Pick first, vet later
Aides to Mr. McCain said they had a team on the ground in Alaska now to look more thoroughly into Ms. Palin’s background. A Republican with ties to the campaign said the team assigned to vet Ms. Palin in Alaska had not arrived there until Thursday, a day before Mr. McCain stunned the political world with his vice-presidential choice. The campaign was still calling Republican operatives as late as Sunday night asking them to go to Alaska to deal with the unexpected candidacy of Ms. Palin. - New York Times, September 1, 2008
Unbelievable. Read the whole article.
Labels: John McCain, McCain-Palin 2008
McCain-Palin
This was a show on ABC starring Geena Davis.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain, McCain-Palin 2008
It goes down well
Really, doesn't this look like it should be the logo for some Irish ale? It's a very not-American typeface. I can't really fault the color scheme, of course.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain
Presidential Race to the Danger Zone
Never mind. My cynicism deserted me for a second as I fancied I could be the first to make an Iseman / maverick senator joke. No, no, oh, my goodness no.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain
All your base are belong to John McCain
I love the argument that McCain can't win because the base will never accept him. They have somewhere else to go? They won't turn out like gangbusters to vote against Hillary (if it's Hillary)? Is there apt to be some faction of the GOP urging the goofballs in the base to do something other than what they have been programmed to do for fifteen-plus years: stand with God against the nightmare scenario of a Hillary Clinton presidency? Not when you put it that way there isn't.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, rhetorical questions: the lazy blogger's pal
Did he play to the base? I didn't notice.
Let's note how easy it's been, once people started voting, for McCain to secure the nomination despite the supposed distrust for him within the Republican "base." Did he have to run to the right to gain this nomination? (If you think I'm being premature, how quaint.) I didn't notice much of that.
Have dynamics within the Republican Party changed, or is this a special campaign cycle, candidate or field? Probably a bit of each. It surely mattered that there were three different varieties of goofball arrayed to McCain's right. But the real answer is that Republican dynamics are changing. Social conservatives are aging and the replacement generations are a different breed. They don't mind seeing a little more skin when they go to the beach, metaphorically speaking. Ten years from now the MTV Generation will start getting its AARP cards.
A year ago I said that, but for his support for the "surge" I thought likely to fail, "McCain seems like not only the strongest candidate on the Republican side, but the strongest overall." He should run very well against the Clintons (I'm test driving the developing pundit convention here) and even conservatives who don't like him won't need much enticement of come vote against the Clintons. Even if he moves to the center, which he'll have plenty of opportunity to do while the Clintons and Obama beat each other about the head and neck with delegate counts and polling in obscure California congressional districts, fighting on maybe even to the convention. Needless to say, McCain's very biography blunts Hillary's (test drive inconclusive) "experienced" pitch and her assiduously-cultivated "I'm tough enough to be Commmander-in-Chief" persona. Obama, with a qualitatively different appeal and no Clintonian ceiling on his potential share of the vote, makes a much more challenging and interesting opponent for McCain.
With this post, I'm debuting my "John McCain" label.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, MWR: weaver of metaphor
