“McCain’s Yesterday’s Maverick” George Will: A Follow Up To My Last Anti-McCain Strategy Guide [View All]

[McCamy Taylor]

Four months ago, I wrote A Democratic Starter Guide to Showing the Voters that John McCain Has No Clothes. Here it is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4651231&mesg_id=4651231

Since this was posted back in the middle of February, when we were in the middle of the food fight that happens every four years during the Democratic Primary, I expect that most people did not notice it, so I decided to summarize the main points and add a few new ones.

Remember John McCain is running as a character candidate . He wants America to believe that he is Gary Cooper from High Noon not afraid to take a stance that people disagree with but faithful, dependable, courageous, you can count on him in a pinch, American through and through. He will try to convince voters that he would never stoop to the politics of character assassination---while the RNC and surrogates attempt to destroy his opponent’s character.

Like so many “character” candidates, it is all an act. However, as I pointed out in February, John McCain really was a war hero because he spent Viet Nam in the Hanoi Hilton. This means that he needs to be treated with special caution to avoid giving the impression that Democrats are a bunch of un-American, unpatriotic hippie liberals attacking a man who served his country---which will set some people the wrong way just as attacks against a woman set some people the wrong way. My advice is to avoid blanket character attacks which label him as “a waffler” or “senile” or “hypocritical” or any other adjective or noun. The only nouns and adjectives that should be applied to McCain are Republican Senator and presumptive presidential nominee and the obligatory Viet Nam war hero right before you go for the jugular.

Rather than calling John McCain names, attack his actions and statements. This is always a good rule. Saying someone is a “poo head” does not tell your audience much. You make a more intelligent point if you say that their comment about Palestinians being Nazi appeasers was a poo headed remark.

From February, this is still true

Never ever suggest that he is shell shocked, suffering from PTSD or is in any other way impaired from being a Vietnam War Veteran and POW. Bush got a free ride from the press when he did it. Democrats will be crucified if they even mention this. Be aware that Karl Rove and Co. may go online at DU and other sites posing as Democrats trying to start threads in which they talk about these issues in an ugly way in order to get other Dems to do the same. Don’t go there! Instead, challenge these posters . Declare them to be the Republican agitators that they are. Remember that the protester who suggest breaking the law is always the undercover police officer.

McCain has provided a wealth of material for Democratic internet bloggers and YouTube video artist to work with. If we can not pull this off, there is something wrong with this country. Here are some of the avenues I suggested exploring in February:

I.His Own Party Hated Him (Before They Tolerated Him) When looking for stuff to use, do not forget that many conservatives, fellow Republicans and people in the business world and advocates of certain issues (like right wing religion and anti-immigration groups) have been vocal in their disdain for John McCain as recently as this winter. Since they all thought that St. Rudi of 9/11 was going to be the nominee, they felt safe in ignoring the Republicans rule which says speak only good of the candidates because one of them may be the nominee and another may be the VP. Now, their indiscretion can come back to haunt them if enterprising people find those quotes and video clips. Forget people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. McCain wants you to use them in this way. You are looking for people that are respected, particularly in certain key voting demographics or battleground states.

For instance, check out George Will letting down his hair (there is video, too) on ABC last October.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/George_Will_Ron_Pauls_serious_maverickism_1029.html

McCain has recently been "doing much better with his base, which happens to be the media, which is why we read about it."
Snip
Will added, however, that "if (Ron Paul) hurts any candidate, it would be McCain. McCain's yesterday's maverick. This is serious maverickism."

Imagine that as a quote. ” McCain’s yesterday’s maverick.” George Will And I love the snarkiness of the first bit. Will is very clever when he isn’t wasting his talent writing up the weekly talking points for the GOP.

II. Foot in Mouth Disease Oh boy, does McCain have this one bad. From President Putin of Germany to the Al Qaeda working out of Iran, he just can not seem to control what comes out of his mouth. Unless the Bush FCC figures out a way to put him on a five second delay so that Joe Lieberman can correct every word he says, this one is going to be easy---maybe too easy.

Do not make the mistake of limiting all discussion to McCain’s verbal blunders. These almost certainly derive from neurological damage to the portion of his brain which controls speech. He may have had a stroke or radiation. If Democrats seem too mean, and then the McCain camp plays the sympathy card as in Poor John, he had a treatment which left him with mild naming aphasia but doctors say his mental function is otherwise intact and those bullies are making fun of him it could backfire. And recall, the nation was willing to elect W., the Village Idiot from Texas and Ronald Reagan, the Vacuous Movie Star, because many Americans value friendliness more than intelligence. Especially those of average and below average intelligence who get personally offended when they see a candidate get picked upon for acting dumb, because it reminds them of their days of shame in school.

III. Never Call It Waffles . As I said last time, there is almost no principle that this man has not abandoned in his quest for a vote. And what makes this one so easy is poor John McCain has no feel for legalize. In one way, he really is a “straight talker.” He will just flat out say “I am for the right to choose” or “I am against abortion.” No politician every lets himself go on the record like that unless he has staked out an extreme position where he intends to remain for all time.

This is not a virtue by the way. What he likes to call his “straight talking” is actually a sign of limited understanding of the complexities of the issues which the president must face. There will be no lobbyist handing him money for his charity telling him “vote this way” when he is president. He will have to juggle lots of factors, and I do not think that he is up to the task. Take his remark today in which he answered a question about when troops would pull out of Iraq with “Not Too Important”.

McCain explained he was thinking only about casualties. Sorry, Senator, but the President of the United States can not have a one track mind. I am not running for president, but when I think about the significance of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, this raises issues of 1) U.S. deficit spending, 2) U.S. military readiness around the world, 3) U.S. troop morale and the morale of family members of troops back home, 4) the situation of Iraqis living in civil war that will not end as long as we are there 5) world condemnation of our continuing presence in that country 6) continuing high oil prices because of military instability in the region 7) Al Qaeda’s exploitation of the conflict 8) peace in the middle east 9) Israel's security 10) Kurdish autonomy 11) Turkish-US relations in light of Turkish oppression of Kurds 12) possible UN deployment in the region after we pull out to prevent surrounding countries from invading. And that is just off the top of my head sitting here writing this. If I was running for president and had the best advisers money could buy I am sure that I could think of other issues.

What this all means is that McCain lacks a fundamental understanding of the interrelatedness of things----this is an area at which Sen. Barack Obama excels---and therefore when he is thinking of one implication of a topic he is for it and when he thinks of another implication of a topic he is against it. This combined with his memory problems makes him a Zelig among candidates. He will have whatever position he needs to have at the moment.

In any case, he has changed his position on so many issues that this one is extremely easy to document, and I have some videos linked in my February post. Just remember, do not call it waffles. That is RNC oppo talk. Say John McCain has been inconsistent on his opinions about x, y and z.That sounds polite and precise.

IV. Candidate in a Box Nothing says Do not vote for this man like letting people get a good long look at him speaking on their television or on their computer. Most politicians love free exposure. In the case of John McCain, he prefers to have his base, the press summarize what he just said, because they can do a much better job of it. When people like Pew start keeping track of the exposure the nominees are getting I suggest that keep a special count for McCain----how much actual video footage of the candidates each news network uses and then how much discussion of each candidate there is divided into positive (i.e. journalists restating McCain’s talking points) vs. journalists criticizing him. I have already noticed that some networks just love to show McCain himself giving his own message while others like to have their younger, more handsome and articulate guys speak for him. You can kill McCain with the kindness of overexposure.

V. Is His VP Presidential Material? We all know about this one. Because of McCain’s health problems, his VP will get almost as much scrutiny as he does, and he will not have to option of picking someone extremely right wing to shore up the base, because this will scare the moderates.

There is a corollary. Is his cabinet presidential material? I need to add this in light of John McCain’s Hell yeah! comment when asked if he would have Dick Cheney in his cabinet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-on-cheney-in-his-c_n_106503.html

If Dick Cheney is in the cabinet and John McCain goes senile, we can expect to have the Bush III regime, with Cheney running the show again. The only reason for a prolonged Korea, Japan or Germany style U.S. military occupation of Iraq is to allow U.S. oil companies to steal all that oil (the NeoCon dream of world petroleum dominance) and to use Iraq as a staging base for an assault on Iran’s oil. This shows that John McCain is already thinking like a NeoCon. So, we can expect to have more than a few of them on his staff. Throw the Prince of Darkness into the mix, make John McCain a bit more infirm, put Joe Lieberman beside him advising him to do whatever Cheney tells him to do...

I don't think I need to spell it out. John McCain’s Oh yeah! should have been a great big Oh no! for every American.

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/users/10/104169/51_2007/cheny,lieb,mccain.preview.jpg

The new axis of evil! Or maybe the Three Stooges. Cheney is Moe. Lieberman is Larry. What does that make John McCain?