Republicans Will Have to Do Better Than McCain

I liked the John McCain that existed up until spring of 2004 when he once again got bit with the presidential ambition bug and decided to borrow a page or two from Bush's example. Senator McCain the maverick no longer exists.

Raw Story carries an article on one of the problems with Senator McCain presidential quest:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), regarded as a top presidential candidate for the 2008 election, has lined up a controversial attack ad specialist to be his campaign manager, Raw Story has learned.

Chris Cillizza writes at The Washington Post's political blog, The Fix, that "according to a source close to the McCain operation, the candidate has lined up Terry Nelson to serve as campaign manager," once McCain's campaign becomes official.

Nelson, along with Karl Rove protegé Scott Howell, produced a controversial ad for Tennessee's 2006 U.S. Senate race between Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. and Republican Bob Corker, in which a white woman seductively invites an "off-camera" Ford to call her. Ford, an unmarried African-American, and Corker, the white former mayor of Chattanooga who eventually won the open Senate seat, both criticized the ad.

I'm not sure how much longer Americans are going to be prone to the kind of sleazy ads made famous by Lee Atwater and Karl Rove, but it is disappointing that McCain is steadily trading in his reputation for integrity by using people like Nelson. The man who coauthored some important campaign finance laws is also going to bypass his own legislation in his bid for the presidency.

I'm not sure what to make of McCain's judgment these days either. He recommends sending more troops which might have been a good reccommendation, say three years ago. Former Clinton official Robert Reich had this to say about a recent conversation:

I talked with John McCain Sunday morning in the green room just before “This Week.” I asked him why he continued to call for more troops for Iraq when he must know it's a political non-starter. He said he thought it important for the morale of the troops.

McCain gives every impression of meaning what he says, which is one of his greatest assets. But I simply can’t believe this one. What’s most important for the morale of the troops is knowing they’ll be coming home soon, not hearing some politician say we need more troops when there’s no possible chance of that happening.

What I detect from John McCain is a growing lack of seriousness when it comes to our nation's problem. He's been very critical of the Iraq Study Group and his criticisms suggests he has no understanding of the crisis we're in. Off and on, John McCain has been running for president for a very long time, but it's not clear anymore that he has fresh ideas to bring to the White House. As the failures of the current occupant of the presidency has made so abundantly clear, the voters have to take seriously who occupies the top job.