Steve Clemens:"Stop demonizing McCain, and start demonizing George Allen."

[Pirate Smile]

This makes sense to me!

Dems Should Really, Really, Really Want to Run Against George Allen



Of all the Democratic presidential candidates for 2008 now in the field, the one that Republican strategists most want is Hillary Clinton. That doesn't mean that she is an easy win for them and doesn't mean that she won't clobber her challenger -- but the Rove-minions want her.

But who do Dems want?

In my view, the most challenging Republican contender is Senator John McCain. McCain is a complicated person, but he's no duplicate copy of George W. Bush and he appeals to many Democrats and Independents -- as well as a broad cross-section of Republicans. I have admitted many times on this blog that there are many characteristics and positions of John McCain I admire.

But put my views aside for a moment. I think McCain is the toughest challenger Dems have before them.

A smart strategist would do all he could to maneuver McCain's opponent(s) to a win in the Republican primary. While always tough to rig outcomes in either party, McCain's biggest opponent for the time being is George Allen. I'd place Brownback next actually despite the euphoria among some moderate Republicans for Mitt Romney.

George Allen is getting pilloried in the press for referring in a crowd to a Jim Webb election worker as "Macaca," which some have tried to argue is a racist and demeaning term. You can watch the video and learn more here.

I'm not that impressed by George Allen's intellectual faculties and have a hard time believing that he would knowingly call someone a racial slur while he knew the camera was going.

But the bigger issue here is that Allen is divisive. He's not all that smart. He allegedly hung a Confederate flag and noose in his old office to remind himself of his state's history.

I don't think he's a flaming bigot, but he is the right guy for Dems to try and run against.

So, what to do?

Stop demonizing McCain, and start demonizing George Allen.

I have no idea whether Allen will win against Democratic Senate challenger James Webb or not -- but odds usually favor incumbents and George Allen is hungry for the presidency.

The best thing bloggers and progressive journals of opinion could do right now is to give John McCain a big embrace, highlight the good stuff in his past (and I think there is a lot), give him a pre-endorsement if progressives and liberals were choosing a Republican candidate.

I'd love to see a split cover on both The Nation and The American Prospect on why they endorse John McCain for the Republican ticket and loathe and despise Senator George Allen.

Put George Allen on every magazine cover and blog with horns and a devil's tail.

Dems should really, really, really want to run against George Allen.

But thus far, most Dems I encounter don't have the Rovian gene and are doing little to maneuver whom they most want to run against and to undermine those who they should most fear.

-- Steve Clemons

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/001596.php

[MrModerate]

1. Not sure I want to . . .

Say anthing nice about McCain that'd come back to haunt me. Even though I'll admit that -- because he's not batshit insane like most 'Lican leaders -- he sometimes makes sense when he talks.

That's not enough to make me give him a big embrace, however. Allen is a non-starter. He'll edit himself out of the race pretty quickly. While he's supposedly not an idiot, he is a pretty crummy speaker and won't go very far nationally.

At this point, McCain is the man to beat, and he's currently doing all the right things: embracing everybody in the 'Lican party he can get his hands on, expressing a range of views from deeply conservative to downright progressive, successfully portraying himself as not-Bush, and not shooting his own foot off. It's going to be hard to prevent him picking up the nomination, even if the rapturites hate his guts.

I just think he won't wear well with the broader American people. He blew up on the campaign trail last time, revealing a really scary side, and I think he'll do it again.

The anti-McCain line should be: "Do you want this guy with his finger on the nuclear button?"

[Cha]

3. As they say I can walk and chew

gum at the same time..and I don't have to "demonize" mccain and felix dumbshit allen..they do that all by themselves. Equal opportunists. Two republicons frothing at the mouth to sit in chimpy's contaminated seat.

[Cosmocat]

6. Yeah ...

Batshit insane is nice and all, I am more in line with criminally insane, but we are cutting small margins on the point ...

Allen is cut straight from the GW mode ... Not QUITE as dumb as GW, but also not quite as manipulative ... What he does not have that the clown at 1600 had was THE perfect political machine behind him ... Allen has some machine behind him, but not the Bush dynasty and Rove ...

I agree ... McCain is going to be tough as a candidate, cause the press REALLY wants him to be the candidate, and really finds a way to prop him up, and I worry A LOT about a ticket with him and Jeb ... I worry a bit about Guilliani, too ... I know he probably won't make it though the primaries, but if he does, the media will just annoint him as a god ...

[MrModerate]

8. Having seen Giuliani on TV a few times . . .

I think his charisma would curdle pretty quickly. Also, the sleazy way he treated his ex-wife will hurt him with women. I think a McCain-Giuliani ticket would be carrying so much baggage they'd likely crash and burn spectacularly.

[NativeTexan]

9. Hell, lets................

......DEMONIZE THEM BOTH!!!

[KoKo]

2. I have no idea what to make of this from Clemons...

I also don't see any virtues in John McCain but lots of vice.

I don't see why Progressives and Dems should bother about endorsing a Repug Candidate. We have enough business of our own to take care of. Let the Repugs fight amongst themselves and let us attack both Allen and McCain on their views ....but no endorsements and attack both if they have positions or make statements against Democrats and our policies and our candidates.

:shrug: Maybe someone can help me with Clemons logic on this. Some of what he writes is very interesting from a policy standpoint but other times he veers off in directions that make me wonder if he would support what many of us Dems here would from a Progressive view on international and domestic policy.

[FrenchieCat]

4. Since Both Allen and MCain have basically the same view on Iraq....

they are both MACACAs!

They are both demons....each just have a slightly different look.

[sandnsea]

5. Gosh, let's demonize them BOTH!!!

I didn't even read the article, but for heaven's sake we've got to tarnish all the possibilities for next year, every chance we get.

[E-Z-B]

7. Hey, McCain - do you still hate those "gooks"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain

[BestCenter]

14. This isn't exactly the same thing

McCain's got some issues with Vietnamese, but he was referring to his North Korean captors, who TORTURED him. You can't really say that he hates Asians, anyways. His adopted daughter is from Bangladesh. That gives him more anti-racism points that just about any Republican.

[LiviaOlivia]

10. I have never understood this McCain love fest.

Jon Stewart even creeps me out when he has McCain on TDS. Allen is a more then obvious racist idiot but McCain is a smooth-talking insidious chameleon which, IMHO, is more dangerous.

McCain has said time and again he's a Republican and a conservative. Two things I have never been. Ever.
Clemons lives inside the Beltway aka the court at Versailles. Fuck McCain.

[CrushTheDLC]

11. Felix Macaca would provide even better comedy material than the Chimp

....but the country can't afford 4 more years of a moron in the White House no matter how many jokes he generates.

[AX10]

12. Why are there so many so-called "Democrats" who love to...

find any reason to praise John McCain? McCain is extremly conservative.

[LiviaOlivia]

13. McCain supporting Allen at 'veteran' event yesterday

George Allen Continues to Be on Defense
by Jonathan Singer, Thu Aug 17, 2006
http://mydd.com/story/2006/8/17/102318/400

Yesterday George Allen brought in one of the Republican Party's big guns, John McCain, for an event billed as a show of veterans' support for Allen's reelection bid. No doubt this event was seen as an opportunity to divert public attention away from the story brewing since late last week regarding a (possible) racial slur the Senator threw at a supporter of Democrat Jim Webb of South Asian descent. However, Senator McCain had a bit of trouble staying on message, apparently, as Jim Hodges reports for the Newport News Daily Press.

Maybe somebody should have clued in Sen. John McCain.

First, Sen. George Allen, R-Va., wound up a few dozen veterans with a "we win, they lose, there's no substitute victory" strategy for Iraq, then McCain followed with a joke about a monkey flying an airplane.

McCain, R-Ariz., was in town Wednesday night to lure some votes for his Republican colleague, Allen, who has heard enough monkey jokes lately. Especially since a report was unearthed that he used "macaca" in reference to S.R. Sidarth, a worker of Indian descendent for the campaign of Allen's Democratic opponent, Jim Webb.

Macaca is a genus of monkey.

As stunning as McCain's poor taste and apparent dearth of comedic talent were (particularly given Jon Stewart's penchant for swooning over the Arizona Senator), there was another aspect of the event that bodes even less well for both McCain and Allen: no one cared enough about either of them to show up.

The evening was billed as a "veterans for Allen" rally, but the hotel's conference room was less than half-filled, even after a phone push for a larger turnout. Veterans came from as far away as Colonial Heights, but their numbers were little greater than the reporters and camera people who were there.

As it was, the rally started 10 minutes late and finished more than 20 minute early, according to a campaign worker's schedule.

It's August in Virginia. It's extremely warm and muggy. People are loath to get out of the air conditioning, even to walk to and from their car on the way to a political event. But neither George Allen nor John McCain -- who are considered two of the leading contenders for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination (and perhaps the two leading contenders) -- could bring in more supporters to an event than media? Even after "a phone push for a larger turnout"? If that doesn't say something about the current slate of Republican White House contenders and the current state of the George Allen reelection campaign, I don't know what does.

~snip~

also verified by CBS News:
from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/17/politics/main1907283.shtml

During the event, however, McCain made a joke about a monkey flying an airplane, the Hampton Roads Daily Press reports. This comment came as Allen fights criticism for having called opponent Jim Webb's campaign worker "macaca," which is a genus of monkey.