“McCain’s Yesterday’s Maverick” George Will: A Follow Up To My Last Anti-McCain Strategy Guide

[McCamy Taylor]

Four months ago, I wrote A Democratic Starter Guide to Showing the Voters that John McCain Has No Clothes. Here it is.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=4651231&mesg_id=4651231

Since this was posted back in the middle of February, when we were in the middle of the food fight that happens every four years during the Democratic Primary, I expect that most people did not notice it, so I decided to summarize the main points and add a few new ones.

Remember John McCain is running as a character candidate . He wants America to believe that he is Gary Cooper from High Noon not afraid to take a stance that people disagree with but faithful, dependable, courageous, you can count on him in a pinch, American through and through. He will try to convince voters that he would never stoop to the politics of character assassination---while the RNC and surrogates attempt to destroy his opponent’s character.

Like so many “character” candidates, it is all an act. However, as I pointed out in February, John McCain really was a war hero because he spent Viet Nam in the Hanoi Hilton. This means that he needs to be treated with special caution to avoid giving the impression that Democrats are a bunch of un-American, unpatriotic hippie liberals attacking a man who served his country---which will set some people the wrong way just as attacks against a woman set some people the wrong way. My advice is to avoid blanket character attacks which label him as “a waffler” or “senile” or “hypocritical” or any other adjective or noun. The only nouns and adjectives that should be applied to McCain are Republican Senator and presumptive presidential nominee and the obligatory Viet Nam war hero right before you go for the jugular.

Rather than calling John McCain names, attack his actions and statements. This is always a good rule. Saying someone is a “poo head” does not tell your audience much. You make a more intelligent point if you say that their comment about Palestinians being Nazi appeasers was a poo headed remark.

From February, this is still true

Never ever suggest that he is shell shocked, suffering from PTSD or is in any other way impaired from being a Vietnam War Veteran and POW. Bush got a free ride from the press when he did it. Democrats will be crucified if they even mention this. Be aware that Karl Rove and Co. may go online at DU and other sites posing as Democrats trying to start threads in which they talk about these issues in an ugly way in order to get other Dems to do the same. Don’t go there! Instead, challenge these posters . Declare them to be the Republican agitators that they are. Remember that the protester who suggest breaking the law is always the undercover police officer.

McCain has provided a wealth of material for Democratic internet bloggers and YouTube video artist to work with. If we can not pull this off, there is something wrong with this country. Here are some of the avenues I suggested exploring in February:

I.His Own Party Hated Him (Before They Tolerated Him) When looking for stuff to use, do not forget that many conservatives, fellow Republicans and people in the business world and advocates of certain issues (like right wing religion and anti-immigration groups) have been vocal in their disdain for John McCain as recently as this winter. Since they all thought that St. Rudi of 9/11 was going to be the nominee, they felt safe in ignoring the Republicans rule which says speak only good of the candidates because one of them may be the nominee and another may be the VP. Now, their indiscretion can come back to haunt them if enterprising people find those quotes and video clips. Forget people like Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. McCain wants you to use them in this way. You are looking for people that are respected, particularly in certain key voting demographics or battleground states.

For instance, check out George Will letting down his hair (there is video, too) on ABC last October.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/George_Will_Ron_Pauls_serious_maverickism_1029.html

McCain has recently been "doing much better with his base, which happens to be the media, which is why we read about it."
Snip
Will added, however, that "if (Ron Paul) hurts any candidate, it would be McCain. McCain's yesterday's maverick. This is serious maverickism."

Imagine that as a quote. ” McCain’s yesterday’s maverick.” George Will And I love the snarkiness of the first bit. Will is very clever when he isn’t wasting his talent writing up the weekly talking points for the GOP.

II. Foot in Mouth Disease Oh boy, does McCain have this one bad. From President Putin of Germany to the Al Qaeda working out of Iran, he just can not seem to control what comes out of his mouth. Unless the Bush FCC figures out a way to put him on a five second delay so that Joe Lieberman can correct every word he says, this one is going to be easy---maybe too easy.

Do not make the mistake of limiting all discussion to McCain’s verbal blunders. These almost certainly derive from neurological damage to the portion of his brain which controls speech. He may have had a stroke or radiation. If Democrats seem too mean, and then the McCain camp plays the sympathy card as in Poor John, he had a treatment which left him with mild naming aphasia but doctors say his mental function is otherwise intact and those bullies are making fun of him it could backfire. And recall, the nation was willing to elect W., the Village Idiot from Texas and Ronald Reagan, the Vacuous Movie Star, because many Americans value friendliness more than intelligence. Especially those of average and below average intelligence who get personally offended when they see a candidate get picked upon for acting dumb, because it reminds them of their days of shame in school.

III. Never Call It Waffles . As I said last time, there is almost no principle that this man has not abandoned in his quest for a vote. And what makes this one so easy is poor John McCain has no feel for legalize. In one way, he really is a “straight talker.” He will just flat out say “I am for the right to choose” or “I am against abortion.” No politician every lets himself go on the record like that unless he has staked out an extreme position where he intends to remain for all time.

This is not a virtue by the way. What he likes to call his “straight talking” is actually a sign of limited understanding of the complexities of the issues which the president must face. There will be no lobbyist handing him money for his charity telling him “vote this way” when he is president. He will have to juggle lots of factors, and I do not think that he is up to the task. Take his remark today in which he answered a question about when troops would pull out of Iraq with “Not Too Important”.

McCain explained he was thinking only about casualties. Sorry, Senator, but the President of the United States can not have a one track mind. I am not running for president, but when I think about the significance of U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq, this raises issues of 1) U.S. deficit spending, 2) U.S. military readiness around the world, 3) U.S. troop morale and the morale of family members of troops back home, 4) the situation of Iraqis living in civil war that will not end as long as we are there 5) world condemnation of our continuing presence in that country 6) continuing high oil prices because of military instability in the region 7) Al Qaeda’s exploitation of the conflict 8) peace in the middle east 9) Israel's security 10) Kurdish autonomy 11) Turkish-US relations in light of Turkish oppression of Kurds 12) possible UN deployment in the region after we pull out to prevent surrounding countries from invading. And that is just off the top of my head sitting here writing this. If I was running for president and had the best advisers money could buy I am sure that I could think of other issues.

What this all means is that McCain lacks a fundamental understanding of the interrelatedness of things----this is an area at which Sen. Barack Obama excels---and therefore when he is thinking of one implication of a topic he is for it and when he thinks of another implication of a topic he is against it. This combined with his memory problems makes him a Zelig among candidates. He will have whatever position he needs to have at the moment.

In any case, he has changed his position on so many issues that this one is extremely easy to document, and I have some videos linked in my February post. Just remember, do not call it waffles. That is RNC oppo talk. Say John McCain has been inconsistent on his opinions about x, y and z.That sounds polite and precise.

IV. Candidate in a Box Nothing says Do not vote for this man like letting people get a good long look at him speaking on their television or on their computer. Most politicians love free exposure. In the case of John McCain, he prefers to have his base, the press summarize what he just said, because they can do a much better job of it. When people like Pew start keeping track of the exposure the nominees are getting I suggest that keep a special count for McCain----how much actual video footage of the candidates each news network uses and then how much discussion of each candidate there is divided into positive (i.e. journalists restating McCain’s talking points) vs. journalists criticizing him. I have already noticed that some networks just love to show McCain himself giving his own message while others like to have their younger, more handsome and articulate guys speak for him. You can kill McCain with the kindness of overexposure.

V. Is His VP Presidential Material? We all know about this one. Because of McCain’s health problems, his VP will get almost as much scrutiny as he does, and he will not have to option of picking someone extremely right wing to shore up the base, because this will scare the moderates.

There is a corollary. Is his cabinet presidential material? I need to add this in light of John McCain’s Hell yeah! comment when asked if he would have Dick Cheney in his cabinet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/11/mccain-on-cheney-in-his-c_n_106503.html

If Dick Cheney is in the cabinet and John McCain goes senile, we can expect to have the Bush III regime, with Cheney running the show again. The only reason for a prolonged Korea, Japan or Germany style U.S. military occupation of Iraq is to allow U.S. oil companies to steal all that oil (the NeoCon dream of world petroleum dominance) and to use Iraq as a staging base for an assault on Iran’s oil. This shows that John McCain is already thinking like a NeoCon. So, we can expect to have more than a few of them on his staff. Throw the Prince of Darkness into the mix, make John McCain a bit more infirm, put Joe Lieberman beside him advising him to do whatever Cheney tells him to do...

I don't think I need to spell it out. John McCain’s Oh yeah! should have been a great big Oh no! for every American.

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/users/10/104169/51_2007/cheny,lieb,mccain.preview.jpg

The new axis of evil! Or maybe the Three Stooges. Cheney is Moe. Lieberman is Larry. What does that make John McCain?

[27inCali]

1. McCain wants Cheney in cabinet

Good god!!!! Shout that from the mountain tops, the people will reject that immediately!!!

[madrchsod]

2. the vote yesterday in the house clearly shows that

the republicans want nothing to do with anyone connected to the bush whitehouse.

john is another alan keyes and the intelligent republicans know it

[JustAnotherGen]

3. That's all we need to know

Cheney in McCain's Cabinet. That's it. That's a pressure point that should be used continously.

[pwb]

4. Maybe Karl Rove and company will go on line and tell us don't go there.

I will be going there. McCain is no hero to me.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_11_16/ai_61361646

http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_aboutvvajm.htm.

Obligatory war hero my ass.

[McCamy Taylor]

7. John Kerry WON 2004. Swiftboat Vets were for plausible deniablity to explain Ohio 2004

and the exit polls that did not match up plus the repay of Florida 2000. Kerry did much better than he should have done considering that the War in Iraq was not yet the obvious fiasco that it now is and that Katrina had not happened yet and the way that the press fawned over W. because he had not screwed the corporate media yet on federal media ownership rules.

The Clinton Democrats whom McCain is trying to court---the blue collar no college education Whites---like a stubborn candidate, because stubbornness is one of the few things they have going for themselves. They like the image of John McCain holding out against Vietnamese torture for five years. Mock that at the peril of Democrats.

Democrats made a mistake when they spent so much time making fun of W.'s stupidity. They should have concentrated more on his cruelty, duplicity and other characteristics.

Anything that makes voters focus on McCain's POW years and which appears to make light of them plays right into his hands.

[truth2power]

15. This phrase deserves to be pulled out and emphasized...

"Democrats made a mistake when they spent so much time making fun of W.'s stupidity. They should have concentrated more on his cruelty, duplicity and other characteristics."

Keep in mind that Molly Ivins said that Dubya isn't stupid. It's too bad that someone couldn't have pressed her to clarify that statement before she died.

I suppose I've become tiresome around here for continuing to assert that Bush is a psychopath. I refuse to use the term "sociopath" because that conjures an image of the con-artist going door-to-door preying on elderly people with offers of bogus driveway blacktopping. While that is reprehensible, this is much, MUCH worse.

There's reason to believe that the brains of psychopaths are organized differently from those of normal people and this is demonstrated by Bush in, for example, his inability to self-correct, and chapter and verse, in numerous other ways.

I don't think we should be trying to tell everyone he's a psychopath, because that concept is too arcane for the average voter to wrap his or her mind around. But, you're correct, Camy...we should concentrate on the characteristics that make him what he is. Cruelty, duplicity, the ability to manipulate etc.

He is extremely dangerous and has been driving this country to a state of collective insanity since January, 2001.

[happygoluckytoyou]

5. you sure i can't just call him a PooHead? his base really hates PooHeads!!!

if he is only pretending.... can i call him a ShamPoo Head?
can i use his age as a positive? like "he would know the answer to What Would Jesus Do, because they went to school together"
can i use his divorce as a positive? like "who wouldn't throw the short, heavy, crippled, older woman under the bus for all the beer he could drink"
can i use his current wife as a positive? like... she just doesn't want us to see her taxes because, "it's for the children"
can i use his singing talent as a positive? like... you may not want to bomb iran, but you gotta admit he has a good voice and can carry a tune
can i use his medical condition as a positive? like... he only takes the Viagra so he won't accidently roll out of bed, and that is smart
can i use his medical condition as a positive? like... at 3 a.m. you know he is up trying to pee... so he still has one hand free for the phonecall
can i mention his finances as a positive? like, at least it keeps him from collecting medicare
can i mention the safety benefits? like, so the secret service will keep one more old guy from driving 40 on the freeway

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Criticize actions not character and you can not go wrong. I did his health already.

It is in my journals. His recent document dump was very revealing. I will summarize.

1. He apparently lied to the country when he said that the melanoma removed from his temple was a simple stage II tumor, because the NYTs read his records and discovered that there were 2 melanomas close to each other on the temple. This suggests that one was a metastasis from the other via lymphatic spread meaning his tumor was at least stage 3 or 4---worse prognosis. Now, the medical community has suspected all along that he lied about the initial diagnosis, because you do not usually biopsy all the adjacent lymph nodes for a simple noninvasive melanoma. Why does this matter? It means that John McCain lied about his health to the American people presumably so that he could present the picture of being more physically fit than he was for future presidential runs. Facial and especially temple melanoma already has a worse prognosis and if you add in the possibility of expansion to the lymphatic system and spread that really worsens the chance of recurrence. Keep in mind that melanomas can reoccur up to ten years later with distant mets (i.e brain mets) even in people whose initial tumor appeared to be localized. McCain is still not out of the window of recurrence, and his chances of recurrence are now known to be higher than the public was initially lead to believe.

There is a second problem. Since his doctors had to have been worried about the possibility of lymphatic spread, even with his negative nodes, you have to wonder, did they do chemotherapy and or radiation therapy. At the time, McCain said "no". However, at the time he also lied about the stage of the tumor. So, we can not assume that he told the truth about adjunct treatment. Interferon, the chemotherapy would not necessarily cause long term side effects, but radiation to his left temple could cause permanent speech and memory impairment---of the type which he has demonstrated ever since he had the temple melanoma treatment.

Ordinarily, you would give the candidate the benefit of the doubt and take him at his word. Except in this case, he lied about the stage of the tumor. So, what else did he lie about?

2. McCain is also at risk for stroke. Positive family history. Bad cholesterol. Elevated systolic blood pressure. Plus, we all know about his temper problems. If he did not get radiation therapy, the next most likely cause of his memory and verbal naming problems is a stroke. Multi-infarct dementia is a leading cause of senility.

3. He takes Ambien to sleep. How can he answer the 3 am call if he is knocked out? Worse, what if he is one of those who does stuff on Ambien? Like talk or act like he is awake when he really isn'?

4. There were no psychiatric records released. Where are they? Not just for his psychological health. What about neuropsych records? Surely he has had a work up to evaluate his very obvious memory and speech problems. Where is that evaluation? What kind of speech therapy has he had? Why is he on Ambien?

While it is unfair to say that he is not qualified merely because he is old, it is perfectly reasonable to talk about specific health issues.

[uponit7771]

6. The GOP has a VERY disconnected candidate, he should've stuck with the soul he had years ago

[Why Syzygy]

9. kick!

[McCamy Taylor]

10. No "Grandpa" please. From another thread. McCain is running on a platform

of "experience" and "friendly". When Democrats call him "Grandpa" they might as well be calling him "Santa Claus". Who doesn't like and trust Santa Claus?

Grandpa attacks him on age---something that is not necessarily an issue by itself since many people are fit into their nineties. And it reinforces the image that he is experienced and a nice old guy. So, I suggest calling him Senator McCain which reminds people that he is a Washington insider.

McSame is a great name. It refers to his actions----toadying for Bush. And it contrasts with Obama's promise of change. Senator McSame rolls off the tongue.

[Jakes Progress]

12. Very true.

I don't think that some of us understand that using his age as a means of disqualifying him is a shot at a couple of millions of people whose votes we want. It's just as stupid as trying to insult Obama by calling him young. Me? I'm a grandpa and I don't look at that as an insult. There are some disadvantages to having a huge voting block who were not born until Return of the Jedi.

[SargeXXX]

11. Its time to send the old maverick nag to the GLUE FACTORY

[mcollier]

13. How about McCain's poor treatment of his wives

If its any indication how he treats his 2 wives (like shit), then we can't expect anything more for the American People. How could any woman or man vote for this woman abuser?

[Cobalt-60]

14. It makes him dead meat in November

Hammer the bastard.
He's corrupt to the gills.
And he was a dick to his first wife.
Wouldn't that be a nice made for You tube movie?
And most important: Spotlight his love affair with George W Bush.