He was the Hobbesian candidate during the debate -- nasty, brutish, and short, small and mean -- and he's been that way throughout the entire campaign. His "Hail Marys" -- picking Palin, "suspending" his campaign to go back to Washington last week -- get the attention, but what is characteristic of his campaign is negativity, coming in the form of lies and smears, bitterness and sarcasm. With nothing in the way of substance, other than his overwrought enthusiasm for the Iraq War, that's all he's got.
Last Friday, during the debate, he couldn't even look Obama in the face. And it was much the same today, as he took the opportunity of the lead-up to the House vote on the bailout bill to attack Obama, partisanizing the crisis, and the vote, as much as anyone in Congress, trying to score political points by going negative. Country first? No. As usual, it's McCain first, everything else somewhere in the distance. He attacked Obama again his his statement after the vote, and there will no doubt be much more negativity to come.
But what was truly amazing today was that he actually took credit for the bill... before the House rejected it. The Politico has the story:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his top aides took credit for building a winning bailout coalition – hours before the vote failed and stocks tanked.
Shortly before the vote, McCain had bragged about his involvement and mocked Sen. Barack Obama for staying on the sidelines.
"I've never been afraid of stepping in to solve problems for the American people, and I'm not going to stop now," McCain told a rally in Columbus, Ohio. "Sen. Obama took a very different approach to the crisis our country faced. At first he didn't want to get involved. Then he was monitoring the situation." McCain, grinning, flashed a sarcastic thumbs up.
"That's not leadership. That's watching from the sidelines," he added to cheers and applause.
First, bullshit. McCain has been partisanizing the issue all along. And his phony "suspension" of his campaign was just a desperate, arrogant, and self-serving stunt. He ended up going to Washington, but he didn't do anything to move the process along. He apparently made a bunch of phone calls. What he was really doing was meddling in a process that others were leading, on both sides of the aisle. And his interference contributed to the failure of the bill.
Second, Obama understood what was needed of him -- meet with Bush, talk to congressional leaders, comment when appropriate, participate constructively in bipartisan talks. He didn't force himself into the process and didn't install himself as leader. What he showed was good judgement.
Third -- and here's where it gets funny -- McCain took credit for something that failed. He obviously wasn't able to put together a winning coalition. But he still gave himself a presumptuous pat on the back. And while a majority of the Democrats voted for the bill (about 60 percent), less than a third of Republicans voted for it. So for what, exactly, was McCain patting himself on the back and trying to score political points for his presidential campaign? The overwhelming majority of his own party voted against him! (With some of them childishly blaming Pelosi for turning them against it.) Meanwhile, on the other side, Obama is standing with the leaders of his party, working to get something done.
He can flash his stupid grin, put his thumbs up, and spew sarcasm all he wants. It's all bullshit.
And just what we've come to expect from John McCain.
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