I had to say my two-cent worth.  None of the candidates or their Vps have the only qualification that matters, actually having done the job.
    Unless Mr. McCain wants to claim that he is GW Bush he has no more experience than  Mr. Obama. Certainly Mr. Bidden’s experience in the congress outperforms Mrs. Palin’s as does almost everybody else running.
    According to article II of the United States constitution, the requirement to be elected to the Precedency is;
    “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.”
    So we, as the voting public are free to chose in any way we see fit. I for one feel that life experience and actions mean a lot.
    I have seen what irrational actions cause. I have seen what shoot from the hip on false information causes. I have seen on the battle field and the board room what out of touch decisions cause. (Never good results)
    There are those who would say that being a community organizer is not a big thing yet how does any effort start except as action at the community level. 
    In my view the Federal Governments task is not to govern people but to govern its self and the common resources that the American  people depend on and live within.
    In my Opinion the only experience that counts is the demonstrated ability to reason, Logically assess and effectively act to get the best result for the American people.
    I think that, of the candidates presented there is a clear distinct difference in experience.
    The experience of actually assessing and correctly acting seems not in Mr. McCain’s tool kit.
    I would argue that it is most likely not in Mrs. Palin’s either. Mr. Bidden has demonstrated it over and over and Mr. Obama has shown not only the ability but the additional ability to actually take steps of personal action to effect the issues of this Nation.

    The only thing we as voters need, to make the correct decision this time, is to think of more than our direct good and meld that good to the whole nation. Use our thinking ability as an asset the nation needs. Realize that the next Person to hold the office of President will have to start the long road . . .  to economic recovery . . .  as well as the place this nation stands in the world . . .  as well as getting some industry back into American hands . . . As well as good paying Jobs for hard-working Americans. Think people Think.  Do you want people in office that actually think or puppet masters of fear?  Do we want reaction and inaction or do we want real meaningful

  3. 3
    Howard's A Liberal Loser says:

    Hmmmm – But your candidate produces ads that makes fun at a man that cannot use a computer because of his war injury. Imagine a president that can’t use a computer? No blogging and such – maybe work will get done for a change!

    McCain/Palin ’08!

  4. 4
    Ron Chusid says:

    War injuries–what nonsense. That has nothing to do with  his lack of understanding of computers–which is important to have.

    McCain has used a Blackberry. If he has used this he could use a computer keyboard. If it really was a matter of war injuries, there are also products available to assist with this.

    It is amazing how often McCain and his supporters will fall back on McCain having been a POW to ignore all his deficiencies.

    Update: Even if it were to turn out that McCain was not using a computer due to war injuries this would hardly be an analogous example. McCain is on record many times describing his lack of knowledge of computers without mentioning his war injuries. Even if, hypothetically, this was the reason the ad was made without this knowledge and was not an intentional attack based upon his injuries. One such ad from Obama’s campaign hardly compares at all to a whole string of intentionally dishonest ads from the McCain campaign.

    The problem is that McCain has used the POW card far too many times, making people skeptical about any defense of McCain based upon it.

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