About That McCain Story
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain
I know other blogs have been covering this story, but the politics of personal destruction aren’t very interesting to me so I’ve held off.
From what I’ve read so far, the NY Times story was thin to the point of being anorexic, but I don’t think the timing was suspect. If they had pushed this story in late December it would have hurt McCain A LOT more. And now that he’s the nominee, it has a lot less chance to hurt him. As evidence of this, I point to a lament by Romney politicos that if this would have come out sooner, their candidate could have benefitted from it. For those reasons I don’t agree with many bloggers on the whole timing argument.
I’m also waiting on the rest of the story. As TPM points out, the Time story is written in such a way that more is on the way. If that’s not the case, the Times should be ashamed of themselves. Seriously. The current story is THAT worthless. However, if the Times does have evidence of quid pro quo impropriety…well, that’s news and I think they could potentially be vindicated.
To McCain’s credit, he has gotten out in front of this one, held a press conference this morning and done all the things a candidate should do when an accusation such as this works its way in to the light of day. I, for one, hope the charges are unfounded, but I’m willing to wait and see what transpires next.
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 21st, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:35 am
While watching McCain’s press conference this morning, it struck me at how weak of a public speaker he is. Should be interesting to see how he mitigates this weakness vs. BHO.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am
The reason I think the timing is suspect is because I think the Times didn’t want to hurt McCain, they wanted to hurt Republicans generally. So they held the story until a time when it would damage Republicans prospects of holding the White House overall instead of just short-circuiting McCain’s candidacy in December.
It is not personal with the Times, it is partisan. I predict with full confidence that the Times will eventually endorse whomever the Democrats nominate.
February 21st, 2008 at 11:24 am
The NYT is a full-fledged henchman organization for the left. It’s interesting the same NYT that barely a month ago endorsed McCain. Most conservatives understood it for the political maneuver that it was. Generate democratic support for McCain in the primaries until a time they would stab him in the back.
Very disturbing! I, for one, doubt this story’s veracity, despite not caring for McCain as a nominee.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:32 pm
There’s generally no good time to release a story with its entire substantiation boiling down to “some anonymous sources had concerns.” Concerns? Wow. That’s newsworthy.
If they have more, they should release it now. Looks to me that they spend months on a costly fishing expedition, landed nothing more than a tin can and then decided to go ahead and mount that tin can and call it a 20-pound bass. It’s all very distasteful.
February 21st, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Alan - Thanks for the link to Rove’s article. It is spot-on in my opinion.
Uumm, that reminds me of an Obama supporter I know…somebody that manages a blog…
February 21st, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Here’s an interesting possibility: McCain using this hatchet job to bolster his conservative creds. “See? The NYT is attacking me! I MUST be conservative!”
February 21st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Dos, quit talking about Alan like that. It’s not nice.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:46 am
ExiledIndependent Says:
“Here’s an interesting possibility: McCain using this hatchet job to bolster his conservative creds. “See? The NYT is attacking me! I MUST be conservative”
Hmm.. interesting. It will be more exciting if you stick to the topic, which is. * McCain got smeared by a liberal organization.*
Or are you saying that he concocted with the NYT to attack himself, that he might derive an advantage?!