Shrum: John McCain is George Bush…Trust Me
I read the opening paragraph of Bob Shrum’s op-ed and knew immediately what it was about. John McCain is the gray-haired version of George Bush..blah, blah, blah. Here’s the opening of his op-ed:
It was appropriate that the Republicans convened in the city named for Saint Paul. For on the road to the convention, John McCain had a conversion experience worthy of the saint, transforming his lobbyist-run, insider campaign into a full-throated appeal to cultural populism. The combination of purple anti-Washington rhetoric and blue-collar melodrama will henceforth be known as “Palinesque.” The question now is whether this hit show has enough gas to run until November.
the message is easily discernible: John McCain rails against Washington corruption on the campaign trail but the brains behind the campaign are Washington corruption brokers. It’s a storyline that won’t find a home this election, though the Democrats will attempt to make it stick.
The thing that’s dooming that storyline is the fact that people have memories. They remember that John McCain was President Bush’s biggest adversary at the start of his administration. Tons of ink was used describing what a thorn John McCain was in George Bush’s side.
What Bob Shrum doesn’t want you to notice is the transformation liberals have made regarding John McCain. They used to revel in the fact that he caused President Bush to make adjustments that he didn’t want to make. Howard Fineman made a handsome living writing articles for Newsweek highlighting the differences betwee President Bush and Sen. McCain.
Now Bob Shrum, the ultimate Democratic insider, wants us to think that John McCain thinks like President Bush? That ain’t gonna happen in this or any other lifetime.
Finally, in the fifth paragraph, Shrum makes this contrary admission:
McCain, of course, does have a claim to the anti-Washington cause. But he has also been in Washington for decades. He needed a running mate like Palin to escape his hopeless casting call to a third Bush term and to restore his status as a maverick determined to change the old politics.
Perhaps Mr. Shrum can admit that the Bush administration fought John McCain on the so-called torture bill, too? It’s possible but I’m not holding my breath waiting. Shrum’s admission is likely to arrive the day after they start handing out ice skates for the lake of fire and brimstone.
This points to the Democrats’ biggest tactical problem this election: they’ve gotta act like they believe the stuff that they’re peddling. That’s as difficult a proposition as drawing two cards to finish an inside straight flush.
Forgive me if I don’t take that seriously.
Technorati Tags: Bob Shrum, Spin, John McCain, Bush’s Third Term, Lobbyists, Howard Fineman, Election 2008
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog
September 9th, 2008 at 12:55 am
It aint over yet, and I hope and pray the trend continues, but this could either once and for all break the back of media bias, or just make it more obstinate. Networks and the papers are loosing ground to the internet, bloggers and free speech day by day. Over half of the great newspapers in the country are in the tank by their own actions, and it would be a shame to loose them, but if that what it takes to return journalism to a true 4rth estate, I say let it happen.
As for their attempts to trash Palin, they truly do not get it. Genuiness and genuine honesty and goodness still shine through, It did for Truman against Dewey, for Reagan against Mondale and Dukakis, and it IS with Palin against the media, the elite naysayers, and the smug Georgetown cocktail set. And who appointed them to Lords anyway? Answer, they appointed themselves.
When my grandad went voted in 1948, he said he was all for Dewey, but when he got into the booth, he thought about Truman’s speech from the back of that train, and his frank unabashed style, and then he thought about Dewey, with that moustache and that New York swagger and overconfident smirk and deliberately moved his finger to Truman’s lever.