Friday, August 22, 2008

Old Dog's trick no longer works - McCain ducks another one

Is it possible one of John McCains good old fashion tactics of dealing with tough questions is finally catching up to him. From observations of his campaign over the last few months a common element comes up. It seems whenever there is a question that he doesn't want to answer, doesn't have the answer, or is not sure which is the politically correct answer he punts. Now let me give you a little straight talk here. "I'll have to get back to you on that".

Interestingly in all the policitcal news I watch, which my wife will tell you is way too much, I don't ever recall the follow up information being reported. It is quite possible that Senator McCain having courted such a comfortable relationship withe press over that last 26 years that he has been able to get away with this tactic. To be somewhat fair with the press we all know the news cycle is about twenty four hours long and by the time anyone might remember that McCain didn't answer yesterdays questions the press is jumping on the band wagon of the next days story.

He has been able to get away with this mode of operation for as long as the MSM was complicit and they were the only outlet. Now that there so many people paying attention and so many avenues to amplify it. He is not able to simply move onto the next press cycle. The people have a memory past the 24 hour media cycle it is becoming more difficult for McCain to just wish away the tough questions.

This first truly caught my attention when asked about his position on birth control being covered by insurance. This was of course in response to statements that Carly Fiorina had made. The embarrasing video shows McCain him hawing around the question. There were a couple of ways to interpert this 1) he didn't know 2) he didn't know what the right answer (politically) was and was attempting to punt. I have gotten the impression he is not accustomed to getting tough follow up questions on these issues and therefore the thorny question goes away to be forgotten.





It is quite possible this is what happened in the most recent housing flap. Not so much that he doesn't really know what he owns, but simply didn't want to say. The out of touch narrative is the one carrying the day and neatly dovetails into a very damaging storyline. However, is the second option possibly a more sinister and accurate picture.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

McCain is looking more and more like Bush every day...not so smart.

I understand that there are a ton of topics to understand and know inside an out, but that just seems over the top evasive.

By the way, thought this was interesting about the two candidates' net worth:
http://www.politicalbase.com/profile/Mark%20Nickolas/blog/&blogId=3200