McCain: experience, experience
Posted: Friday, May 30, 2008 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
CBN's Brody has a sitdown with McCain senior adviser Charlie Black. Check out how many times Black utters the word "experience" in this one answer: "Senator Obama for all his magnetism and appeal is not very experienced and the experience he has had is that of a sort of a conventional, liberal politician. It's hard to find incidents where he has taken political risks to work across party lines or get things done like Sen. McCain has, but it's most important in the area of national security. We've been debating about a Iran and Iraq with him, and Sen. McCain truly believes that if he had more experience and especially if he went to Iraq and got experience meeting with the generals and the troops and seeing what's going on in the ground maybe he would see we shouldn't pull out of Iraq. But as we say, experience informs judgment and it's hard to have good judgment on national security if you have no experience."
Six times in about 30 seconds.
Did all the big papers agree to write big profiles of McCain today? The New York Times focuses on the period when McCain decided to enter politics. Of particular interest is that his mentor was John Tower and that the early friendships he struck up with then-Sens. Bill Cohen and Gary Hart. Both senators, for what it’s worth, are now reliable Democrats or lean Dem.
The Los Angeles Times looks at McCain's decision to run for office in Arizona
The Boston Globe: “McCain, a 45-year-old former Navy officer and decorated prisoner of war, moved to Arizona -- home to his new wife, Cindy, a Phoenix beer heiress -- with little more than a plan to run for Congress. McCain's inaugural campaign and his first, low-profile term in Congress were crucial to the formation of his political identity, according to a review of McCain's congressional papers made available to the Globe.
“Many of the issues McCain first encountered then have stayed with him as a presidential candidate a generation later. He allied himself with environmentalist and immigrant causes popular among Democrats, while showing little zeal for social issues, such as abortion, dear to many Republicans. When it came to national security, McCain feared repeating the quagmire of Vietnam - and believed earning public support was crucial to military success abroad. Far from today's rebellious, self-described maverick who rails jokingly against Washington as the "City of Satan," McCain introduced himself to voters in 1982 as a Capitol insider, based on his three years as the Navy's Senate liaison.”
Bloomberg News writes, “McCain has lost five top aides amid suggestions that his campaign was dominated by lobbyists, a shakeup that's created tension among remaining staffers; his image as a crusader against ‘special interests' has been tarnished; and his response to the first rough patch of his general-election race leaves him vulnerable to further attacks, because lobbyists and former lobbyists continue to help his candidacy, including as fundraisers.”
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting story on McCain's YouTube problem. The most popular McCain YouTube clips are not very flattering.
