Posted on 08/26/2004 5:13:12 AM PDT by presidio9
Pity the poor historian a hundred years from now trying to assess John McCain. He is unlikely ever to be President (though he plans to run in 2008); he isn't a powerful legislative leader like Henry Clay or Bob Dole or Ted Kennedy; and he hasn't led a political movement like Robert LaFollette.
Yet he is the most popular and, in many ways, influential politician of our times. John Kerry and George W. Bush vie to associate themselves with the Arizona Republican, as do politicians of every stripe all around the country, ranging from liberal Democrats, who disagree with him on most issues, to conservative Republicans, who harbor an irrational hatred for this independent-minded maverick.
As always, ironies abound. He is campaigning full throttle for his old adversary, George W. Bush, traveling with him early next week and leaving the New York convention with the president. (Compare the Bush-McCain appearances to those with the vice president, who has been assigned the political equivalent of the pro bowlers' tour.)
Yet he remains deeply troubled by the tactics of the Bush political svengali, Karl Rove, and is struck by the similarity between the recent supposedly "independent" attacks on John Kerry's Vietnam record by Bush allies, and the smears against him by Bush supporters during the 2000 GOP presidential primary.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
*yawn*
McCain isn't going to be in the history books except as a footnote on how he ran against Bush for the 2000 nomination.
If McCain wants to be in the text book... He's going to have to make himself available to the next Republican presidential candidate as the VP candidate of choice.
Yeah right. In history's museum the McCain exhibit will be right there next to the Al Hunt exhibit for influential journalists. Hahahahahahaha, Yeah right. Time for your meds Al.
The only way McCain got where he is today is milking the sympathy people have for POWs. He and Kerry then went on betray all the POWs that were left behind in Vietnam when Clinton recognized Vietnam in the 1990s. Besides, he's a short bald ahole.
If McCain came out forcefully on the side of the SBV's, Al Hunt's analysis would change to "McCain is a sellout."
"Yet he is the most popular and, in many ways, influential politician of our times. John Kerry and George W. Bush vie to associate themselves with the Arizona Republican, as do politicians of every stripe all around the country, ranging from liberal Democrats, who disagree with him on most issues, to conservative Republicans, who harbor an irrational hatred for this independent-minded maverick."
GAG ME WITH A SPOON!
I like reading Al Hunt. He transcribes the conversations at Upper West Side cocktail parties.
A comment that is, by its very utterance, indicative of the panytywaisted limousine liberals attitude towards real America.
Yes. see above.
Al Hunt is a pimp and a political whore.
McCain is the Anti-Zell Miller.
McCain is just another useful idiot for Mr. Woodruff.
Oh yeah, Thursday...Al Hunt's crap runs today.
Give me a break.
W sucks-up to courts him, as he does to bloated, alcoholic US Sen Ted "Chappaquiddick Swimmer" Kennedy (MURDERER-MA) and other congresscritter lowlifes, to maintain a *cordial atmosphere* and because he's a good man, not because he respects them, IMO.
McCain never received more than 33% of the Rep vote and that includes crossovers. McCain's popularity is a creation of the media. As long as McCain criticizes the Reps, he will remain the darling of the MSM.
He will be a non-entity after this election. I sincerely hope the good people of my home state get rid of this BOOB, and I don't mean Mary Carey.
At the time, he took positions contrary to conservatives and insulted them to boot. Then he expected to be welcomed as their savior candidate. No chance!
His flip flopping has as its genesis emotional dyscontrol over narcissistic wounds. He will eventually isolate himself and when he runs find little, real support for either him or his positions. In the meantime, he can seethe and make attempts at emotional pay back for imagined wrongs.
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