Marc Ambinder - The McCain Decimation - The Inside Story
I read this story this morning and just shook my head. I'm no big fan of McCain and think that while he is a genuine American hero, he is no defender of conservatism. What really got me though is just how illustrative the McCain campaign is of the disaster that is our political system.
I suppose that we might never know the real story behind the shake-up in McCain's campaign but the article highlighted the frustration of McCain's campaign manager that was not given total control over messaging, spending, and the like. That amazed me. If you listen to regular Americans, conservatives or liberal, on talk radio or read them in print, it's pretty quickly apparent that what everyone longs for is principal--a politician that actually has an overarching set of principals and lives them even after they get to Washington. Now I understand that politics is a hardball sport and today's campaigns require large staffs and nimble managers to coordinate media, financing, etc. but how pathetic is it that a campaign manager demand control over messaging? And how equally pathetic is it that a candidate would even entertain that demand? Where is the politician, be they an incumbent or a newcomer, that puts his foot down and says, "this is what I believe, massaging it for the media be damned."
For too long, America has put up with grand talk from our politicians with no principled actions to follow. Even a desparate situation like immigration has been pushed to the back-burner because it's too politically volatile to debate this close to an election! Ridiculous. McCain is imploding for a number of reason but maybe he's simply just another politician who relies on a campaign manager to tell him what he believes and how to express it. Decimation, indeed.
More to come...
1 comment:
Scott,
I think you are right... John McCain is an American Hero. I don't agree with his every position either, but I would vote for him for President. Why? For the very reason that will result in him never being elected. He will stand firm on his beliefs... he has integrity... he is willing to go against his party and build coalitions with Democrats to do what in his mind is the right thing on an issue... for that he is labeled a renegade... a loose cannon. The Framers would roll over in their graves if they knew things have gotten so twisted in our political system.
The problem, and everybody in D.C. and most educated folks know it, is that this is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. To be elected President of the United States requires you to align your thought and actions with a political party... that party in turn has aligned itself with certain "special interests" (read self-serving interests)... those entities pay big bucks to campaigns, and hire lobbyists (read professional hucksters) to represent them and do whatever they can get away with to sway the political system. Again, the Framers of the Constitution never intended our Government to be run this way... and therefore, the system is broken. Until it ends, candidates will be bought and sold, elections won or lost, by he who has the most powerful and expensive machine. John McCain wants to end soft-money... and he has been vilified because of it.
Until people care enough to educate themselves and to change things, they will be pawns in our society.
In the meantime, we may be just months away from "Madame President"... God help us.
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