I honestly don't care about the latest New York Times story on John McCain, For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk. I don't care if he had an affair with lobbyist Vicki Iseman 8 years ago, just like I didn't care who Larry Craig might have had sex with or who Bill Clinton had sex with. Though it's interesting watching Republicans have different reactions about this story compared to the other two.
3 comments:
I think the media read the first two paragraphs and ran with it. The title was "For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk", not "McCain might have had an affair". In reading the whole article I came away with a the impression that like the title says, that he doesn't always show great judgment and does things that others could interpret as improper because he views himself as such a proper person beyond such things. The only one thing I did find a small concern with is how there seems to be a slight pattern of him over using his power for others. (Keating Five scandal, The FCC incident). What I find most amusing is the response from his campaign.
"It is a shame that The New York Times has lowered its standards to engage in a hit-and-run smear campaign. John McCain has a 24-year record of serving our country with honor and integrity. He has never violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists, and he will not allow a smear campaign to distract from the issues at stake in this election.
Americans are sick and tired of this kind of gutter politics, and there is nothing in this story to suggest that John McCain has ever violated the principles that have guided his career.”
Really ""NEVER"" "violated the public trust, never done favors for special interests or lobbyists" that interesting I guess the Keating Five scandal was just a youthful indiscretion.
It's a shame the Daily show is off this week.
It's true, there was more to the story than what the media picked up. It's also true there's a reason the Times filled the first two paragraphs the way they did.
As near as I can tell, all of these people who run for president are egoists; they have to be. The Keating scandal was 20 years ago and McCain was found to have used poor judgement but nothing more. Yeah his campaign probably downplays it too much, but so what.
I think making a big deal about it now is as wrong as saying his vote against the bill to put the CIA under the Army rules for interrogation as a vote for torture. and I've seen Think Progress and Daily Kos do that repeatedly. It's same crap as saying Kerry flip flopped on supporting the troops. No, he just disagreed on the approach of the bill.
1. I have a problem with use of the word "never"
2. I think it was a well written article and its the rest of the media reacting to it that is the problem. I would bet huge sums of money that most of the people talking about it today have not read the article including whoever wrote McCain's response.
3. There was a similar article in the Times about Bill Clinton recently about a businessman who helped his charity taking advantage of his status to get business deals from foreign governments. If the businessman was a businesswoman it would have been a big story.
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