A Candidacy Fueled By Anger, Hate, and now Hypocrisy
2000 seems like ages ago, doesn’t it? Eight years has flown by, but while we’ve gone about our normal lives in South Carolina, John McCain has continued living his Washington life. Despite being part of the business as usual Washington crowd, John McCain’s heart never left our Palmetto State. Here it stayed, growing with anger by the minute in remembrance of a presidency that could have been.
we see a man fueled by anger, by hate…a man so determined to seek revenge on his South Carolina enemies that he cannot move away from the past…a dangerous formula for a nation needing leadership for the future. John McCain was finished in 2000, but he rebounded this year and skyrocketed to front-runner status. But with poor financial decisions and an Amnesty package that would have given special benefits to millions of illegal aliens, John McCain once again fell into obscurity. But he took his messages back to the basics – back to being the Straight Talking Maverick – and with every television ad reminding voters of his sacrifices in Vietnam, John McCain is now the frontrunner again.
Kudos must be given to his campaign manager Rick Davis who recognized the need to remind voters who John McCain is. But unfortunately for him, John McCain himself will remind voters who he is and more damaging, what fuels his motivation – pure hate-driven anger.How many times have we seen it now?
Just off the top of my head I remember the time John McCain lost his temper and yelled “F*** You” at Senator John Cornyn. There was the anger-filled incidents where he called Republican US Senators Pete Domenici an “a**hole” and Chuck Grassley a “f**king jerk.” He even got into it once with our Senator Strom Thurmond. Don’t just take my word for it, read about these incidents here.
A man fueled by anger is dangerous, especially to himself, as we see now. He once again risks his front-runner status, straying from his “straight talk” just so that he can punish his South Carolina opponents.In preparation for another tough South Carolina battle, John McCain promised a strictly positive campaign. He said “negative campaigns fail.” He created a SC Truth Squad led by Speaker Bobby Harrell, Adjutant General Stan Spears, and Attorney General Henry McMaster. McMaster said “hopefully candidates will have learned, given what happened in Iowa, that negative campaigning just doesn’t work.”They even sent out an email this weekend stating:
Tonight, volunteers making telephone calls for the McCain campaign report that some voters recently received negative information about Senator McCain. While we do not yet have conclusive proof, we are concerned that this may be the beginning of a smear campaign.
But McCain just couldn’t help himself from going negative. His anger demanded it.While disavowing negative politics, just this weekend McCain sent out this negative mail piece attacking Mitt Romney for not supporting the Bush tax cuts early enough. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough summed up McCain’s hypocrisy this morning (click here for video):
SCARBOROUGH: I’ll be very careful here. I will only say this. That John McCain accused people of attacking him unfairly in South Carolina. I would suggest, if you’re flooding mailboxes with mailers that say Mitt Romney didn’t support George Bush’s tax cuts early enough and yet you voted — actually, you, the guy sending out the mailer, voted against George Bush’s tax cuts, were one of only two people that voted against George Bush’s tax cuts, called George Bush’s tax cuts, tax cuts for the rich. And you were on Tim Russert two weeks ago, and you said you were still damn proud that you voted against George Bush’s tax cuts. To send out a mailer attacking Mitt Romney for not supporting George Bush’s tax cuts early enough certainly smells of dirty politics and dirty campaigning.
Of course McCain just said “we had to respond to negative campaigning…We will respond.” Respond to what? Romney has pulled all forms of paid media in SC.I’ll tell you what he’s responding too. He’s responding to the year 2000 because he just can’t help himself. He has that much anger built up.John McCain scares us…truly. He is so consumed with hate and anger that he is self-destructive, which begs the question – what else would John McCain destroy?
January 15th, 2008 at 12:08 am
This article is right on. You’ve convinced me to vote Fred Thompson.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:19 am
[...] A Candidacy Fueled By Anger, Hate, and now Hypocrisy John McCain scares us…truly. He is so consumed with hate and anger that he is self-destructive, which begs the question – what else would John McCain destroy? [...]
January 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Wow - you guys really did become what everyone assumed you would. I remember when the website first came out, some talked as though it was to pose as an un-biased site until just before the primary when unfounded attacks would fly at the candidate that most endangered Warren’s client.
Before you say it - yes, we know - you’ve said before that you are biased towards Romney, but you only say that because you were outed after sending
an email on behalf of the Romney campaign and Ambinder fired you.
But now it’s obvious you’re more than a site that Tim or Wesley or whoever the hell is on computer duty for the day maintains in their spare time blah blah blah. The deafening silence after Romney’s come-from-ahead defeats in IA and NH, followed by the oh-so-clever “Word!” video postings and then the kind of schizophrenic rambling in this post makes it pretty obvious what your intentions are.
The kicker is, however, no one really gives a crap. I don’t want to get into a tit-for-tat about your hits and how extremely popular you are and how you beat SCHotline and Palmetto Scoop eight out of seven days a week. The
bottom line is, you guys shopped the candidates. You made some money on
one, but in the end, you picked the wrong guy. I’m sure you were thinking
your client had a real shot at this thing. But, after McCain’s implosion and then his resurgence accompanied by the “how the hell are we losing to this moron” view of Huckabee, it truly appears you are all a bunch of scorned women out to say your meanest of mean, mean, mean things about the guys who really have a shot now.
P.S. Again, I know your claim is that this is just a side-project you do in your spare time when you’re not dating hot women, fetching Terry’s coffee or holding a Romney sign, but that doesn’t mean your writing should suck.
“2000 seems like ages ago, doesn’t?” Is that the new way of saying “NOT” after something when you really don’t mean it? So, you’re saying 2000 DOESN’T seem like ages ago?
“John McCain one again feel into obscurity.” I mean … I don’t even know what to say.
P.S.S. The anger talk is amusing. Outside the Columbia bubble, everyone following this race thinks he’s funnier than hell and is the most
light-hearted. The only anger or hatred we’ve seen was the hilarious explanations from Romney about medals and delegate counts and stuff like
that while he was masking what clearly was some discomfort.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Thanks Lauren. We miss you too.
WM - good.
January 15th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I believe she spells that Laurin. But it is nice to see that she is still bitter, it will keep her warm all through the winter.
January 21st, 2008 at 2:10 am
[...] Click Here and Read the Story. [...]
January 21st, 2008 at 2:50 pm
AGREED! If you voted against something and then you criticize your opponent for not supporting what you voted against, then that the HEIGHT OF HYPOCRASY! How could you be more hypocritical as a Republican? I thought tax cuts were THE ISSUE at the top of the list in the Party?