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2004 US Presidential Election
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August 27, 2004
Kerry | Kerry Campaign To Pull Ad Featuring McCain

Bloomberg reports that the Kerry campaign is pulling an ad featuring footage of Senator McCain rebuking President Bush during the 2000 primary campaign:

McCain said in an interview with the New York Times that he would ask the Kerry campaign to stop running the ad.

[. . .]

“John McCain asked us to take down the ad,” Kerry spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter told reporters on a conference call. “We respected those wishes.”



Posted by Dan Spencer at August 27, 2004 03:09 PM | TrackBack
Comments

I guess McCain’s got the juice right now huh?

And what exactly is his position on campaigning?

It’s either “Fight nice” or “don’t let this happen to you”

Posted by: skip [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2004 03:41 PM

This article sums up my impression of John McCain’s political principles and helps explain why he championed disasters like the McCain-Feingold Finance Reform. McCain figured out after escaping the near political disaster of the Keating 5 scandal that if he had the press behind him he didn’t need to stand for anything — or more accurately he could stand for anything as long as the press supported it. Straight talk my a$$.

It is supposed to be a devastating critique of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that John McCain doesn’t like their ads. But should we be surprised? McCain knows no party. Instead, together with Kerry supporter Max Cleland, the Arizona senator makes for the smallest caucus in American politics — Thin-Skinned Vietnam War Veterans Adored by the Media (TSVWVAM).
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Well, on almost any issue not directly related to the war on terror, McCain can be expected to come down on the side not of the conservatives, the liberals, the Republicans, or the Democrats, but of the journalistic clerisy. Determine what the conventional wisdom of the press is (in this case that the Swift Boat vets are discreditable), and there John McCain will be, standing like a stone wall.

Rich Lowry link

Posted by: ter0 [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2004 03:50 PM

Lowry has a point.

I do think, though, that McCain will be judged well by history, if only for his personal bravery in the Hanoi Hilton.

He is a mediocre Republican senator. I can forgive him this, because he is a great man.

Posted by: DWC [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2004 04:21 PM

Yeah, I saw this. McCain does love the limelight, that’s clear.

it’s too bad too.

Posted by: skip [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2004 04:21 PM

I’ll spot McCain any number of flaws in exchange for his POW experience, but not his (or Kerry’s or Max Clelland’s) “Don’t question me!” attitude about his policy positions and voting record.— It’s smarmy and condescending and ranks right up there with Hillary Clinton’s “For the Children” tag as a cynical manipulation of their positions.

Likewise, I don’t care if he wants to schmooze the press and grandstand a little to get on TV. If a little pandering gets him support for worthwhile issues, I say go for it. But this business of running to the press to denounce X or Y or Z because he knows that Bush or the GOP support it and the press will flock to him and and put him in the headlines for his “maverick” independence is BS. It empowers those bast**** and it’s disgraceful.

Great man? I don’t buy it but I know others who do. In some ways as a politician, I think he’s like Clinton — so much potential, so little to show for it.

Posted by: ter0 [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 27, 2004 05:22 PM

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