Perhaps he's given up waiting for George Bush's bounce. Or perhaps he's just looking for a Senator he can love more than Harry Reid. But--somehow--Broder convinced himself that McCain has bounced back to his Straight-Talk-Express days of 2000.
Straight Talking Again
After years of cozying up to the man in the White House, and emerging (for better or worse) as the most eloquent defender of Bush's current strategy in Iraq, McCain this week reverted suddenly and dramatically to his 1999-2000 role as the leading Republican critic of politics as usual.
When he said, in summing up his indictment of present-day Washington, that he wants to change "a bloated, irresponsible and incompetent government," no one could have doubted whose record he meant.
It is a big gamble on McCain's part, but a necessary one. The closer his ties to Bush have become, the more his standing in the polls has slumped. And an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll this week found that more Republicans believe that McCain would follow Bush's policies closely than believe Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney would.
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But for John McCain, there must be at least some relief now in being able to speak his own mind -- whatever the consequences. Candor, even belatedly, becomes him.
The logic here escapes me on a couple of essential points:
- I fail to see the courage--let alone the "big gamble"--in distancing himself from a president who gets a failing performance review from 2/3 of the American public.
- On the issue that currently looks to matter most in 2008--Iraq--McCain isn't distancing himself from the president at all, but hugging his leg even tighter. And on that issue, McCain isn't "eloquently defending" the president--he's supporting the surge because, as he admits himself, he can't think of a "Plan B."
This isn't the sound of a man "speaking his mind"--it's the sound of a man desperately trying to claw his way out of the hole he's dug for himself.
Given his recent record, David Broder's seal of approval seems more like a kiss of death. But right now, I guess that's the best McCain can do.