McCain's "Respectful" Campaign

Here's an excerpt from the memo the McCain campaign sent out as soon as he clinched the Republican nomination:

To: Campaign Leadership

From: Rick Davis

Subject: McCain Message

Date: 3/11/2008

John McCain is now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. It is critical, as we prepare to face off with whomever the Democrats select as their nominee, that we all follow John's lead and run a respectful campaign focused on the issues and values that are important to the American people.

Throughout the primary election we saw John McCain reject the type of politics that degrade our civics, and this will not change as he prepares to run head-to-head against the Democratic nominee.

John McCain will continue to run on his principles and will focus on the future of our country. . . .

Overheated rhetoric and personal attacks on our opponents distract from the big differences between John McCain's vision for the future of our nation and the Democrats'. . . .

Throughout his life John McCain has held himself to the highest standards and he will continue to run a respectful campaign based on the issues. . . .

Here's what McCain had to say today:

This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the judgment to say I would rather lose a political campaign than lose a war. It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign.

That statement prompted Joe Klein to write:

This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered. I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate. It smacks of desperation. It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency. How sad.

Indeed. It's long past time that the media took notice of the fact that John McCain has, already, run the least respectful presidential campaign in recent memory--and he's just getting warmed up. As I've noted previously, McCain has--for many months now--addressed his opponent in the most condescending, disrespectful, and downright hostile manner I've ever seen from a major party candidate. While campaigns inevitable get ugly, the candidates themselves generally address one other with the respect that the nominee of a major party deserves, i.e., with at least a minimal amount of civility. McCain, on the other hand, can't seem to hide his disdain for Obama.

Not only that, but he's repeatedly questioned not just Obama's wisdom and judgment, but his motives, something that is virtually unheard of from anything but a low-level surrogate. In his statement today, McCain flat out asserted that Obama is willing to sell the country out to its enemies in order to get elected. That's way beyond the pale.

And ironically, it doesn't even jive with current GOP talking points. After several days of flailing around for a response to Maliki's all-but-explicit endorsement of Obama's withdrawal timetable, the Republicans (and the White House) seem to have settled on a new strategy: declare victory and claim that the Bush/McCain "surge" made it all possible. If you glance around the web or watch the GOP talking heads on television, this is what they're all saying. They're essentially conceding that the Iraqis want us to set a timetable to leave but claiming that this is only possible because of our glorious, surge-induced victory.

But implicit in McCain's attack on Obama is the continuing suggestion that leaving Iraq equals defeat, and that's just not a coherent talking point anymore. So not only is McCain's attack shameless, but it doesn't even make sense by the logic of his own surrogates. Or the White House, for that matter, which has recently begun to talk about setting "time horizons" for leaving the country.

It's hard for me to understand how McCain ever developed a reputation for being a "respectful" campaigner. He's always been a hothead, someone who wears his disdain for others on his sleeve. I'm glad that at least one mainstream reporter has now noticed how undeserved that reputation was.