McCain’s Minnesota town hall will surely be remembered as one of the campaign’s most remarkable moments - an event at which many of the subplots of this presidential race dramatically collided.
For the past week, as Obama has risen in the polls, Republican rallies have been become increasingly boisterous and the conservative faithful in attendance have been channeling their panic at the thought of losing in particularly vitriolic language. And there is nothing surprising in this for anyone who has been following this race: the underground smears propagated via viral emails have long been a part of the campaign.
What has been new this week has been that these rumors, hidden fears and xenophobic sentiments have surfaced for all to see: after all, anyone who has come to believe that Obama has a terrorist background and Muslim roots now has to envision the prospect of such a man winning the White House. No wonder that there is so much visceral anger being expressed at McCain’s rallies - “traitor,” “terrorist,” “kill him!” have all been shouted over the past few days.
At today’s town hall, McCain was confronted by these sentiments and he chose to reign them in by urging the audience not to be scared of Obama, whom he called a “decent person and a person you don’t have to be scared of as president of the United States.” He also asked the audience to be respectful of his opponent, a request that immediately attracted jeers. That led to the incredible spectacle of the Republican nominee being booed over and over again by an outraged audience who has grown to despise the Illinois Senator and who was now taking its anger out on their own party’s nominee.
And while a lot of McCain’s exchanges could be viewed as an opportunistic attempt to appeal to independents (he was, after all, confronted with similarly angry feelings at other events this week and he did not respond in such a chastising way), he did at least seem genuinely taken aback when a woman told him she believed Obama was Arab. “No ma’am,” interrupted McCain. “He’s a decent family man and citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that’s what this campaign’s all about.” TPM compiled all of these moments in a fascinating video that is worth a look:
McCain has been walking on a tight rope for weeks now, and even more so over the past few days. He has (remarkably) kept his word that he would not bring up Reverend Wright, to the dismay of many Republican operatives. Yet, his campaign slogan has become “Who is Barack Obama?” - a question that is meant to play on voters’ fears about Obama’s character and identity; for months now, McCain’s ads have been accusing Obama of disrespecting the troops, looking to put them in danger and refusing to meet them; as I said yesterday, Frank Keating’s description of Obama as a “guy of the street” are among the ugliest remarks uttered by a politician this year; McCain has been invoking Ayers with increasing frequency; and the former Weatherman has also been the topic of an RNC spot, a McCain web ad and a McCain TV ad.
Those ads go beyond pointing out that Obama has been associated with a former domestic terrorist; they claim that Obama has collaborated with a terrorist - a phrasing that implies that the subject of their collaboration was some type of terrorist project rather than an education board in Chicago. In other words, these ads do more than implicate Obama’s judgment, and they do more than imply he is at ease with political radicals; they suggest that there is something about Obama that in some sense justifies wondering whether he is a terrorist.
So while it would be unfair to say that McCain instigated all these hateful feelings or launched these smears since the viral e-mails were circulating months before McCain even became a serious contender for the Republican nomination, his general election campaign has not hesitated to channel those feelings and play on these fears - fears that have gotten so out of control that they are threatening to provoke a backlash and undermine the credibility of all the Republican attacks.
Now, McCain is urging his supporters to respect Obama, focus on issues differences and acknowledge that he is a “decent man” while at the same attacking Obama’s association with Bill Ayers and his disregard for the troops. Both efforts are highly publicized, so it is not like McCain is taking the high road publicly while smearing Obama under the radar. Can McCain benefit from the situation if independents see him taking on angry members of his own audience and thus don’t hold his Ayers ads against him? Or will this be the worse of both words - McCain looking incoherent, insincere and contradicting the substance of his own attacks?
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But if the top of the ticket had a rough day today, it was nothing compared to that of Sarah Palin. The much awaited “trooperagate” report was finally released late this evening, and while a Palin spokesperson responded that the Governor felt “vindicated,” it is quite a stretch to think that the report constitutes good news for the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee. The report concludes that Palin was within her right to fire Public Safety Commissioner Monegan but it also finds that Palin abused her power, violated the law and breached the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by urging subordinates to get her ex-brother in law fired and not prevent her husband from repeatedly contacting Monegan. (More detail about the report here and here. Download the pdf version here.)
The McCain campaign is already on the war path, seeking to discredit the investigative commission, but this will not be an easy task. This was a bipartisan committee with a number of Republicans, and the legislative council voted unanimously to make the report public. Furthermore, the report’s central findings don’t leave much room for interpretation and nuance, as abuse of power is never a label that sounds very good on a politician’s record. Finally, the McCain campaign cannot even curse the report’s timing or the unlucky fate that leads to all bad news coming at once: troopergate has been an issue for months, and the investigative report was already scheduled to be released in October before McCain tapped her. The McCain campaign must have known about this when they chose her and they apparently knowingly took the risk.
This will surely be damaging for Palin and could further deterioate an already shaky image; this will also be one more distraction for the McCain campaign to deal with. News that Palin violated the law is likely to be on the front page of countless newspapers today, costing the Republican ticket one of the campaign’s last news cycles at a time McCain can afford no distraction. If the GOP is trying to raise doubts about Obama and his past associations, it doesn’t help that there is a fresher, newer scandal involving the Republican vice-presidential candidate.
That said, the report should not be taken as an unmitigated calamity for the McCain campaign. I wrote after the vice-presidential debate that Palin and Biden no longer really mattered, and that remains the case tonight. Troopergete will be damaging to the extent that it throws the McCain campaign off its game, but it will know by itself change the minds of many voters. VP candidates are not a dominant preoccupation in mid-October, especially not when the economy is in turmoil.
October 11, 2008 at 8:09 am
I’m not sure we’ll ever know, but McCain has had historical ties to more moderate figures in the GOP - Simpson, Danforth, Rudman, etc. I wonder if they got the word to him that the one worse thing than losing the vote is losing your honor in the process. That’s a major issue for him, as we’ve seen.
The rabble that have shown up at the most recent rallies are not people he’s naturally comfortable with, more like the lineal descendants of the George Wallace campaign. Several commentators have observed that he doesn’t look at all comfortable delivering the garbage that Davis and Schmidt prepare for him. The one good thing about his impetuous personality is that he’s equally willing to lash out at them if he thinks they’re wrong.
Probably wishful thinking, however….
October 11, 2008 at 8:34 am
I agree with Zoot that this very negative campaign is not the one McCain wanted to run. He can read the polls and see that the odds of him winning are about 5% and dropping and the only thing that can change that fact is an outside event in which a hard negitive campaign will not help him. His honor is everything to him and he may see that post campaign he will only be remembered for these unfare attacks.
Unfortunately his campaign managers are Rovians and there must be a huge conflict within the campaign.
I think Palin is fighting for her own future in 2112 and has no real loyality to McCain or his ideas; thus her unwillingness to conform to the McCain platform on issues she disagrees with. Even if McCain abandons these negitive tactics she may not stay on the new message for her own political advantage, such as it is.
But as Zoot says :
“Probably wishful thinking, however….”
October 11, 2008 at 9:13 am
I think it is tragic what has happened to the McCain campaign. He is now trying hard to dial back the hatred before it destroys his candidacy. It is just one more piece of evidence that he has squandered would COULD have been his election. He merely had to find someone who was acceptable to the base, get through the convention, then do a swift move to the center, completely distance himself from Bush, and the election would have been his. Instead, he pandered to the base, then resorted to the meanest tactics to question Obama’s character. We have been led down this road before by Karl Rove. In this financial crisis, it is a political death-wish.
I feel sorry for McCain if he is now finally seeing the light. But my fellow prisoners, it’s too late to see him or Sara bringing badly wounded country together again. He’s toast.
October 11, 2008 at 11:01 am
this very negative campaign is not the one McCain wanted to run.
I’m not so sure about that. Among his early commercials were “One,” mocking Obama’s popularity, and “Celebrity,” questioning Obama’s ability to lead with vague innuendos and without any factual support. These were not high-minded discussions of issues; they were personal attacks.
It seems to me that McCain went negative early. I’d like to think that the negative portions of his campaign have unintentionally overwhelmed his planned positive aspects, but I’m not sure that’s the case given the people he hired–the legacies of Atwater and Rove.
He’s John McCain, and he approved those messages.
October 11, 2008 at 11:33 am
One of the things that may have affected his campaign strategy is his clear personal dislike for Obama. This goes back at least to the kerfuffle over the governmental ethics reform effort, resulting in his nasty, personalized letter to Obama when he concluded that Obama pulled the rug out from under him. Who knows?
But if you just don’t like the person you’re running against, it becomes a little easier to subordinate your better instincts to the desire to take a whack at him. Had Clinton been the nominee, mcCain likely wouldn’t have authorized these highly personal attacks on her, although the GOP haters would have been sent into a frenzy.
Putting it all together, I feel that he didn’t realize how close to the abyss his personal animus was taking him until someone pulled him up short and told him how dangerous this had become.
October 11, 2008 at 1:12 pm
McCain chose his campaign staff and approved the strategy and ads. He is to blame for the tone of his campaign. His “ambition” is to blame.
October 11, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Ooh, I hate to be the one picking the nits–but McCain did not try to “reign” but “rein” the crowd in. Reins are something used to control a horse, thus when one attempts to control something he tries to “rein” it in.
The basic point however is that McCain was thoroughly guilty of trying to whip up the worst kind of frenzy against Obama, and it was only the widespread outrage this provoked that caused him to backpedal so furiously. It can successfully be argued that at one time John McCain stood for a certain kind of honor in politics. That man, sadly, is no more.
October 11, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I have to agree with Pratagmus and Guy here. I’d believe that McCain let his crowds get out of control and rowdy to the point where the Secret Service had to investigate at one time. The responsibility is with the canidate to urge the crowd to maintain restraint, but both Palin and McCain chose to d absolutely nothing until the press increased its reporting on the hateful, ignorant crowds, making it clear that the campaign was stoking hateful demonstrations.
As a candidate, McCain has the influence to try to rein his crowds in, but he did it only when the press called out on him not because of his desire to preserve what remains of his honor. Because if Palin and he kept feeding the base nasty attack lines like “palling around with terrorists” it subtly confirms for the crowds that Obama may be a terrorist o has been associated with terrorists. The crowd has the right to feel angry when incited by such language palin used, and Palin is entirely responsible for some of the negative energy. And McCain has the authority to control and overrule everything is campaign does, but he chose to let the campaign control him at times.
October 11, 2008 at 8:09 pm
McSame lost whatever honor he had long ago.(Confederate flag, kissin up to the Falwells, voting for torture, etc.etc.)
October 11, 2008 at 8:33 pm
He made a mistake putting her on the ticket. They don’t have the same political values from what I can see. She lit the fire he is now trying to put out.