McCain Sells Out to The People Who Smeared His Daughter

Back in 2000 John McCain was locked in a struggle against George W. Bush in South Carolina.  Richard H. "Rick" Davis was his campaign manager. That year McCain really had a reasonable claim to be the Maverick he now pretends to be. He had not yet sold out his soul to get his ticket to the White House.

The Bush campaign managed by Karl Rove unleashed one of the worst smears againt McCain. Rick Davis wrote in the Boston Globe:

It's not necessary, however, for a smear to be true to be effective. The most effective smears are based on a kernel of truth and applied in a way that exploits a candidate's political weakness.

It didn't take much research to turn up a seemingly innocuous fact about the McCains: John and his wife, Cindy, have an adopted daughter named Bridget. Cindy found Bridget at Mother Theresa's orphanage in Bangladesh, brought her to the United States for medical treatment, and the family ultimately adopted her. Bridget has dark skin.

Thus, the "pollsters" asked McCain supporters if they would be more or less likely to vote for McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate child who was black. In the conservative, race-conscious South, that's not a minor charge. We had no idea who made the phone calls, who paid for them, or how many calls were made. Effective and anonymous: the perfect smear campaign.

Some aspects of this smear were hardly so subtle. Bob Jones University professor Richard Hand sent an e-mail to "fellow South Carolinians" stating that McCain had "chosen to sire children without marriage." It didn't take long for mainstream media to carry the charge. CNN interviewed Hand and put him on the spot: "Professor, you say that this man had children out of wedlock. He did not have children out of wedlock." Hand replied, "Wait a minute, that's a universal negative. Can you prove that there aren't any?"

That is how Bush won in SC and then went on to win the nomination and the Presidency.

So why is all this relevant to now? Richard Davis was  again managing McCain's campaign now. Except that McCain  pushed Davis aside this week and replaced him  by with   Karl Rove protege. Yes, McCain sold out to  Karl Rove.

Exactly a year after a previous overhaul, the presumptive Republican nominee has marginalised Rick Davis, the campaign manager he put in place then, and handed day-to-day control to a hard-charging veteran of President George W Bush's 2004 successful re-election bid.

Steve Schmidt, a shaven-headed, barrel-chested operative known as "the Bullet", has a reputation for aggressive attacking and counter-attacking.

And what does Karl Rove say about McCain's family now? He is all sweet and admiring.

Though he helped derail Senator McCain’s presidential bid during the 2000 Republican primary, Mr. Rove lavished praise on his party’s presumptive nominee on Friday. He spoke glowingly of Mr. McCain and his wife’s decision to adopt a child from an orphanage in Bangladesh.

Yes, McCain has sold out to the same guy who smeared his daughter. If he can do that, he will do anything to win.  Shame on you,  John McCain!

A side note is that Rove feels it necessary to paint Obama as anti-family and  McCain as the family man. Any doubt that Obama's overtures to the Evangelist Christian base is scaring Rove?

Mr. Rove also took aim Mr. Obama’s recent efforts to court “pro-life and values leaders” and try to “convince them that he’s a reasonable person.”

This is what we are dealing with folks. Karl Rove's machine has taken over the McCain campaign. Do you have any doubt that the worst smears against Obama are under preparation at this very moment? If they made so much out of a dark skinned adopted child of a candidate, just imagine what  they will do to Senator Obama and his family.

This is no time to go wobbly. No time to debate the fine points of FISA. No time to demand purity of our candidate. The Republicans are running scared. They have turned to their ugliest people to correct the long slide in polls. Get ready for the nastiest toughest meanest campaign you have ever seen. We may be ahead now, but this is going to take one hell of a fight.

ADDED: Glenn Greenwald points to evidence that it was the Bush campaign that smeared McCain's daughter back then. Except the mainstream media obfuscates that fact.  Here is an example  of one of the few newspaper articles which  identifies the source of the smear.

UPDATE: Once in a while the old McCain slips out of the body of the new McCain:

MCCAIN BACKS OFF MESSAGE, SAYS OBAMA IS ‘TRUSTWORTHY’

The campaign has hurled several labels at the Illinois senator — but ever since Obama opted out of public financing for the general election, reneging on a previous pledge to take the money, McCain’s campaign has consistently tried to label him as untrustworthy.

Asked if he personally trusts Obama Thursday, McCain said: “I’m sure he’s trustworthy. I admire Senator Obama … I will run a respectful campaign with him.”

OOPS.