The N.Y, Times & McCain

Now that the donnybrook over the McCain piece in the N.Y. Times of Feb. 21st has given the right wing boys their dream reason for supporting the “uncertain candidate”, we also get a peek into the coming presidential election campaign. I think the Times made a very serious mistake. The Times article covers 74 inches of type from page 1 to 1 Now 9. The mistake was the suggestion of a “romance” between McCain and the lobbyist Vicki Iseman for which they had only anonymous sources. That part of the Times story took up exactly 14 inches or about 20% of the story. Yet that’s all that McCain and his supporters decided to get indignant about. So what was the whole story about?

The story is about McCain’s cozy relationships with lobbyists, of which Vicky Iseman is just one of many that he was and remains very cozy with. In fact the Times’ article says that there are presently lobbyists on his campaign who work for nothing. Is that just friendly devotion or would you guess that if he is elected he might just owe them something?

None of those who were all fired up about the liberal NY Times attacking our most beloved war hero had a word to say about the coyness between McCain and the lobbyists. Are you surprised? Of course not. But what it tells me is that this crowd is just warming up for the coming presidential campaign. I believe they will out do anything we have ever seen in a presidential election in terms of demonizing the Democratic candidate. There have been a rash of books about Hillary and Barack that will supply the demonizers with all the material they need, including brand new stuff we don’t even know about, like last Sunday’s column by Nicholas Kristof about Obama’s step-grandmother in Kenya living without water or electricity. You can just hear it. “What kind of a grandson would permit is grandmother to live in that condition?” And so on and so forth.

All of this is to say that the Obama camp, who I assume at this point is going to be the nominee, better start spring training for dealing with the onslaught of shit that will be coming out of the right wing Karl Rove crowd. If they duck and fill they will suffer the same fate as Michael Dukakis back in 1988. They have to be ready to respond with instant slam dunk on any underhanded crap coming over the fence from the far right. Yes they need to stick to the issues, but please do not underestimate the importance of instant and righteous indignation to any “swift boat” attacks, especially the ones that come from “unknown sources.” Any slipping and sliding on those occasions can cost the election. Democrats, this is not a fight fought according to the rules of the Marquess of Queensberry. So start learning to fight according to the rules of the street.

The other bad news is that once again a bored and not knowing what to do with himself Mr. Nader has decided that he has to keep making mischief by running for president. Nader, get a hobby or find something more useful to do for yourself and the country.

Footnote: I think the Times story about McCain’s lobbyists and romance was in part an attempt to balance its story of Obama’s reefer smoking that they ran in the same series called “The Long Run.”