The race had been close, and although both candidates made noises about waging a dignified campaign, the barbs were getting sharper. Frustrated that he could not make much progress against his opponent, John McCain cashed in his "war hero" credentials and started lying about his opponent on Iraq. When challenged, McCain said his opponent owed those serving in Iraq an apology.
Last week?
No: January 2008.
The opponent was Mitt Romney.
McCain was accusing Romney of wanting a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq, a position that McCain now supports and one which the Iraqis were pushing for at that time (and before).
Then, as now, John McCain was lying:
In an interview with ABC News in 2007, Romney said: "There's no question that the president and (Iraqi) Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn't be for public pronouncement. You don't want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you're going to be gone."
The executives have to have goals, but public or fixed timetables are a bad idea. That's what Romney said, and McCain knew it. Even Brit Hume called McCain out on it.
Just as McCain claimed he never uses his POW status for political gain, yet mentions it at every opportunity, he also abuses his somewhat inexplicable reputation for straight talk, but only when he gets into trouble.
McCain, you see, hadn't been in a close political contest since 1982. Everything else in his political life has been handed to him. Between his status as a POW and his wife's money, he's impervious and self-propelled. But when that easy life rubs away, McCain lashes out.
Polls show McCain and Romney locked in a tight fight for the lead in a state that offers the winner a hefty 57 delegates to the GOP's nominating convention next summer and a shot of energy heading into a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.
In Orlando, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor trailing in polls and trying to climb his way back into the leaders pack, sought to take the high road. "If you listen to my opponents, it's getting kind of nasty," Giuliani said in Orlando. "I'm going to try to remain positive."
With economic troubles dominating the race, McCain opened the new line of criticism against Romney at his first event of the day in Fort Myers, Fla., and sought to shift the campaign back to his strength, national security, and away from Romney's, the economy.
First, he slapped at Romney without naming him during a question-and-answer session with Floridians, saying: "Now, one of my opponents wanted to set a date for withdrawal that would have meant disaster."
Sound familiar? McCain knows he's lying.
He doesn't show any sign of slowing up, either.
Marc Ambinder, et al., think that this is not only happening, but that it's a bad idea for John McCain:
USA Today calls a new McCain ad "a marker on the path toward the kind of simplistic, counterproductive demonizing that many expect will poison the fall campaign." Andrea Mitchell of NBC News describes the McCain campaign's latest ad, about Obama and injured troops, "literally not true."
The contempt that many McCain aides hold for Barack Obama rivals the contempt that McCain held for Mitt Romney a year ago. McCain's advisers know that McCain is apt to treat those held in contempt contemptuously, but no inside McCain's campaign believes that aggressively negative television ads and McCain's public dismissals will "damage one of the most unique and most popular brands in American politics."
The cadre of McCain allies who aren't part of the campaign are very worried. They believe that McCain's current crop of advisers are playing to his worse instincts, particularly his pride and his ego. When McCain is privately content, he comes across publicly as happy-go-lucky and magnanimous; satisfied; when he is combative, he comes off as combative and reactive. They worry that he is obsessed with Obama's character and willing to attribute motives to Obama that are simply unbelievable outside of an echo chamber filled with those who are predisposed to believe Obama's a phony.
[emphasis mine]
First, McCain knuckled under to Bush. Eight years under the Karl Rove machine has simply broken the man. Hell, eight years ago he wouldn't stand up for his adopted daughter, which makes his tough-guy posturing so funny. Why would anyone think John McCain would stand up for them?
Now McCain has become Bush, an embittered, emotional child who lies through his teeth to get whatever he wants.
McCain 2000 is dead.
.