Bush Media Guru McKinnon on Obama: "Good Integrity," but a Token
Mark McKinnon was a guest on MSNBC's Hardball this week, identified as a "Republican strategist." He didn't flinch at the title.
This is a long way from the fellow who produced the TV spots for Democrat Ann Richards in her successful 1990 Texas governor's race. She lost to George Bush in '94, and by '99 McKinnon was on board Bush's presidential bandwagon in the same role. He stayed for the '04 reelection.
Not once in those years did he ever call himself a Republican, per se. He was always careful to thread the needle as he made the long transition from left to right.
That phase is obviously complete.
Host Chris Matthews mentioned that Mark was a McCain adviser in the '08 election cycle, and asked him about famously telling the campaign he wouldn't be able to continue if Obama became the nominee:
MARK MCKINNON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: That's right. When I joined the campaign in January of '07, I wrote a memo to the campaign saying that if in the general election, it turned out to be John McCain and Barack Obama, I'd step to the sideline. I still supported McCain, but I just didn't want to be the tip of the spear attacking Barack Obama.MATTHEWS: Why?
MCKINNON: I liked his candidacy. I think it's--you know, I think it says--it's great for the country. I disagree with his politics, but it was an historic candidacy. And I think he's got good character. I think he has good integrity. I disagree with his politics, but I think he's a good man. And I wish him great success.
So, the strategist twice emphasizes that he doesn't share Obama's views ("his politics"), and "supported McCain," yet didn't want to be the "tip of the spear" and thinks Obama becoming president is "great for the country."
Well, that's certainly a mouthful to decipher. For what it's worth, Matthews effusively seconded: "I know a lot of Republicans like you, anyway -- not a million, but I know a lot."
Since the core of any politician, after all, is their politics, what is McKinnon really saying here?
Regarding Obama's politics, he ran as a centrist in the general election. He campaigned mightily as one who would roll up his sleeves to tackle the problems created by Bush, ideology be damned. McCain, on the other hand, remained stuck in his end of the field, by his own choice and conservative demands. Rush Limbaugh, for example, publicly ordered that he not pick a running mate who failed to show proper fealty to the Right's most strident views.
Obama ran on substance, competence, changing Bush policies. McKinnon, although disapproving, is now implying that Obama deserved the keys to the Oval Office for a different reason: he's African-American. That smacks of tokenism. It's also not the reason the Illinois senator won. McKinnon may think so because voters have shown surface tendencies before, and he's exploited them.
In 2000, we were told incessantly that we wanted Bush because he was the one we'd enjoy having a beer with at a backyard barbecue instead of the know-it-all Al Gore, remember? That was apparently the breadth and width of our collective wisdom, and McKinnon's slick TV ads sold his candidate as a regular Joe, fitting the meme. The Supreme Court iced the cake.
It's the nature of the advertising beast to simplify (some might call it dumbing down), and on it goes. Thursday's NY Times blog "The Caucus" featured McKinnon chiming in on Obama's identification with Abe Lincoln. Here's his take:
"People think in a simple narrative construct. And the dots connect: Tall skinny guy from Illinois. Country divided. Fierce partisan fighting. Very gloomy times. Pulls country together. Gets the job done. Hope floats."
I realize that selling a product, whether beer, soap or a candidate, requires boiling the key points down to their essence. Still, the condescension toward voters in that McKinnon quote is palpable.
We opted for change, and, yes, that's a slogan. At the same time, most of us deeply understand the inherent details, starting with foreign policy. That's hardly a "simple narrative construct." Burning the midnight oil at the kitchen table while deciding between medical bills or the mortgage isn't simple, either.
These are complex matters, and we've all experienced the full measure of the past eight years, at home and abroad, not some Cliff's Notes version.
It's indeed historic that an African-American is in the White House for the first time, but let's be clear: he's there because his message and ideas -- "his politics" as McKinnon calls them -- were deemed a better fit by the fully engaged American people than John McCain's tepid offer of a third Bush term.
Obama's worthiness to be president isn't merely skin deep, and it's insulting to float such a suggestion.
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Actually, Obama is nowhere near being a token - he was elected by a landslide.
Steele, on the other hand, is a token - he was appointed by his republican party to try and counteract and attack Obama.
Mark McKinnon pretty much shows the contradictions existing in the Republican Party since the 1950s. The party claims it supports the 'common man' but subsidizes the wealthy, claims it supports the idea of free enterprise but creates laws and regulations that finance Wall Street and Big Business, and talks of supporting equality when it barely recognizes the importance of women and minorities in our society.
Why the Republican Party is still supported and voted for as a political party when it continues to 'screw' the majority of those who support it is amazing to witness. When those who support this party continue to lose their jobs, savings, and homes will they come out of denial and see what the Republican Party has been since 1950 -- for only the weathy and 'deserving' few.
Why would you take betting advice from the guy who put his money on a losing horse? This only explain further why Republicans are so clueless.
It's not as if we should expect one of Bush's people to be able to give profound, analytical insight into any serious topic.
See Jackson Williams's Profile
Thanks for the comments.
I actually understand why Republicans in Congress are dug in. After all, they got reelected by their voters, and we're a representative system. Opposition is part of the process. I get that.
As for the Bush crowd specifically, they are loathe to admit the election was in any way a repudiation of the policies and direction he pursued. After all, his people worked studiously to get him in office and keep him there. Their lives are intertwined with his.
In the absence of an honest admission, their answer is to play up only one thing: the historic nature of Obama's candidacy, as if that's why he won. It does him and the citizens a disservice.
Sure, it's why some of us voted for him, and that's fine. We pick candidates for many reasons. But the main reason he beat McCain is because the American people -- collectively -- preferred his message, his ideas, and felt he was the most qualified to dig us out of the ditch Bush drove us into.
The Bush crowd (most of them, anyway) won't acknowledge this truth. They are now engaged in an early post-presidential effort to get historians to buy into the notion that Obama's win wasn't a rejection of the past eight years, it was a product of history's overwhelming grand sweep.
The historic nature of his win is certainly a glorious element, but he won on points, in the paint, and he'd be the first to tell you
Is it not apparent that Republicans are the most shallow, non intelligent, knee jerk, empty headed group of people we have seen in a very long time? We are dealing with a group whose "value system" skims the surface. Even in their best days, with their better representatives, they were absent from any issues of deep moral conviction, such as the Civil Rights issues of the 60s. In fact, since Reagan, they have been intent of destruction of those gains, perceived by gains by others, that were had through hard work, sweat, and tears.
Where and who was the last Republican leader who offered something constructive and of lasting legacy for the good of this country? Was it Teddy Roosevelt? Today, they offer up "personalities",ie, movie stars, baseball team owners, and charismatic empty headed charmers.
They seem to think they can match, head to head, toe to toe, the Democrats by selecting a woman, any woman and the worst possible woman; a black man because he is black; a dark man because he is dark. Window dressing. Shameful and empty. With one of the smartest and most well informed capable women in the Congress, Olympia Snowe, they selected that other one.
How can anything they do or say be taken seriously or be given any credibility? They are completely demoralized, of their own doing, and offer nothing but a poverty of ideas, values, and their words and behavior do nothing but confirm.
Somebody who worked to get Georgie elected, surely knows a "token" when he sees one. President Obama brought something to the campaign that has been sorely missing in this country, COMMON SENSE and INTEGRITY. He was head and shoulders above McCain in the intelligence and disposition area, and it certainly showed. The best man was elected, not selected by the SC, or voter fraud.
Well written. Obama is not a token. He was the smartest guy on the platform. He had the best ideas. That's what won my vote.
I want to be clear on this - I voted for Obama, both in the primary and in the general election, because I believed him to be the best qualified candidate. Period, end of discussion, turn off the lights and lets go home.
I saw that guy on Hardball. He didn't make any sense. Having no idea how to make McCain look good compared to Obama, I guess he was just excusing himself from an embarrassing loss.
I thought it was just me who thought that he made no sense. BTW President Obama has never been a token.
So he with the best advertising wins, nice. Now I totally understand that instead of sending our fine
young troops into to battle we should draft and send our advertising executives. We'll know we won when their favorite places to eat our fast food joints that make you unhealthy.
It was not President Obama's hue that ushered in his presidency, it was his potential. Like a diamond in the rough, the electorate plucked him from the coal mine of ordinary types. He will be shaped and molded by the times and by the will of the electorate he inspires. If being brown was the only qualification for victory, any brown individual had a shot by that logic. We, the reasonable, know this not to be true. No, it was the accumulated wealth and shape of heart and mind that made Mr. Obama the alluring candidate, the candidate whose collective being most spoke to a nation as the qualities needed in a time where great change is upon us; change of a positive and a negative nature.
He is not without flaws, but that makes him flawless for he knows he has limitations. Yet, he sparkles because he also knows the electorate will bridge the gaps and fill in the holes of imperfection to deliver a brighter future for all. Remember, pressure, heat, and time form diamonds. The world has a ringside seat for the making of the “Obama Flawless”. As the fires of cabinet appointments, failed attempts at bipartisanship, and political intrigue heat up, and the pressures of a collapsing economic system, geopolitical conflict, ecological threats, and societal unrest and mess come to bear, watch as potential for greatness becomes greatness, or witness the rise of the Cubic Zirconium.
Obama is no fake, he is in-process for greatness.
excellent, GrainoSand - and it's reassuring that some americans like you are literate and eloquent.
BB:
You are kind in your praise. Thank you. However, as is my way, I cannot bask in praise for anything I write, nor can I buy into me being representative of the best and the brightest. There are billions who are far more eloquent, literate, and wise than myself. I am average if not below average. My gift is -- for that I love I work hard. I love people and the potential and possibility of life, so I work hard at trying to reflect upon the human condition such that I grow, and if it shall be, such that we as a mass of life grow, beyond our self imposed limitations of heart and mind. If I can write something that informs, brings joy, eases pain or turmoil, then I am pleased to be of service. The Little Drummer Boy had no gift to bring but the simple beat of his drum, and so it is with me and the simple words I offer in this forum.
Peace internal and external, love deep and calming, joy real and lasting, this I project to you from this humble position of life that I maintain.
Beautifully expressed.
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