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McCain Abandons Promise to Run Respectful Campaign

By TChris, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:43:06 PM EST
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On July 25, the question was:

If this is McCain's notion of a respectful campaign, what will we see if he decides to get nasty?

Now we have the answer.

The McCain campaign has now shifted virtually 100 percent of his national ad spending into negative ads attacking Obama, a detailed breakdown of his ad buys reveals. By contrast, the Obama campaign is devoting less than half of his spending on ads attacking McCain. More than half of its spending is going to a spot that doesn't once mention his foe.

John McCain has consistently breached his promise to run a respectful campaign. Now the promise has been abandoned. Going negative is all he has left.

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    McCain Abandons Promise to Run Respectful Campaign | 35 comments (35 topical)

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    Negative != disrespectful n/t (5.00 / 1) (#12)
    by rilkefan on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:53:10 PM EST


    I completely agree (none / 0) (#15)
    by abdiel on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 05:37:57 PM EST
    McCain has to go negative because he's going to lose and the election will be very ugly for Republicans.  But negative isn't the same as disrespectful - McCain has never made Obama's faith or race an issue.  

    It's very hypocritical to claim McCain is being disrespectful and somehow that is a Republican trait.  The things said about Sarah Palin are a shame to Democrats if we're talking about "respect", especially when it seemed she might make a difference.  

    This site was not particularly happy with the way Hillary was treated either, I might add.  Obama's campaign hasn't exactly been the paragon of respect.

    [ Parent ]

    Democrats at large have not been disrespectful (none / 0) (#16)
    by samtaylor2 on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 05:56:14 PM EST
    She can't answer basic questions- pointing that out is not being disrespectful.  Laughing at it is not disrespectful.  What is disrespectful, is putting someone in a place of power that is completely unqualified (not due to experience) but obvious intellectual inabilties.  Being highly intelligent should be considered a major pre-requisite for the job.

    Can you point to a major political figure in the democratic party that has said mean or disrespectful things about her?  

    The attacks on Clinton were completely different- they were personal and ugly.  Clinton could not only hold her own and answer any question thrown at her, she made other's (including the candiate I supported) sometimes look less knowledgable.    Imagine if Senatory Clinton had given an interview like Palin did with Couric, there would be universal recognition that she was not ready and bad for this country.

    Furthermore, I personally believe that in the case of Obama, the word elitist is a more acceptable code word then uppidity.  

    [ Parent ]

    I think (none / 0) (#33)
    by jar137 on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 03:57:58 PM EST
    that laughing at someone's comments/inability to respond is disrespectful.  Commenting on one's comments is fine, but to me laughing at someone derisively is never respectful.  And I think it's cheap.

    [ Parent ]
    "somehow that is a Republican trait" (none / 0) (#17)
    by rilkefan on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 06:10:42 PM EST
    No somehow about it - the Rs have been negative in the bad sense since at least Gingrich, and on the whole really since Nixon.  I'm just addressing the assumption above that "negative" means, a priori, "nasty".

    [ Parent ]
    Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton (none / 0) (#20)
    by befuddledvoter on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 06:33:45 PM EST


    [ Parent ]
    Sarah Palin is no. . . (none / 0) (#29)
    by LarryInNYC on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 09:05:56 PM EST
    Chelsea Clinton.  She's no Dewitt Clinton, nor any George Clinton either.

    [ Parent ]
    apples and oranges (none / 0) (#24)
    by Iris on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 07:52:50 PM EST
    The examples of 'disrespect' coming from Obama were things like...saying Hillary was "likable enough."  At the time it might have seemed disrespectful, but...

    It's a far cry from McCain's nasty, lying campaign which has peddled falsehoods at every turn and tried to turn Obama into a cartoon caricature.

    [ Parent ]

    I'm surprised (none / 0) (#1)
    by TomStewart on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:49:50 PM EST
    he's waited this long. He's always been an angry and spiteful person, now his private persona has caught up with his public one.

    McCain's school nickname. . . (none / 0) (#2)
    by LarryInNYC on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:50:52 PM EST
    was McNasty.  Sad to say, he hasn't changed.

    I read (none / 0) (#18)
    by cal1942 on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 06:15:06 PM EST
    that he had two nicknames in school.  The other one was Punk

    [ Parent ]
    Really? (none / 0) (#27)
    by BrassTacks on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 08:29:19 PM EST
    McCain was that cool?  Seems hard to believe.

    I thought it was Obama who promised to not run a negative  campaign and bring everyone together.  

    [ Parent ]

    Every McCain ad I've ever seen... (none / 0) (#3)
    by desertswine on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:52:48 PM EST
    has been a negative one except for in the very beginning of his campaign when he showed grainy film of himself as a prisoner of war.

    I don't think the "The One" ads (none / 0) (#13)
    by sj on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 05:13:00 PM EST
    or the Paris Hilton ads were negative really.  They were poked fun, but weren't vicious.  

    But I forget, did those actually run on TV or were they internet only?

    [ Parent ]

    No kidding? He's behind. (none / 0) (#4)
    by andgarden on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:56:57 PM EST


    Sure it's to be expected (none / 0) (#7)
    by Faust on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:09:39 PM EST
    but it has to make you laugh that he bothered to promise a respectful campaign at the beginning. I mean...he IS running for the GOP.

    [ Parent ]
    Breaking news: politician breaks promise! (5.00 / 4) (#8)
    by andgarden on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:11:44 PM EST
    heh.

    I only laugh at the people who believed him.

    [ Parent ]

    Breaking news: Republicans try to win (none / 0) (#25)
    by Iris on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 07:56:18 PM EST
    with dirty lying smear campaign.  Remember John Kerry extending a hand to Bush in his convention speech?  Then came "Swift Boat Veterans For Truth."

    [ Parent ]
    That doesn't mean. . . (none / 0) (#30)
    by LarryInNYC on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 09:08:23 PM EST
    it's not worthwhile to call him on it and to acquaint people with the fact that he's a lying bastard.

    [ Parent ]
    100% agreed, n/t (none / 0) (#34)
    by Iris on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 04:03:00 PM EST


    [ Parent ]
    Will it work? (none / 0) (#5)
    by blogtopus on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 03:58:31 PM EST
    Hard to say. All he has to do is call Obama a goatf***er and the Hope campaign will have to spend time and money denying it.

    If McCain wins because of this, it will be the true victory for Newt. I'm hoping at some point we can negate that movement.

    Of course it won't work, the MSM (none / 0) (#28)
    by BrassTacks on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 08:30:26 PM EST
    Loves our guy.  Obama will always get more positive press.  

    [ Parent ]
    I don't know - I think he abandoned (none / 0) (#6)
    by inclusiveheart on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:02:33 PM EST
    respect a while back - certainly when McCain's campaign started insisting that Obama wanted to teach sex education to five year olds - a rather disgusting lie that over the past few days McCain himself has continued to insist is "true".

    of course (none / 0) (#26)
    by Iris on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 07:58:12 PM EST
    they know all they have to do is get the charge 'out there.'  This is Rove at work, and nothing will change in a McCain administration. It's boilerplate GOP with Palin's lipstick smeared all over to make it look pretty and fresh.

    [ Parent ]
    John McCain's demeanor ... (none / 0) (#9)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:13:19 PM EST
    ... is that of a petulant and emotionally-stunted individual whose desires are being thwarted.

    His recent behavior reminds me of the time I worked on Neil Abercrombie's congressional campaign out here in 1994, when his GOP opponent was Orson Swindle, former USMC fighter pilot who one of John McCain's fellow Hanoi POWs, and who recently gave the opening day speech on the second day of the 2008 Republican national convention.

    When Swindle lost, he literally became unhinged in a statewide election night interview with a Honolulu TV reporter, unleasing a right-wing diatribe against the "commie lover" Abercrombie, and then calling "leftist" Hawaii voters "too ignorant" to truly appreciate him.

    "You owe me" (none / 0) (#36)
    by denise k on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 04:54:59 PM EST
    That has always been my impression of McCain.  We owe him the presidency because he spent 5 years in a prison camp.  Now I won't begrudge him my thanks, but when it comes to my vote, I don't owe him a thing.  But that is why he goes back to his time in Hanoi every time someone catches him in  a lie or an inconsistency.  

    Sorry, John, the "sell by" date on our debt to you probably expired 20 years ago.  

    [ Parent ]

    Ageing is a slowly sinking ship. (none / 0) (#10)
    by Oceandweller on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 04:28:48 PM EST
    I shall try to be bipartisan.
    Sadly, the best long standing heroes are the ones who die young; as after being heroic what is left to you... beingheroic again ....boring.
    READ HISTORY BOOKS ? HOW MANY REAL ADMIRABLE HEROES ENDED UP BADLY BURN
    dont forget how McCain lost 2000 GOP primary
    this leaves scars. When you see Rove tactics pushing you aside , unless you have a amazing fortitude, you are going touse thm to try and win this time.
    The GOP selected an angry old man rather that be innovative and choose a mormon or Guiliani.
    The problem is the regardless of the GOP policies , we have a party taken hostage by extremists, and foisting on us the willing victim, call it the swedish saint paul syndrom to honor the stockholm syndrom
    we have an old man, clearly getting well fuzzy selecting on a whim a poor help and stubbornly standing by his choice proving that he has lost the wisdom to admit one can be wrong.
    Now S Palin is way too young, but if she opens her mind to real poltics and all the baggage of knowledge it requires she may become formidable opponent... though with the same ugly program
    breaking promises, how very mavericky (none / 0) (#14)
    by pluege on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 05:22:51 PM EST
    but the corporate media will continue to portray Big Liar John as an honorable man.

    McCain's cantankerous interview ... (none / 0) (#19)
    by Donald from Hawaii on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 06:26:19 PM EST
    ... with the Des Moines Register editorial board produces some painfully expected fallout:

    Des Moines Register | October 3, 2008
    Opinion: Is McCain too thin-skinned for presidency? - "John McCain is angry. You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling. ... McCain says he is angry because 'people are angry.' But his behavior suggests it's more than that. Maybe it's because his poll numbers are falling, his running mate is being ridiculed and his attempt to play fixer on the bailout failed to launch. Or maybe, a more worrisome prospect, this is the real McCain - who can't deal with stressful situations without feeling attacked, who lashes out when he feels threatened."
    Umm (none / 0) (#22)
    by rilkefan on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 07:00:06 PM EST
    "You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat"

    That's getting a little too close in an interview.

    [ Parent ]

    McCain (none / 0) (#21)
    by cal1942 on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 06:54:51 PM EST
    closed his campaign offices in Michigan, but, his campaign and the RNC continue to run really awful TV ads.

    They're running dishonest, deceitful ads that often tie in with right-wing talking points. I expect an accusation of ax murder any day.

    We're probably going to be exposed to this non-stop, ad nauseum assault for the next 31 days.

    Vince Foster n/t (none / 0) (#23)
    by rilkefan on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 07:00:52 PM EST


    [ Parent ]
    Wouldn't (none / 0) (#31)
    by cal1942 on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 01:18:41 AM EST
    surprise me.

    [ Parent ]
    McShame (none / 0) (#32)
    by stevea66 on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:17:12 AM EST
    How's this for an ad...imagine that announcer voice and images of school yard kids with one bully.

    "Studies show that kids who engage in negative behavior and lies have low self-esteem and will eventually cheat on their disabled wives and leave them to marry someone who is filthy rich."  (Flash shots of McShame being negative)  "Do you really want a president with low self-esteem?"

    "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message because I feel pretty good about myself."

    Bush & McCain sittin' in a tree... (none / 0) (#35)
    by denise k on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 04:49:18 PM EST
    They are peas in a pod in some ways.  Most of all because both men are "juniors" who got huge boosts in the world because of their famous fathers' names -- or rather their fathers' WORK.  Daddy's name rather than determination and skill got them a leg up on the rest of us and apparently also gave them each a huge chip on his shoulder.  

    Both as a result are petulant boys who never learned how to live, work or compete on an even playing field.  They have always had an advantage of inherited power.  And when they are forced into a "fair fight" they use their inherited power to lash out at anyone who opposes them with petty vindictiveness, rather than with noblesse oblige.  Do we want 4 more years of such immaturity?  I sure don't.

    McCain Abandons Promise to Run Respectful Campaign | 35 comments (35 topical)

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