This is the John McCain that I liked in 2000. He was thoughtful and caring. We saw just a touch of this in the election but we also saw the very ugly John McCain in the election. John McCain lost this election because he was trying to be the neocon that he is NOT. He was trying to embrace Bush when in fact he needed to separate himself from Bush. He was trying to walk a tightrope that was just too thin to walk.
I’ve read a ton of political books from both end of the political spectrum over the past five years. From the nauseating Sean Hannity’s “Deliver us from Evil” (as it turns out Hannity didn’t even write the book, it was ghost written for him) to the enlightened Molly Irvins’ “Shrub.” One of the books that I will not be reading is Jerome Corsi’s “Obama Nation.”
Corsi is a right-wing neocon who uses the most inflammatory language to discuss liberals. He is also the author of the 100 percent discredited book “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.” This book holds the award for the biggest pile of crap ever shoveled into the American mainstream. Almost nothing in that book was true. I’m sure that “Obama Nation” will follow the same pattern.
In the meantime, there are several books that I will recommend in the coming days.
Update: Senator Barack Obama and his camp have refused to be swift-boated by this moron again. John Kerry didn’t respond until the damage had been done. Obama already has a 41-page rebuttal: “Unfit for Publication.”
We could have used our Carnac the Magnificent impression to predict the White House’s response. Scott McLellan is bitter. He wasn’t in the loop. Dana Perino released a statement in which she threw McClellan under the bus: “Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House. For those of us who fully supported him, before, during and after he was press secretary, we are puzzled. It is sad — this is not the Scott we knew.”
The rest of the White House staff and some former staff have been lining up against McClellan.
Okay, here’s the interesting thing in my book (pun intended): McClellan has been out of the White House for over two years. He had several opportunities to smack the president around for whatever wrongs he thought the president committed, but he didn’t. He could have gone on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and said that President Bush was an ostrich with his head in the sand, but he didn’t. As a matter of fact, he went out of his way a couple of months ago NOT to bash the president. So, what’s the deal? I believe that McClellan didn’t necessarily drink from the neocon well of ideology BUT he had faith in Bush. He believed in Bush (and perhaps still does). Bush that let him down. Now, I have no evidence to prove this. This is what I believe.
Think Progress has a number of examples where the White House has lashed out at former Executive Branch employees.
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill
WROTE: Bush planned to invade Iraq before 9/11 and was like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people during Cabinet meetings.
SMEAR: “We didn’t listen to [O’Neill’s] wacky ideas when he was in the White House, why should we start listening to him now?” — A senior official who informed Bush of O’Neill’s comments, 1/12/04
Former Campaign Chief Strategist Matthew Dowd
SAID: Bush has “become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in”; that “our leaders have to understand what they [the American public] want. They’re saying, ‘Get out of Iraq.’”
SMEAR: “He’s going through a lot of personal turmoil but also he has a son who is soon to be deployed to Iraq. That could only impact a parents’ mind as they think through these issues.” — Dan Bartlett, 4/1/07
Former Counter-Terrorism Chief Richard Clarke
WROTE: Bush “ignored terrorism for months”; sought to tie 9/11 to Iraq immediately.
SMEAR: “He wanted to be the deputy secretary of the Homeland Security Department after it was created. … He did not get that position, someone else was appointed to it. … His best friend is Rand Beers, who is the principal advisor to the Kerry campaign.” — Scott McClellan, while serving as press secretary, 3/22/04