Richard Cohen Is Done With McCain
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, McCain, Media
Usually I wouldn’t post about an editorial writer getting huffy over a Republican’s turn rightward, but as anybody who has read Cohen for any length of time knows, the guy is a serious McCain fan, and admits as much in this scathing condemnation of the Arizona senator’s recent campaigning.
McCain has turned ugly. His dishonesty would be unacceptable in any politician, but McCain has always set his own bar higher than most. He has contempt for most of his colleagues for that very reason: They lie. He tells the truth. He internalizes the code of the McCains — his grandfather, his father: both admirals of the shining sea. He serves his country differently, that’s all — but just as honorably. No more, though.I am one of the journalists accused over the years of being in the tank for McCain. Guilty. Those doing the accusing usually attributed my feelings to McCain being accessible. This is the journalist-as-puppy school of thought: Give us a treat, and we will leap into a politician’s lap.
Not so. What impressed me most about McCain was the effect he had on his audiences, particularly young people. When he talked about service to a cause greater than oneself, he struck a chord. He expressed his message in words, but he packaged it in the McCain story — that man, beaten to a pulp, who chose honor over freedom. This had nothing to do with access. It had to do with integrity.
McCain has soiled all that. His opportunistic and irresponsible choice of Sarah Palin as his political heir — the person in whose hands he would leave the country — is a form of personal treason, a betrayal of all he once stood for. Palin, no matter what her other attributes, is shockingly unprepared to become president. McCain knows that. He means to win, which is all right; he means to win at all costs, which is not.
If McCain thinks the media is turning on him, he’s right. But it’s because they’re being forced to report on the realities of John McCain’s campaign, instead of the mythical John McCain they once revered.
And contrary to the apologists I’ve been reading elsewhere, McCain didn’t need to lie and he didn’t need to go personal. He was getting enough mileage out of the Palin pick and their “reform” message. But when you put out one lie after another after another, you run the risk of sucking the life right out of your campaign.
The reason Bush was able to get away with it in 2000 and 2004 is we never had the same idea of Bush the man as we do with McCain. So for him to pivot so severely into hyper-negative territory is shocking to many like Cohen.
Expect more defections.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, McCain, Media. 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.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Justin,
Obama doesn’t need to lie either but he has on more than once occasion.
Justin, this is your blog and you can do with it as you like, but it would be nice if you would either just say you are in the tank fully for Obama or be more even handed in your assessments. You have never commented on any shortcomings of Obama, doing nothing more than praising him and have hardly said anything good about McCain.
I’ve appreciated your posts in the past, but it’s hard to like them lately. Yes, I am a McCain supporter, but I’ve tried to be fair. I’m not trying to paint Obama as some kind of meanie the way you have done to McCain.
I know that none of what I said will change anything and I’m sorry to offend you, but I had to get this off my chest.
Dennis
September 16th, 2008 at 9:33 am
I tuned in expecting this article to speak of McCain’s beefed up right-wing pandering, especially on socon issues he’s never cared a fig about.
Instead, it’s more anti-Palin spin. Frankly, the notion that McCain’s choice of Palin is a betrayal of his principles is downright laughable. I continue to be stunned by the tone-deaf declarations that Palin is unprepared and lacking in experience. Most reasonable folks view her as having a government background that’s quite fairly comparable to that of one-term senator Barack Obama.
So far, every argument to the contrary suggesting that Obama has ample experience but Palin does not smacks of embarassing special pleading. I find this extended, vitriolic, and unreasonable partisan water-carrying offensive, whether it’s from Justin, Cohen, or Matt Damon. It has me leaning towards McCain where I had been leaning towards Obama.
Neither Obama nor Palin has a vast wealth of experience. They go in the same basket.
September 16th, 2008 at 9:51 am
Dennis,
First off, I HAVE disagreed with Obama and HAVE called him out on it. In fact, I just posted a couple days ago about a hacky ad on McCain not using the internet. And while I concede that these posts are few and far between, I think you should acknowledge that this has much more to do with the fact that Obama’s campaign is not waging the type of sustained, dishonest and harshly personal campaign McCain is. One can be fair and still highlight that reality.
Second, I’ve always freely admitted to being a Democrat. And I’ve also been very vocal about being an Obama supporter and have said as much NUMEROUS times in the past year. So as far as being “in the tank”, well, I’m not sure what you’re looking for from me. Donklephant has always been designed as a forum for all political opinions, so hopefully you’ll like something one of the other contributors writes about Obama.
In the end, I’m sorry you don’t like my posts nowadays. But do remember that you are also a contributor here, so please feel free to post about Obama’s inconsistencies. But I’d ask that your focus be on the candidates, not your fellow bloggers. I don’t want to get into an intra-blog fight. That’s no fun for anybody.
September 16th, 2008 at 10:35 am
kranky, big difference Obama won his nomination, Palin was chosen, Obama has earned his position, Palin has not
September 16th, 2008 at 10:43 am
I think it’s odd that the Palin pick is what upset Cohen. But I never got the sense that Cohen was anything but a left-of-center type. I don’t think he ever wanted McCain to win, he just wanted McCain to lose honorably. For left-of-center types who liked the rascally McCain of yore, it’s hard to watch him ascend to the top of his party where he has to make political compromises.
Any choice McCain made for VP would have forced him into some less-than-ideal compromise. I could see Cohen just as easily accusing McCain of betraying his principles if he had chosen Romney. Or Huckabee. I guess Lieberman would have been o.k. for Cohen, but then McCain would have lost his entire base.
September 16th, 2008 at 11:29 am
I’m confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..
If you graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable.
If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you’re well grounded.
If you become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human Services committee, 4 years in the United States Senate representing state of 3 million people and serve on the Foreign Affairs, Environment , Public Works and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you don’t have any real leadership experience.
If your total resume is: beauty queen, local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you’re qualified to become the country’s second highest ranking executive.
If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family’s values don’t represent America’s.
If your husband is nicknamed “First Dude”, with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn’t register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.
OK, much clearer now.”
I was thinking of voting for McCain because he showed a little backbone. But his appointment of Sarah Palin demonstrated to me that the good ole boy NEOCONâ€s are once again in the drivers seat. Allan Grenspan has stated the McCain economic policy would be disastrous.
Quit frankly the thought of Ms. Palin sitting across the table from the likes of a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad chills me to the bone. Given McCains health issues and age Ms. Palin could in deed become the President Of The United States. SCARY VERY SCARY
September 16th, 2008 at 11:35 am
If you haven’t read the article linked above, you probably should before claiming it is all about Palin.
The above quoted section occurs near the very beginning and leads me to believe the author feels this issue is just as important, if not more important, the Sarah Palin issue.
Miles (Independent)
September 16th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
CA, Miles,
Thank you
September 16th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
IMO being elected governor and therefore acting as the chief executive of a state is at least as challenging a leadership activity as anything on Obama’s resume.
I don’t even get why “law professor” cpunts for anything in terms of executive experience. Being a state legislator is a more trivial job than state governor. While it’s true that Obama has represented large constituencies, he really hasn’t had to do anything to lead these people. He didn’t oversee their budgets, figure out how various departments worked, and didn’t have to make many decisions about which priorities could get funded and which ones would not. Except as part of one committee or council or other.
And In case anyone missed it, I am absolutely not making the case that Palin has better qualifications. IMO, Obama and Palin have fairly comparable experience.
The notion that Obama is experienced, tested, and ready but Palin lacks all these things is just absurd. You can’t have it both ways. If you want to call Palin’s qualifications into question, that absolutely calls into question Obama’s similar lack of depth of experience.
He’s a former state legislator who is now a first-term senator. The rest of the junk cited above is padding. Anyone who’s ever written a resume knows padding when they see it, Wren.
And see, that’s the problem for real centrists like me. What you have crafted above is the bolstered best case for Obama as contrasted with the worst-case view of Palin. It’s how partisans operate. It doesn’t wash with me. I know special pleading when I see it.
September 16th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Kranky, I’m glad you said that. For me, this hasn’t been about Palin’s experience for a while. In fact, the “experience” issue has been fading for weeks now with a few exceptions (and some of those exceptions are on the right, too).
That said, assuming all their other experiences are judged comparable, one area where in which Palin cannot be judged comparable by even the greatest stretch is in how she handles the spotlight.
Being the head of a national campaign for 18 months in which he has been probed, questioned, probed again, scrutinized, and probed again gives Obama a different perspective.
Now, you may not like the answers you’ve seen through the real and fantasy issues he has addressed in the past 18+ months, but he did deal with them and he didn’t crack.
Palin couldn’t make it through what was basically a current events pop quiz by a softball chucking Charlie Gibson. She scrambled for talking points, stumbled through issues and basically looked like a high school senior who had spent all night cramming for an exam. She got a C+ for her final grade.
Obama probably started with some high grades while the media floundered in their infatuation, then he himself floundered when the crap hit the fan (his clinging to guns moment was a real low point and he barely mustered a D+ with it)…but the point is, he passed the class. He got the nomination.
Palin is like a kid who transferred from another school and got put in the wrong grade, and now the teachers aren’t allowed to give her any tests. If McCain wants us to take her seriously, let her stand on her two feet, face the music and show us she knows something beyond talking points and, sadly, lies. Everyone knows she is lying about her past, which is especially annoying when what she is lying about is not necessarily something she should be ashamed about…it just doesn’t match the fairy tale people are trying to spin.
September 16th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
I know exactly how Cohen feels.
I’ve been “lean Obama” pretty much since the spring. But I still liked McCain … and was really looking forward to watching the campaign play out.
But seriously, this is Not the John McCain that inspired Independents and Moderates even as recently as early 2004.
John McCain has sacrificed his honor and integrity in an attempt to win this election.
… and believe me, it’s a profoundly sad thing to realize, for those of us who used to admire him.
September 17th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
For many years now, I have used my most powerful voice, my vote, to shun the political gutter and those who use it. I educate myself on the issues, the candidates and usually pick a favorite with whom I most agree. Then I wait until Election Day. Sometimes I vote R, sometimes D, sometimes 3rd party. I will not vote for the candidate who prostitutes themselves by using blatantly false, negative ads or mailers. I encourage all citizens to register to vote and use their most powerful voice — their vote — to demand a change in tone for politics. If candidates who use negative ads start losing, then they will stop running negative ads. But all those smart marketing people (of whom I’m a former member) know how to push the FEAR button to motivate behavior. And when our fear takes over, negative campaigning wins. ENOUGH!
I call on all candidates to not only run on issues, but to help educate citizens about their role. Bill Maher tonight said “Americans are too stupid to be governed.” I’m not quite sure what to think about that claim…but there is some element of disinterest or lack of education that contributes to his cynicism. How else can we stop the madness?