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McCain's Trip Down the Low Road

Friday, August 1, 2008
 

McCain Promises "A Respectful Campaign." As reported by CNN, "I have pledged to conduct a respectful campaign. And I have urged, time after time, various entities within the Republican Party to also do that." [CNN, 4/28/08]

    * McCain's Allies Thrown by Negative Tactics. The intensity of the recent drive -- which has included some assertions from the McCain campaign that have been widely dismissed as misleading -- has surprised even some allies of McCain, who has frequently spoken about the need for civility in politics. The sentiment seeped onto television on Wednesday with Andrea Tantaros, a Republican strategist, saying on MSNBC that the use of Hilton in McCain's commercial was "absurd and juvenile," and that he should spend more time promoting his own agenda. [Houston Chronicle, 7/30/08]

    * McCain Hired Bush Campaign Operatives, Went Negative. "On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove's low-minded and uncivil playbook…Mr. McCain used to pride himself on being above this ugly brand of politics, which killed his own 2000 presidential bid. But he clearly tossed his inhibitions aside earlier this month when he put day-to-day management of his campaign in the hands of one acolyte of Mr. Rove and gave top positions to two others. The résumés of the new team's members included stints in Mr. Bush's White House and in his 2004 re-election campaign, one of the most negative and divisive in memory." [New York Times, 7/30/08]

    * McCain Campaign Goes Aggressively Negative. As reported by the New York Times, "The old happy warrior side of Mr. McCain has been eclipsed a bit lately by a much more aggressive, and more negative, Mr. McCain who hammers Mr. Obama repeatedly on policy differences, experience and trustworthiness." [New York Times, 7/30/08]

    * Republicans Express Concern about McCain's Negative Campaigning. As reported by the New York Times, "Mr. McCain is clearly trying to sow doubts about his younger opponent, and bring him down a peg or two. But some Republicans worry that by going negative so early, and initiating so many of the attacks himself rather than leaving them to others, Mr. McCain risks coming across as angry or partisan in a way that could turn off some independents who have been attracted by his calls for respectful campaigning." [New York Times, 7/30/08]

    * McCain Goes Back on Promise of Positive, Releases "Troops" Ad and Attack. For four days, Sen. John McCain and his allies have accused Sen. Barack Obama of snubbing wounded soldiers by canceling a visit to a military hospital because he could not take reporters with him, despite no evidence that the charge is true. The attacks are part of a newly aggressive McCain operation whose aim is to portray the Democratic presidential candidate as a craven politician more interested in his image than in ailing soldiers, a senior McCain adviser said. They come despite repeated pledges by the Republican that he will never question his rival's patriotism. [Washington Post, 7/29/08]

    * McCain Embraces Rove-Style Politics. As Election Day nears, McCain's campaign is adopting the aggressive, take-no-prisoners style of Karl Rove, the GOP operative who engineered victories for President Bush. The campaign continued the attack Wednesday with a sarcastic television ad deriding Obama as a "celebrity," part of an intensifying effort to cast him as an elitist." [Washington Post, 7/31/08]

John Weaver, Former McCain Adviser, Called McCain’s Ad “Childish”; Said He Was Making A “Mockery” Of The Campaign. “But John Weaver, a former McCain adviser who resigned from the campaign last year, said yesterday that the ad was ‘childish,’ that such attacks diminish McCain, and that his campaign is a ‘mockery.’ ‘For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness,’ Weaver told the Atlantic magazine, in a comment quickly noted by the Obama campaign.” [Boston Globe, 7/31/2008]

Ed Rollins Said McCain Appears “Grumpy” And “Angry.” “Ed Rollins, a longtime Republican strategist, said McCain sometimes appears frustrated and angry when he talks about Obama, especially when complaining that the press does not treat him fairly. ‘John needs to be the deliberate, experienced veteran and not the grumpy old man,’ Rollins said. ‘If he's the grumpy old man, angry that the media is not in love with him anymore because they're in love with Barack Obama, that's not going to play well with the public.’” [Chicago Tribune, 7/30/2008]

Ex-White House Adviser David Gergen Said Negative Atacks “Diminish” John McCain. Appearing on CNN’s AC 360, David Gergen said, “But, yes, it does diminish John McCain. He's a much better person than these attack ads have been. ... to go after him and compare him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, give me a break. This is not the John McCain who Americans have come to love and to respect as an individual..” [AC 360, CNN, 7/30/2008]

 


With Americans all over the country questioning the increasingly nasty and desperate tone of John McCain's campaign, the Democratic National Committee today released a web ad called "Desperate Times." The ad highlights the fact that, despite promising to "wage a respectful campaign," McCain has resorted to questioning Senator Obama's patriotism and launching false and misleading attacks that have been widely debunked. His campaign has stooped so low that one of McCain's former advisors called his most recent ad "childish" and said the campaign's strategy "diminishes John McCain." [The Atlantic, 7/30/08]

Iowans expect more of Senator McCain. His negative ads and false attacks won't lower the price or gas or make health care more affordable. Americans are looking for change this year, and McCain's dishing out more of the same failed and predictable old politics.

To view the DNC's new web ad, "Desperate Times," ,click here.