The following is from a post by James Vega over at the Democratic Strategist, a blog run by the sagacious Ed Kilgore that I recommend highly. Vega suggests the following hypothetical script for an ad that would attack McCain on character:
John McCain says this election is about character – and he's right.
In the 2000 presidential race the Bush campaign – led by Karl Rove – viciously attacked John McCain's wife and child – they said his wife was a drug addict and that the child he and his wife adopted from an orphanage was actually his illegitimate Black daughter. On election night, his wife was in tears.Back then, McCain was disgusted. He said there was "a special place in hell" for rumormongers like these people. He made a promise to his family and to his supporters that he would never run a dirty campaign like that. Never.
But early this year John McCain hired Charlie Condon, the very same man who was behind those vicious smears to run his South Carolina campaign. And then several weeks ago he brought Steven Schmidt - leading protégé of Karl Rove and master of the political hit job - on board to be his campaign manager and write the talking points for the new negative campaign against Barak Obama.
It's sad to watch, McCain's willingness to humiliate himself by hiring the same gang of people who horribly insulted him and his family. It shows that he has become so desperate to win this election that he is willing to sacrifice his principles and his personal honor in order to do it
Let's face it. A real man would have said to those people – "Get the hell out of my office before I throw you out" the minute they walked in. A person would not have to be a tough guy like John Wayne to say that. A gentle, decent man of character would have told them the same thing.
But what did John McCain say about Bush's dirty politics gang?
He said: "I had to get over it … it was a long time ago"
It's sad, genuinely sad
.
John McCain – he's no longer the man he used to be.
I have quibbles with the text here and there, but basically, this is the kind of thing I'm talkin' about.
