It's The Integrity, Stupid
by Todd Beeton, Fri Sep 12, 2008 at 02:36:57 PM EDT
Some in the media and in Washington -- even Democrats -- persist in their deluded claims that John McCain is too "honorable" to have authorized the dishonest attacks that his campaign has levied against Barack Obama. "Surely John McCain did not know about the ad claiming that Barack Obama was calling Sarah Palin a pig!", they cry, "he has way too much integrity!"
In the last 24 hours, McCain himself has left no doubt that whatever integrity he once had is in tatters on the floor.
Last night at the candidate forum on service, John McCain acknowledged the bitter tone of the campaign but, as he did with David Broder in August, passed the buck and blamed it on, of all people, Barack Obama.
First of all, this is a tough business. Second of all, I think the tone of this whole campaign would have been very different if Senator Obama had accepted my request for us to appear in townhalls all over America.
So much for personal responsibility, eh John?
Then this morning, on The View -- which, it should be noted, was perhaps the hardest hitting interview John McCain has been subjected to -- McCain addressed the lipstick on a pig ad and, not surprisingly, gave his full seal of approval (you hear that Tweety? Carville?):
MCCAIN: Actually they are not lies and if you've seen some of the ads that are running against me...Senator Obama chooses his words very carefully, OK? He shouldn't have said it. He shouldn't have said it. He chooses his words very carefully and this is a tough campaign.
For me, any shred of integrity McCain had was gone well before 2008, but certainly he sealed it with his comments earlier this summer that Barack would "rather lose a war than an election." So, it's nice to see the Obama campaign turn McCain's own words against him in response to McCain's defense of his indefensible ad on The View today.
Today on "The View," John McCain defended his campaign's latest ad campaign, which has been debunked repeatedly as both false and sleazy. In running the sleaziest campaign since South Carolina in 2000 and standing by completely debunked lies on national television, it's clear that John McCain would rather lose his integrity than lose an election.
Notice how they manage to go after his integrity while also tying him to Bush? This is, I think, a far more effective attack on McCain than the out of touch thing, particularly because it goes to his character and his entire "Country First" narrative -- in other words, it goes after his perceived strengths. Perhaps more important, it also taps into the disgust many former McCain supporters are already feeling toward him right now. Even before the Obama campaign released the above statement, a lifelong Republican I know -- and new Obama supporter -- wrote this to me this morning in response to McCain's persistently dishonest campaign:
It makes me sick! McCain used to be the standard for integrity in the Republican Party. Now, it seems that he has become just another party hack. "Country First?" No, it appears to be "Election First!" What happened to "I rather be right that elected."
Tags: 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama, John McCain, The View (all tags)
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myDD - skin
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