Wednesday, April 11, 2007

John McCain's Half Monty

According to Fred Kaplan of Slate, John McCain not only justified the war in his big speech at VMI today, he also went negative on the Democrats.

"McCain said Democrats who oppose the president's plans for Iraq are not just wrong on the facts but are seeking "advantage in the next election" and "the temporary favor of the latest public opinion poll."

Kaplan thinks this is a big deal, but McCain's not doing the full monty of partisan self-exposure here. He's not belittling the masculinity of white liberals, not proclaiming his homophobia, not using code words for his contempt for blacks, not complaining about voter fraud, and not demeaning Democratic constituencies like labor unions, teachers, or Hispanics. If McCain wants to win, he's going to have to show Republican audiences a lot more red meat.

Because pulling a half-monty just isn't going to cut it for Honest John.





demeaning democraticIf McCain wants to do a full monty, he can't just criticize those on the left, he must do his best to emasculate us. ly has a long way to go before he can connect with the dominant right-wing of the Republican Party. He not only has to criticize the Democrats, he has to belittle our masculinity

No comments: