McCain's Desperate Say-Anything Strategy

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/davidcorn/2008/10/mccains-desperate-sayanything.html

McCain's Desperate Say-Anything Strategy

By David Corn | October 23, 2008 2:32 PM


This is rich. Today, while campaigning in Florida, John McCain declared that Barack will say "anything to get elected."

I read this as a cry for help. A quick run-down of McCain self-contradictions and say-anything moments:

* McCain initially opposed the George W. Bush tax cuts, claiming they gave too much to the rich. Now, when Obama wants to reverse those tax cuts, the McCain campaign brands it socialism.

* McCain attacked robocall attacks in 2000. Now he perpetuates them.

* McCain said he doesn't care about a "washed-up terrorist"--meaning Bill Ayers--but he still makes Obama's past association with Ayers a key part of is campaign. (See the robocalls.) And Sarah Palin accused Obama of palling around with terrorists, using the plural form of the word. Putting Ayers aside, name another one.

* In an interview NBC is promoting today, McCain dismisses the elites who hang out at Georgetown cocktail parties. McCain has been a participant in many such gatherings over his decades in Washington.

* McCain stood by a campaign ad saying that Barack Obama pushed for teaching "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners Obama did not.

* The McCain campaign claimed that Obama's use of the old lipstick-on-a-pig cliche was a direct, misogynistic swipe at Palin. It was not.

* McCain has insisted that Obama, if elected, would push everyone into a government-run health care system. That ain't true.

* McCain said he would skip the first debate unless a Wall Street bailout deal was reached. You know how that turned out.

There are plenty of other examples, and various polls in recent days have all found that most Americans believe that McCain has run a more negative campaign than Obama. And last time I checked Factcheck.org and Politifact.com--two sites that factcheck the statements and ads of the candidates--McCain was far ahead of Obama in outright whoppers.

So the he'll-say-anything-to-get-elected attack is not likely to do much for McCain. He doesn't have the facts on his side. And in the story of this almost-done campaign, McCain has already been cast as the guy who's been loose with the facts. Accusing Obama of say-anythingism is merely another sign that McCain will say anything to get elected.

[Why Syzygy]

1. I just saw that and I am so tired.

We must be masochists to go through this nightmare every four years. I HATE IT.