Whatever happened to the straight talk express?

By Weekly Archive On Aug 13, 2008

As
the co-host of CNN’s "Crossfire," I was in New Hampshire in
2000. I covered John McCain’s insurgent campaign against frontrunner
George W. Bush. I rode the "Straight Talk Express." I
interviewed the candidate. I attended several McCain town halls.

Take
it from me, the John McCain we see today is not the same John McCain
we saw in 2000. Indeed, he’s not even the same John McCain we saw
during this year’s Republican primary.

The
old John McCain talked about the issues. He refused to sink to
personal attacks, even when he himself was smeared by Bush. He
denounced negative campaigning. In 2004, he condemned the Swift Boat
ads against Democrat John Kerry. Many times during this year’s
primary, he promised to run a positive campaign, based solely on
differences in public policy.

Then
McCain clinched the Republican nomination, and his Straight Talk
Express ran into a ditch. Or was it the gutter? It appears that
McCain did, indeed, learn something from the vicious personal attacks
launched against him by George Bush in South Carolina back in 2000.
He learned that dirty politics works. And he’s adopted the same ugly
tactics.

The
so-called "reform" candidate doesn’t talk about issues
anymore. He offers no ideas on what to do about health care, Social
Security, jobs, education, the economy or energy (other than to
drill, drill, drill). His campaign has degenerated, instead, into a
steady drumbeat of personal attacks against Barack Obama. Unable to
build John McCain up, in other words, they have decided the only way
to win is to tear Barack Obama down.

Phase
One: Question Obama’s patriotism. "I had the courage and the
judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a
war," McCain told those attending a July 22 New Hampshire town
meeting. "It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in
order to win a political campaign." A serious charge, especially
coming from one who promised never to question his opponent’s love of
country.

Phase
Two: Mock Obama’s celebrity. Three subsequent McCain ads portrayed
Obama’s face on Mt. Rushmore and the $100 dollar bill, compared him
to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and painted him as the political
equivalent of the Second Coming, or "The One." Don’t vote
for Obama, McCain seemed to be saying, because he’s too famous.
Again, a strange argument for a candidate who promised a substantive
debate on the issues.

Phase
Three: Tell outright lies. In one ad, McCain accuses Obama of not
visiting wounded troops in Germany because he couldn’t take network
cameras along: a charge The Washington Post proved was false. In
another, he claims his opponent wants to "raise taxes on
electricity," when Obama has no said no such thing. At least
McCain has not accused Obama of fathering an illegitimate black
child. Not yet.

Phase
Four: Play the race card. It was outrageous for Rick Davis, McCain’s
campaign manager, to accused Barack Obama of "playing the race
card" when, in fact, it was the McCain campaign, in June, that
first showed Obama’s face on the $100 bill. And it was the McCain
campaign, in a diabolical replay of the famous anti-Harold Ford
commercial, that deliberately paired Obama with two white, blonde,
bimbo celebrities. The message they were sending was clear: Black man
plus white girls equals trouble. Who’s playing the race card?

Granted,
this may not be the dirtiest campaign in American political history.
In 1800, John Adams was vilified as a "gross hypocrite," a
"repulsive pedant," "one of the most egregious fools
upon the continent," and a man of "hideous hermaphroditical
character." And Thomas Jefferson was accused, if elected, of
wanting to round up and burn all Bibles. In 1828, Andrew Jackson’s
opponents attacked his wife Rachel with signs reading: "Don’t
Put A Whore in The White House."

But
John McCain’s gutter attacks against Barack Obama are not what the
American people are looking for in this presidential campaign, with
so many serious problems facing the country. And they are certainly
not what we expected from a man who has spent his entire public
career painting himself as a different kind of politician. Sadly,
negative campaigning is now one more way in which John McCain shows
himself to be nothing more than an extension of George W. Bush.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)." You
can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.