Mitt Romney for President My Man Mitt: Will: McCain a Clintonian echo

George Will seems to be joining the chorus of denouncing McCain's baseless attack on Governor Romney. Indeed, he makes the broader claim that McCain has joined the Clintons as conjurers of false claims:

Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, the Clintons should bask in the glow of John McCain's Clintonian gloss on this fact: Ten months ago Romney said that President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki should discuss, privately, "a series of timetables and milestones." That unremarkable thought was twisted by McCain, whose distortions are notably clumsy, as when Romney said, accurately, that he alone among the candidates has had extensive experience in private-sector business. That truth was subjected to McCain's sophistry, and he charged that Romney had said "you haven't had a real job" if you had a military career. If, this autumn, voters must choose between Clinton and McCain, they will face, at least stylistically, an echo, not a choice.
But that dreary scenario need not come to pass. Romney seems to have found his voice as attention turns to the economy, a subject on which McCain seems neither conversant nor eager to become so.

Labels: George Will, John McCain


	4 Comments: Some positive exit polling from Naples... http://naplesnews.com/news/2008/jan/29/exit-polls-find-out-whos-leading-share-you-opinion/ By Anonymous, at January 29, 2008 at 1:23 PM Thank you, George Will. I hope McCain gets what he deserves, which is zero support from conservatives and those who detest Clintonian tactics. By Teej MacArthur, at January 29, 2008 at 1:42 PM Thank you Anon, Add four zeros to each of these numbers and you've got yourself some darn good extrapolated results! Go Mitt!!!! Mitt Romney - 75 John McCain - 52 Rudy Giuliani - 30 Mike Huckabee - 11 Fred Thompson - 3 By Anonymous, at January 29, 2008 at 1:51 PM John Kerry: McCain Approached Me About Joining Dem Ticket in 2004 On Monday afternoon I had the chance to speak with Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democratic Party's nominee for President in 2004. During the interview, which covers a range of topics and which I will be posting later this afternoon, an item of particular interest jumped out at me: According to Sen. Kerry, it was John McCain's staff who approached his campaign about potentially filling the Vice President slot on the Democratic ticket in 2004. Take a listen to and a look at the interchange... Go to http://mydd.com/story/2007/4/3/11936/97033 to hear John Kerry giving this interview. Jonathan Singer: There's a story in The Hill, I think on Tuesday, by Bob Cusack on the front page of the paper talking about how John McCain's people -- John Weaver -- had approached Tom Daschle and a New York Congressman, I don't remember his name, about switching parties. And I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what your discussions were with him in 2004, how far it went, who approached whom... if there was any "there" there. John Kerry: I don't know all the details of it. I know that Tom, from a conversation with him, was in conversation with a number of Republicans back then. It doesn't surprise me completely because his people similarly approached me to engage in a discussion about his potentially being on the ticket as Vice President. So his people were active -- let's put it that way. Singer: Okay. And just to confirm, you said it, but this is something they approached you rather than... Kerry: Absolutely correct. John Weaver of his shop... [JK answers phone] As you might know from reading my posts in the past, I don't usually addend my own thoughts to my interviews. I like to think they speak for themselves. But in light of the fact that I have written about a closely-related subject and I think this item is particularly newsworthy, if you'll oblige me I'd like to write a few words here. For many Republicans, it has been bad enough that John McCain has voted and worked with Democrats against the majority of Republican Senators on a number of occasions in recent years. For Republicans, I would imagine that reports that he approached the Democrats about leaving the Senate GOP caucus in 2001 represent a borderline unpardonable offense. But it seems that reaching out to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee to talk about running on that party's ticket would be tantamount to the highest form of political treason to Republicans. Certainly, I would assume that McCain's campaign will deny Kerry's account of their interactions. In fact I would be surprised if they didn't push back on this story, as they did to the story in The Hill last week. (A call for comment to the McCain campaign was not returned before the time this story was published.) That said, at least from my vantage this story could hardly come at a worse time for McCain. - Thank you to http://www.mydd.com By Charles Ratliff, at January 29, 2008 at 5:09 PM Post a Comment