The Wisdom of Ben Politico Smith.
One brief contact with the media out of the way, and the Republican candidate stands by his campaign's message.
"All I can say is we’re proud of that commercial," McCain said. "We think Americans need to know that I believe that we should base this campaign on what we can do for Americans at home and how we can make Americans safe and prosperous and that’s the theme of our campaign."
"I respect and admire sen Obama, but we have stark differences," McCain said. "And those differences need to be drawn."
"These campaigns are tough," he said, "But I'm proud of the campaign we've run."McCain's discipline -- in the past, he's reeled in campaign attacks -- will be a source of relief in Arlington. But it also basically works in McCain's favor that he's considered an arbiter of his own campaign ads. [my emphasis]
Yes, that would be a tremendous advantage for someone heavily invested in projecting an image of himself as a Straight Talker of Incredible Integrity. Or, you know, maybe not:
What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to know, according to one GOP strategist I spoke with over the weekend, is that they had an ad script ready to go if Obama had visited the wounded troops saying that Obama was...wait for it...using wounded troops as campaign props. So, no matter which way Obama turned, McCain had an Obama bashing ad ready to launch. I guess that’s political hardball. But another word for it is the one word that most politicians are loathe to use about their opponents—a lie.
Advantage, McCain! What a brilliant arbiter!
The Politico is a wonderful new addition to our public discourse. Whenever I read it I see something and say, "wow, that is just fucking amazing." No kidding.
