McCain's Desperate Smears Signal His Failure as a Leader Under Pressure

John McCain has failed yet another leadership test. This time, it was on how he responds under the pressure of a crisis.

A little more than two weeks ago, Barack Obama took a commanding lead in the Rasmussen daily tracking poll, an advantage he has steadily built on ever since. (Obama's 52 percent to 44 percent lead as of today is larger than any advantage held by George W. Bush or John Kerry at any point in the 2004 general election campaign.) This turn of events came after months of the race being steadily tight, with neither candidate taking a lead of more than a handful of percentage points. McCain's campaign was staggered by a two-punch combination of the candidate's unsteady handling of the financial crisis (There is no problem! There is a problem! I'm suspending my campaign! I'm going to Washington! I scuttled the deal! I'm not debating! Okay, I'll debate!) and the public perception of his ticket's defeat in both the first presidential debate (in which McCain looked angrier than Lou Piniella after the Dodgers sweep) and the vice presidential debate (in which Sarah Palin did a pitch-perfect impression of a female version of Ron Burgundy).

So with McCain's campaign in a freefall, with polls in swing states moving in Obama's direction, and with the electoral college map steadily collapsing in on McCain, and with the election less than a month away, McCain had time for one last major move, one last gesture to stop the bleeding and try and turn around the runaway train leading his campaign off of a cliff. This was a time for McCain to show his mettle, to demonstrate how he reacts in a time of crisis. And what did McCain choose to do? He opted to viciously attack Obama's character with recycled lies and distortions, all in an effort to get Obama and the media to stop talking about important issues like the economic crisis.

In other words, McCain failed the grace-under-pressure test.

In fact, he failed it in two regards. Obviously, on the surface, it is disgraceful that someone who was viciously and disgustingly smeared in 2000 by Bush, and who obviously was deeply wounded by the attacks, would then turn around eight short years later and do the exact same thing to another candidate. Aside from the hypocrisy of the whole thing, the electorate should reject the attempt of a candidate to engage in personal and false attacks on the character of his opponent, all while important issues, including an economic crisis and two wars, demand attention. This tactic, in and of itself, should provoke a negative reaction from voters.

But there is really an even bigger tactical blunder in McCain's latest desperation heave (the third or fourth since 2007, depending on what you include on the list). The effort is, in a word, lame. Bush proved in 2000 and again in 2004 that lies and smears can be effective. But the caveat to that rule is that the smut-tossing has to be done in a smart, calculated manner. McCain's attacks this week have been awkward, clumsy and ill-conceived, more likely to blow up in his campaign's face rather than in his opponent's camp.

McCain and his talking-points-reading running mate have decided to smear Obama with false charges that he was friends with Bill Ayers, who, when Obama was eight years old, was a member of the Weather Underground. They are also once again bringing up the incendiary remarks of the retired pastor of Obama's former church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

These attacks are recycled, having played out at length during the Democratic primary. So Obama not only successfully came up with solutions back then, explaining that he condemned Ayers's actions and never had any relationship with him, and eventually leaving Wright's church and condemning Wright's words, after giving an eloquent and insightful speech on the roll of race in modern society, but he now has the benefit of time and trial-and-error to craft an equally effective response to McCain's warmed-over sleazy attacks.

But an even more dramatic tactical error by McCain was his failure to realize that he and his running mate have skeletons in their closets that are far larger than the ones trumped up against Obama. And in many cases, the charges against the Republican ticket are newer and fresher to this campaign.

For McCain himself, by dredging up these old distortions of Obama's record, he has opened the door for Obama to introduce a whole new generation to McCain's involvement in the savings and loan scandal of the late 1980s that necessitated a bailout by the government that eventually cost more than $500 billion. McCain, as a member of the so-called Keating Five, was criticized by the Senate for his role in the fall of one of the biggest thrifts, Lincoln Savings and Loan. (In fact, the Obama campaign just released a video detailing McCain's involvement in the scandal.) At a time when voters are fleeing from McCain because of his poor handling of the current financial crisis precipitated by financial industry failures, the last thing he needed was a reminder that he played a leading role in a large, similar debacle 20 years ago.

And Paul Begala revealed on Meet the Press on Sunday that in the 1980s, McCain served on the board of the ultra-conservative U.S. Council for World Freedom, which was denounced by the Anti-Defamation League for its ties to anti-Semitic and racists organizations. Certainly, McCain's actual conduct trumps the fact that Obama occasionally found himself in situations with Ayers.

The past conduct of Palin and her husband offers a treasure trove of affiliations that far exceed in actuality any of the events of Obama's life that have been distorted by the McCain campaign. On the wacky religious front, Palin has credited a pastor who protected her from witchcraft (you can see him do it here) with helping her become governor. If that was the whole tale, it would just be one of those funny, wacky items to provide some amusement. But the story is much more dangerous than that. A longer clip of the preacher's sermon shows his belief that the church's teachings should infiltrate the country's culture, economics, politics, education, media and government, accusing the "Israelites" of doing so already. And this is the same church that on August 17 of this year welcomed Jews for Jesus leader David Brickner, who blamed terrorist attacks on Israel as being punishment from God for not believing in Christianity. Brickner said: "Judgment is very real and we see it played out on the pages of the newspapers and on the television. It's very real. When [Brickner's son] was in Jerusalem he was there to witness some of that judgment, some of that conflict, when a Palestinian from East Jerusalem took a bulldozer and went plowing through a score of cars, killing numbers of people. Judgment -- you can't miss it." As much as the McCain campaign thinks Ayers and Wright will scare the Jewish grandmothers and grandfathers in Florida, I'm sure the goings on at Palin's church (which she has yet to denounce) will seem even scarier.

And the membership of Palin's husband in the Alaska Independence Party, which advocates for the secession of Alaska from the union, and Palin's recording, as governor, of a welcoming address for the party's convention, in which she praises its work, is far more damning than anything Obama has done, either in actuality or according to the McCain campaign's smears. Again, Obama barely knows Ayers, but the Republican candidate for the vice presidency has expressed support for a party, one in which her husband was a member for seven years, that no longer wants to be a part of the United States, and whose leader, Joe Vogler, has espoused anti-American sentiments that are every bit as incendiary as what Rev. Wright said. (A sample from Vogler: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government.")

In the end, when McCain faced the biggest crisis of his general election campaign, he was, in effect, being given a test of how he would respond under pressure to an adverse situation. And what did he do? He chose a morally indefensible strategy based on lies and distortions, and the strategy was poorly conceived and sure to be ineffective.

In other words, McCain failed the test miserably. No voter, not Democrats, independents or Republicans, should want McCain to apply these kind of knee-jerk, dishonorable, ineffective tactics to the problems facing the country.

If Americans want any hope of changing the culture of failed leadership that the United States has endured for the last eight years, they have to reject a candidate who has allowed himself to fall into the gutter, and who has displayed an acute lack of understanding of what is needed in a challenging time. McCain's decision to personally smear Obama with lies and distortions should go down in history as the final nail in his political coffin. Let's hope it does.

Comments

[Serena2008]

I have never voted in my life, for the first time I will vote for "that one". He does not talk to the American People as if we are in 3rd grade and cannot comprehend what he is talking about,.

McCain go to bed before you have a stroke on national television. Take your pathetic running mate out of the television spot light. She is not helping you at all.

[lion1]

McCains performance at the 2nd Presidential debate in the town hall format was absolutely FLAT and un-inspiring.

The blatant smears and outright lies thrown at Barack Obama by John McCain were handled brilliantly by Barack Obama.

Clearly , Barack Obama came out on top with a excellent performance.

Barack Obama has shown AGAIN tonight that he is the man to become the next President of the United States.

[GrainOSand]

Obama’s best debate performance to date, he did himself and his country proud. No matter the outcome, I will remember this night. The man is ready to lead.

[anothervoice2]

The real deal on McBush:

http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/player/23356460

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain

[lion1]

As President Nixon once prophetically uttered in May 1961 - The plea for security could well become a cloak for errors, misjudgements and other failings of government.

Look at McCains endorsement of W and the Republican Party failings while in government in the last 8 years - The US financial crises - 1.6 trillion black hole in peoples retirement savings wiped out, the Iraqi disaster need anthing more be said?

[itmaybetoolate]

I wouldn't underestimate the tricks they up their sleeves - vote early!!

[danelle1]

McCain’s campaign in 2008 biggest failure was not being able to operate coherently, logically, and with substance. As mentioned his erratic behavior during the first finical crisis just showed how out of touch he was with the problem. His supposedly claiming to stop his campaign (while not stopping campaigning) to deal with the recent finical crisis sonly spotlighted his ignorance and inability to do anything meaningful.

His illogical “Hail Mary” selection of Sarah Palin was a sacrificial offering to the religious right. The religious right hated the prospect of a McCain candidacy, especially after his past graft against such institute. This leads the no religious radicals scratching their heads about such a change, and question McCain’s true “Straight Talk” abilities.

Then we have substance. McCain loves to use he was a P.O.W. but what has he done for our veterans? McCain has a substantial record of voting against veteran benefits, yet is so willing to proclaim he was a P.O.W., like being such automatically grants him the military vote. McCain not only lacks substance here, but did the most grievances of sins; he lost the faith with his fellow warriors. He sold them out for his benefit, for his achievement, and for his glory.

[Rekih]

Actually, I understand McCain has one more strategy. After seeing the latest electoral map, he has decided to ask for the blue color this year.

[jusion]

The McCain-Palin campaign is finally taking the gloves off and attacking Obama's radical leftism. No known leftist has ever been elected President, despite regularly leading in pre-election polls. Liberal democrat presidential candidates get exposed before election day and lose. Americans vote on one day, early voting notwithstanding.
Most Americans do not live and die for politics like most of the HuffPo's readers. They know that they don't have to, because they have voted before; spotted the leftist and prevented the leftist from owning the nukes. They know its not hard to spot the leftist, ans that they can do so near in time to the election. McCain knows this too.
The truth about this leftist liberal is being boldly exposed for one and all to plainly see who and what Barack Obama really is. People are shifting their attention to the campaign. This is when it happens. Behold its glory.
And 4 years from now as we approach another election cycle, please remember that October before the election is early enough do all the stuff we want everyday and win the presidential election and remember all the pre-election polls that passed for daily sustenance that were wrong.

[Unrepentantliberal]

Of course a leftist has been elected President, not once but four times. His name was Franklin Roosevelt and he was considered by the rich as a 'traitor to his class.' The rest of us call him one of the greatest Presidents ever.

[Danny]

YES.

[jusion]

FDR was a "leftist'? That's a new one. Being a Democrat doesn't necessarily make one a leftist (e.g. John Kennedy, Bill Clinton).

[Salz08]

The truth? Are you kidding? ALL the nonsense being spouted by the McCain campaign has been brought to light in the past, examined and rejected as either blatant lies, manipulations of facts and misrepresentations of snippets of statements.

What a ridiculously delusional statement. Most of us here do not live and die for politics. Rather we are thinking people that do not wish to see our country further destroyed by the neocons and their minions.

[MissStorm]

"brought to light in the past, examined"

MSLIBERALM: Did you have a relationship with with Ayers?

Obama: He was a neighbor of mine.

MSLM: AH, that's what I thought, next question...

What do you have to say about Rev Wrights anti-American rants?

Obama: In all of my 20 years of going to his church I never heard him speak that way.

MSLM: I didn't think so...

[djsue]

Jusion:

If this is the truth as you know it, why the heck do you care if we delude ourselves?

If McCain is elected, it won't be just liberals that go down with the ship. We will just be able to say "We Told You So", to the Right Wingers as we all wait in line for our soup.

What we are going through now is only the rehearsal.

[Partisan59]

People are shifting their attention to the campaign and Obamas numbers are going up.
The only thing people new to this are seeing is the same venomous, hate spewing vile, crap that the Republicans live and breath.

[nk007]

jusion

I am sure you are proud of what your right wing nuts have done to America. Americans are not all stupid. They know who has been in charge of the country that is now on the brink of a Depression. You can spew all your lies and racial hatred of Barak Obama, but most of us working stiffs are tired of the Republican games. We are ready to reclaim the country and focus on the real needs of the people instead of your ideological rants. Unless you still this election, as you did in 2000 and 2004, you may be the one sitting at home crying while you "Behold" the "glory" of the awakened Americans who will no longer buy into your lies and smears to distract them from the real problems that need to be solved.

[ThirdEye]

It's just a good thing he didn't have his hand on the "BUTTON" when Georgia attacked Russia.

[doctordoubt]

Most of us would think without any effort, about how nice that man was, how he respected us when we spoke, how he listened with real attention when we tried to express a deep held feeling. Most of us like that kind of person. However, to this point in time, the aging senator has only his own greed and grandiose expectations in mind. That he doesn't care what the country feels is as obvious as the words he uses against his opponet. As obvious as his runing mates lack of ability, class, concern for other women. This pair is maybe the worst thing to happen to this country since the civil war. There is little time left, and a great deal to do. Let us be about it.

[heavysole]

What is most amazing is that cindy McCain has the gall to claim Barack Obama has been running the dirtiest campaign in her memory. I'm not kidding, just incredible. The Republicans will stop at nothing when it comes to projecting their own failures and short-comings.

[Txtippy]

I agree. It's got me shaking my head in disbelief!!! Just too hard to comprehend her blatant lies!

[Articulator]

I've noticed a pattern. Every time a legitimate complaint comes out against Mccain/Palin (like running a negative campaign - one of many), the next day or so the Mccain campaign starts falsely making the same claim against Obama. It's nothing more than a campaign tactic on their side obviously designed to confuse the un-inforned voters (their voting base). Just start paying attention and you'll see it. So sad.

[redpepper]

Why is it always a smear tactic when the Republicans come out swining and using negative ads, but its okay for the Democrats to use smear tactics?

[Kristi23]

Have you watched Sara Palin on the campaign trail or any video tapes from McCains trail in the last few days?????

Spreading hate , and that is exactly what Palin is doing by basically accusing Obama of pallin' around with terrorists, or while people shout in the audience kill em, or terrorist, or treason is a very dangerouse slipperly slope sort of just "negative" attacks. Not once to Palin or McCain say whoa, hold on a minute or we are not suggesting..... But guess what they are suggesting, in fact planting the seed just waiting for it to grow.

If you don't think the KKK or White supremacy is still alive and well in this country, then think again. It's the Joe Six Packs that I am scared of who take this kind of propoganda and run with it.

[ScreenName05]

Good question. 1. The Republicans always do it first. They get desperate because they cannot tell the electorate where they really stand, as they generally do not stand in the right place. 2. The Republicans tend to lean toward amoral assaults that ignore any credible facts. 3. The Republicans smears are always self serving. While presented in a manner to help the electorate make a good decision, they are always intended to aide the speaker. 4. The Republicans are the worst of the flip floppers. They are willing to criticize on any issue while having supported that issue for years. For example, John McCain now supports regulations for the banking industry. For the last 25 years he has been a good Regan Republican, deregulating the banking industry. Its called being two faced. 5. The Republicans hide behind religion and talk radio, playing on weak and informed peoples delusions in order to get them to vote against their interests. 6. The Republicans generally support their constituencies - the greedy bastards running the oil companies, the insurance companies, the banks, the military industrial complex, the pharmaceuticals, the big health care companies...

The Democrats on the other hand generally use smear tactics as a defense against Republican attack agents. They also have a tendency to do the research and get their facts straight. The Democrats generally support the interests of their constituencies - the American People.

Thanks for asing.

[ritenow]

BRAVO, ScreenName05!!!

[Mitchell Bard - Huffpost Blogger]

Perfectly said. Anyone who makes the argument that both sides are dirty is either completely lying or completely has her head jammed into the sand.

[Unrepentantliberal]

And just what negative ad or remark as Obama made about John McCain? I'm waiting. No, smearing people is the only thing republicans know how to do with any competence what so ever.

[djsue]

Redpepper,

1. It's called Tit for Tat.

2. Don't start none-won't be none.

3. What's good for the goose, is good for the gander.

I thought we were the ones who whined.

[MissStorm]

The better question is since when is it smear, or negative to tell the truth!

[Kristi23]

Well said again Bard!

Sometimes you have the doo doo up to your eyeballs before you realize you can't breathe. I feel suffocated by this whole campaign and feel like I don't want Obama's gloves to come off or even counter attack.

I respect that he does stick more to the issue and it only defines him more for change and leadership than fear and failure. Besides you would have to have been living in the same cave that Osama Bin Ladan has been hiding out in ( how does he get HIS news???) anyway to not know enough of the facts to vote right now.

And if you don't, I implore you to re-watch the VP debate an instill that fear in yourself. The fear that says, this fargo speakin, putin rearin, near and dear to my heart winkin woman is less than a hearbeat away from the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Did you get that, THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

And I am guessing ole Palin and I aren't praying to the same God, but my prayer goes like this, please don't let the same ideologies, hype, and fear that drove us to insanity 8 years ago, rear it's ugly head. If so give it a valium, not it down with a sixer and hope you wake up saner on election day!

[JNS]

Why did it take so long for the information on McCain's ties to the U.S. Council for World Freedom to be discovered? Are there ANY MSM journalists in this country doing their jobs? Or are they too afraid to dredge up anything that might run counter to their corporate mission statements?

[klo]

I'll bite.
Maybe its been out there for a while.
But the Dem nominee wanted the campaign to be about the issues that affect all of us and not about the associations people have had over the years. Once Palin and McCain started with the guilt by association attacks, could it be that the lights were turned up and the party was allowed to get started?
McCain's two radical associations...One with the anti semitic group and the other with a former Vietnam protestor. And of course the Keating issue, Casino issue, Abramoff and Reed, more lobbyist than you could swing a cat at and the lovely Mr. Rove and his band of miscreants.
And the Palins (I reference both since he helps her do her job and would likely expect to continue assisting were she to be become VP or Pres by sitting in on meetings and consulting afterward) and their AIP association, which we got a whiff of a few weeks back but it went away and has been lying low and her church association which she doesn't seem to be distancing herself from.
My question is, is there more?

[schmuckwithearlaps]

If I had McCain's ear today, I would just have one thing to tell him. "Sen. McCain, please do not embarrass me as an American". I am an old timer and I have had some degree of respect for Republican pols since Eisenhower. But tonight, I fear that McCain will be humiliating not only himself, his party, but all of America with gutter sniping. I dread this town hall tonight with the planted questions about keeping America safe and free from terrorism and all the code words that will go along with it. Why I am afraid that after tonight Nixon and Bush Sr, Jerry Ford and Reagan will stand ten feet taller than McCain? Tonight is his chance to become one of the most despised political figures in American history and he will not miss that chance.

[ScreenName05]

I disagree, McCain will be in good company. Personally as an old person I blame Nixon, Bush Sr, Jerry Ford, Reagan, and Bush Jr, for the hell they have created. They created the current depression. They supported using the military industrial complex to get what ever their friends wanted. They took America down the road of failure that we are currently on. I am sure Mr. McCain will do his best to join them.

And do not confuse Mr. Eisenhower with this group. Eisenhower was the last real Republican conservative to hold the office. He knew that infrastructure investment supported America - that is why we have an interstate highway system. He refused to invest in the short term thinking so reminiscent of the new group. "its my money and I am going to keep it." "We don't need no education system, just let them home school or voucher." He warned of the dangers of investing too heavily in the military industrial complex. Too bad there is nobody like him in the Republican party today.

[muggles5]

I can't argue with the trend of the GOP's impact on the country. However, I would argue that if the war in Vietnam, for which Kennedy and Johnson bore equal responsibility, were removed from the picture, we would be seeing Nixon as one of the major liberal figures of the 20th century. His political crimes, and the horrific lies and crimes of his foreign policy, understandably distract, and legitimately make less creditable, his social policy record at home. Nonetheless, from whatever motive, Nixon signed and in some cases promulgated major pieces of legislation and policy which expanded, rather than undermined as Reagan did, the liberal policy agenda of Johnson's presidency. On the environment, on subisidized housing, on education, on health care... Nixon was no leftist, but he's not even close to the posture of Reagan and the two Bushes. Even Clinton looks conservative in comparison.

A lying, paranoid, selfish bastard willing to see hundreds of thousands die for his sense of being a player on the global stage... yes, all of these things. But really a neo-liberal, closer to Johnson than we might care to think.