How does he do it? How does John McCain keep a straight face while accusing Barack Obama of planning a huge tax increase and of being at the core of a corrupt system run by lobbyists? (See McCain speech of Sept. 19.) A minute's glance at Obama's tax plan shows that he's planning a tax cut, and everyone knows Obama was a prime mover behind new restrictions on lobbyists passed by Congress last year. Meanwhile, McCain continues to base his campaign on advice from associates who have built their careers, fortunes, values and connections as lobbyists for major corporations.
Does NO ONE remember that McCain was one of "the Keating Five"?!! We have heard many details about McCain's behavior as a prisoner of war 35 years ago, but not a whisper about his behavior as a U. S. Senator when he was over 50 years old. He and four other Senators pressured the Federal Home Loan Bank Board to keep open the insolvent Lincoln Savings and Loan on behalf of McCain campaign contributor and personal friend Charles Keating (who also had business ties to Cindy McCain). Over 20,000 people, many of them retirees who had been persuaded to shift their money to uninsured accounts, lost all their savings. When asked if he believed his contributions had bought him influence with his representatives, Keating famously replied, "I want to say in the most forceful way I can: I certainly hope so." McCain agreed with the conclusion of the Senate Ethics Committee investigation, that he had shown "poor judgment."
Much more recently, McCain's first choice for economic advisor was former Senator Phil Gramm, a fierce fighter for deregulation, whose wife Wendy had a direct hand in facilitating the Enron disaster! At the end of her term as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Wendy Gramm passed a rule change deregulating trading in derivatives by energy companies. A few weeks afterward, she joined Enron's Board of Directors, where for eight years she and other well-paid directors blithely approved every conflict-ridden scheme brought before them. For over 20 years, John McCain has breathed the air and the worldview of many people like Charles Keating and the Gramms.
So how can John McCain keep a straight face when accusing Barack Obama of being at the core of the corrupt system McCain was in bed with all the time Obama was in college and later driving the streets of Chicago, helping impoverished people develop their own leadership skills to take on city hall to improve their lives? Either McCain is out of touch with reality (scary), or he is deliberately using lies as a campaign tactic (scarier?).
Perhaps McCain figures if he claims the opposite of anything Obama says, uninformed voters will logically conclude that one of them is lying. And who will they think is lying? The young Harvard-schooled lawyer with an unfamiliar name? Or the experienced, grandfatherly war veteran--who also happens to be comfortingly White?
McCain has thrown away his politics of "character" and opted for a politics of identity. Will this strategy work? You get to decide.
McCain must have some morals or at the very least can remember when he did have some moral fiber as he is ashamed of his actions to the point of being unable to look at Obama during the recent debate. However shame alone will not stop him from continuing his lowly ways if it means his election to the office of president. Victory for the conservatives/ republicans is the same as the moral highground even if you can't look your worthy opponent in the eyes while debating with him. Remember Cindy according to McCain it is Obamas fault he went negative, not his, as Obama did not accept McCain's demand to have "town hall meetings" together.
The ends justify the means for these people Cindy and their tatics have proven to be successful in the past, why would they change now?
Cindy, good article.
I think it is safe to say that McCain is playing to the Reagan Democrats and indecisive independent voters out there. By and large, these folks are just now tuning into the political sphere to decide how to vote. So, all those references to events in the past, have no meaning to the very voters McCain is targeting his campaign rhetoric toward. To them, what they hear from McCain is new and lacking historical context.
It is therefore, incumbent upon organizations like MoveOn.org and the Obama campaign and the DNC to educate these voters as to the history of McCain, so they can weigh the man's past against his born again campaign of this year with any message any voter wants to hear to give their vote to McCain.
There is a crisis in confidence attending this election, and to the extent that McCain's flip flops and history which contradicts his current for president positions, that crisis in confidence in government can be made a liability for McCain.
Obama and McCain have both recognized that endorsement of the current bailout is very dangerous politically, given the polls on the subject. But, there are ties between these candidates to agents who caused this crisis, and its a safe bet both camps will be seeking to make those ties visible. Phil Gramm of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is a torpedo with McCain's name on it, if his adversaries will employ it.
Cindy, I want to thank you for your article. I don't agree with a lot of what you wrote, but, it inspired my latest article in the Repubs column, and I thank you for that.
Many of your points are factual but have counter points to weaken them. The first one that comes to mind is, "Does no one remember that Obama was a drug user?" Who could possibly run for president without mistakes and poor decisions in their past?
Anyway, thank you for the inspiration to write another article.
Thanks for your comments, LA Hanna--I'm glad my article inspired a response, because I think we all learn more from civil conversation! I'll be sure to look at your article.
I'm not sure "drug user" is an accurate characterization of Obama's experimentation with drugs, since it implies addiction. Of course, we only have his description of his involvement with substance abuse, but in one interview he characterized his high school drug use as 2 or 3 beers a day. He correctly realized that was a dangerous path and changed it. I think there is a big difference in both age and type of action here, if you're comparing Obama's experimentation with drugs in high school to Senator McCain's intervention with authorities on behalf of a donor and associate.
Of course, Senator McCain says he learned from this incident and that it inspired his crusade for reform. The question is: Did he reverse course as sharply as Barack Obama did on the drug use? Given McCain's close ties with many powerful ex-lobbyists and with Phil Gramm, an advocate of extreme deregulation, I think that is questionable. Given the current crisis in the financial markets, it is also critically relevant to our choice in November.