Posted by
Angelina Sciolla on Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1:18:48 PM
If only John McCain had the same accuracy with that surface-to-air missile 40 years ago that he has today with his timely responses to these media erruptions, he'd have likely ended up back with his carrier group after his bombing run. But then the country would be deprived of a man who clearly knows how to take a hit.
First it was the Times and while the appearance of impropriety seems to drip, drip, drip from various newspaper pages, they won't drown him. It was a close one. Now once again he is at odds, this time with conservative radio mouth, Bill Cunnningham, who knew exactly what he was doing when he kept invoking Obama's rather unfortunate and politically unflattering middle name at a rally for McCain yesterday. Then he tried to cover it up with a supercilious response that was equally as offensive. How many muslim "brothers and sisters", as he dropped so glibly, do you think Cunningham has?
McCain repudiated it and in turn Cunningham now repudiates him. Why, because the candidate doesn't want to wallow in mud? The conservative wing of the party better get wise. They are in for a rude awakening. This is a new game and cute little plays on names and claims that Barak and Farrakhan are bowling buddies aren't going to go anywhere. Yes they must be raised, but as Tony Blankley explains in his column today, you don't hammer at Obama, you go at him with the surgeon's knife. You don't flatten him, you shrink him...you let the air out of the balloon and watch him wither. The bludgeoning rhetoric and style of Cunningham, et al is not going to get McCain elected. I applaud McCain for standing his ground and indicating that Cunningham's diatribe was inappropriate. I only hope that conservative talk radio listeners wake up and realize we are up against something unique here. This time dirty politics needs a clean wrapper.
And there is, indeed, a strategy behind this. McCain isn't just being magnanamious. Who ever knew him to be that way anyway? He's making it harder for Obama to attack him without political repercussions. McCain is positioning himself to be the wise elder statesman, something Hillary should have tried to do more without explicitly talking about "experience" and "day one." Her experience is tied to her husband. McCain's experience is his own, period.
But the McCain repudiation of Cunningham is part of what we refer to as "killing one with kindness." He's not being PC, he's being smart. Obama is a master of it as well, except he verges on condescending. But if McCain is any better (which I think he can be) and can keep his aim straight, he'll be smiling and apologizing all the way to inauguration day. And the radio rotweilers will just have to hold their tongues until after he takes the oath.