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Politics : John McCain for President -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tadsamillionaire who wrote (331)	2/20/2000 3:42:00 PM
From: Brian P.	Respond to of 6579

Your comparison to Everett Dirksen is interesting. If Bush had any integrity or substance he would attack McCain on PRINCIPLE, i.e., would come out and say that campaign finance reform limits free speech unconstitutionally. THAT is an intellectually respectable position to take. Honorable people can have a fair debate on that one. Instead, Bush whines that McCain, "just like a Washington insider, I guess, huh?", is criticizing the financing rules while also playing by them this time around. (Well, of course McCain has to play by the rules now until he can change them once in power!) That's the best Bush can do? It's either intellectually dishonest or dim-witted. He's capable of both, IMO. Nothing about the Constitution, political free speech, etc., etc. from the a conservative?? Does this man really believe in anything except his right to be President because of his daddy?

To: Tadsamillionaire who wrote (331)	2/20/2000 3:52:00 PM
From: Brian P.	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6579

The thing that strikes me is how indifferent many people seem to be to Bush's sheer mediocrity and fecklessness. Maureen Dowd really nails it in this piece: February 20, 2000 LIBERTIES / By MAUREEN DOWD Bricks and Mortars CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Watching W. in South Carolina was nerve-racking. "It's like seeing a guy on an icy patch of sidewalk trying to get to the other side," said Jack Germond, the political writer who called his memoir "Fat Man in a Middle Seat." You were never sure if George W. Bush was going to get safely to the other side of a sentence, or even a syllable, without slipping. Resonate became resignate. Full disclosure became full exposure. Bricks and mortar, bricks and mortars. And there was this delicious mangled metaphor about John McCain: "He can't take the high horse and claim the low road." You were never sure if the front-runner could negotiate his way safely through a foreign affairs interview, or if he would be able to connect the dots on a thorny domestic question. When a woman in Florence, S.C., asked him what to do about her medical insurance not covering all the needs of her seriously ill son, he was stumped. "I'm sorry," he answered. "I wish I could wave a wand." When a partially blind biology student said she couldn't afford a $400 device that would let her use a microscope, his solution was to ask if anyone in the audience would pay for it. Noblesse oblige is not exactly a detailed health care program. Above all, you weren't sure if Mr. Bush could get past the icy patch in his campaign to win the nomination. Only one thing was certain: The candidate who left South Carolina was very different from the one who came here. "The compassionate conservative has become the cutthroat conservative," says Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard. "Bush has done more damage to Bush than to McCain." Six months ago, the Texas governor appeared, fresh-faced, optimistic, cheerful, youthful -- the antidote to the loser Republican Party of '92, '96 and '98. "He was different from the old, tired party of Bob Dole and the mean, surly party of Newt Gingrich," Mr. Kristol says. "Now his campaign seems tired and surly." By running into the arms of Bob Jones III, Pat Robertson, Strom Thurmond and Dan Quayle, by slighting Catholics and blacks, by switching to a low Atwater-style campaign, Mr. Bush lost touch with all the things that had made him attractive in the first place. Karl Rove, his campaign guru, had always said he did not want Mr. Bush to become polarizing. But now the governor is on the record with an image on race, religion and abortion that he had hoped to leave softer so he could win the general election. When The Times's Frank Bruni asked Mr. Bush if voters -- looking at his refusal to criticize the Confederate flag or to be indignant about the racism and anti-Catholicism of Bob Jones University -- might conclude that he was no foe of intolerance, Mr. Bush testily replied: "Don't you judge my heart based upon giving a speech at a university." What about judging his judgment? He should know that the symbolism that certain gestures carry is an important part of being president. Until New Hampshire, Mr. Bush's team assumed all he would need was money, endorsements and organization. They planned to keep the national media at bay and run out the clock. But then came Mr. McCain, with his potent anti-Washington message mocking all the conventions. W.'s problem was analogous to his father's in '92: an establishment candidate with a weak message and communication skills outmaneuvered by forces he never foresaw and did not know how to react to. Down south, the Texas governor simply tried to become the Arizona senator. But his backers were not impressed when the rich kid ran through $50 million to come up with a slogan as transcendentally dorky as "Reformer With Results." Meanwhile, Mr. McCain went the other way, becoming the nice guy, taking negative ads off the air, and the new hot fund-raiser, scaring up tons of money on the Internet. After all W.'s early bragging about garnering a lot of the Hispanic and black vote in Texas, and his vow to rally "the armies of compassion," it was the challenger who was more open, attracting independents and Democrats. Mr. Bush could not morph into Mr. McCain, but he did manage to morph into Steve Forbes, running a destructive -- and self-destructive -- campaign against a war-hero senator. Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company