dagblog - Comments for "Credit to McCain"

I'm more compelled to agree

Orlando — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:55:47 +0000

I'm more compelled to agree with you after reading the Newsweek piece on the secrets of the campaign. I really hate to give McCain credit for anything. I think he ran such a negative campaign. But the republicans have been pushing the envelope so far in that regard for the past twenty some years, that there really wasn't much further to push. Outright race baiting would have pushed the envelope right off the table. But attempting to paint Obama as unamerican is, in my opinion, not too different. Racism is fearmongering at its worst, after all.

You make a solid case,

acanuck — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 04:54:15 +0000

In reply to Credit to McCain

You make a solid case, Genghis.

McCain's initial pledge to run a respectful campaign no doubt grew out of his own experience of being race-baited by his fellow Republicans.

Then in the Democratic primary, he surely saw that every time the Clinton campaign even hinted at racial themes, the backlash benefited Obama.

In the final month, as others urged him to go dirty, I think McCain concluded it wasn't worth it to become president of a nation that he himself would have torn apart along racial lines.

So it's a mixture of gut reaction, pragmatism, and -- at the very end -- principle. Faced with the likelihood he would lose, McCain dialed it back so Obama didn't inherit a totally divided country.

So he gets credit for not stoking a race war. But picking Palin still qualifies as the most reckless. selfish act of any modern presidential candidate.

great post, genghis. mccain

Deadman — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 07:24:22 +0000

In reply to Credit to McCain

great post, genghis. mccain absolutely deserves credit for not 'going there'. there was one clip i saw where a CNN anchor was trying to get McCain's chief campaign advisor to list the anti-Semites Obama has befriended over the years (a claim someone in the campaign had made), and you could see the advisor visibly struggle not to say the name Reverend Wright. McCain allowed a lot of the old-school Republicans to run his campaign and engage in a lot of the Rove-style politics, but I think he truly put his foot down when it came to racial-inspired attacks and innuendo. and it was actually quite gratifying to see mccain speak up during those town hall meetings when his supporters began to express their anger and hostility to obama's 'otherness.'