Choose the Bolder

Karl Rove, the former Bush chief strategist, said on Fox News Sunday (Sept. 14, 2008) that John McCain had stretched the truth in his recent round of attacks against Barack Obama. He said "McCain has gone in his ads one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the 100-percent-truth test." This is a truly remarkable moment. Karl Rove has been depicted as the most ruthless smear campaign director in political history.

Just for background, during the 2000 Republican primary in South Carolina, Rove was rumored to be behind a racist innuendo to undermine then-Bush rival John McCain. Voters in South Carolina began receiving calls asking them who they were likely to support. If the response was John McCain, the pollster then asked: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?" This snowballed into Bob Jones University professor Richard Hand to sending out an email to South Carolinians that said that McCain had sired a child out of wedlock. McCain was defeated soundly by Bush in 2000 despite winning the New Hampshire primary, directly before the South Carolina primary, over Bush by 19 points.

Before anyone starts to think that Karl Rove has had a change of heart, his point was that McCain had exaggerated so wildly that he left himself open to political attacks. It wasn't that what he was doing was bad, necessarily, it was just a little too much and a little too obvious to any rational person.

Apparently, John McCain learned his lesson well from "Bush's Brain." He has demonstrated that he will do anything to win this election, like show an utter disdain for the truth, obnoxiously divert voters from real issues and choose every path of deception to paint his opponent in a bad light. But just when you think you have seen it all, there's this: John McCain has "suspended" his campaign to go back to work in Washington on the Bush Administration's proposed economic bailout of ______ (insert Wall or Main) Street. (Amazingly enough, I did see multiple McCain television ads as I waited in the airport this morning and afternoon.)

Wow. Apparently this is what McCain thinks that a real leader should do: walk out on commitments, forsake one television appearance for another (Letterman vs. Couric), back out of the most anticipated event this campaign season (Friday's scheduled debate), and insert yourself into a negotiation where nobody asked for nor wanted your input or assistance.

John McCain looked very comfortable walking around the halls of the House of Representatives with Joe Lieberman as people snapped his picture and the media waited with baited breath for him to say anything of substance. He seemed very happy back in his element, diverting attention from Sarah Palin's latest train wreck one-on-one television interview. He appeared relieved that the newest in a line of political ploys was working.

Well, not so fast. In a poll by the released this morning by the Washington Post-ABC News, Obama had moved ahead of McCain by 9 points from nearly a dead heat just two weeks ago. One longtime GOP adviser who has been involved in past presidential campaigns and debates says that McCain's move will spin out one of two ways: if he goes back to Washington and is seen as a catalyst for a palatable solution to the crisis, it will be a "great way for McCain to stop his bleeding on the economy," the adviser said. "But it can also be seen as a transparent political ploy, when he could just as easily appear at the debate, insist the discussion be all about the economy, and talk this through with Obama." The adviser's prediction: it will play out as a political ploy.

McCain and his staff have said that if legislation is not passed prior to the debate that he will not be in attendance. They are backing off the strong statements now that the bill is in jeopardy and McCain looks foolish. McCain's strength has always been getting Democrats to cross the aisle, not vice versa. He must have assumed that Republicans favored this proposal because it came from a Republican White House and that he could mend some fences. What a terrible miscalculation in a political campaign full of them. Now he is faced with two choices. 1) Stay away from the debate and let Obama turn it into a free advertisement of himself and his plans, or 2) Go to the debate with his tail between his legs and get his clock cleaned by a man who has won every time he has come up against an obstacle that was supposed to defeat him.

W.J. Slim said "When you cannot make up your mind between two evenly balanced courses of action, choose the bolder." If W.J. Slim is right, who is the bolder candidate? I'll choose the African-American with the funny name who beat the Clinton political machine, the elitist tag, the too inexperienced to lead rap and the Muslim slander. But that's just me.