January 30, 2008
The Reagan Library debate
Michelle Malkin liveblogged tonight's debate at the Reagan Library; I only caught the last few minutes, so you can see what she thought here.
PowerLine's Paul Mirengoff wasn't impressed.
With any luck, few Americans tuned in to tonight's Republican debate. Those who did saw our likely nominee at his worst. McCain not only persisted in his dishonest claim that Mitt Romney supported a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, he used one evasion after another to try to make it stick.
McCain’s first line of defense was that Romney had used the word timetable which was a “buzzword” for withdrawal. His evidence that “timetable” meant “withdrawal” was that Harry Reid, who favored withdrawal, used the word “timetable.” Guilt by association is, of course, the hallmark of a smear. McCain went one step further to allege guilt by word association. Never mind that, in the same answer upon which McCain bases his smear, Romney said he would veto any timetable for withdrawal. I bet Harry Reid never said that.
[...]
Romney noted that McCain never raised this issue against him in any debate, preferring instead to put it out there just before the people of Florida were getting ready to vote. McCain answered by saying he has questioned Romney’s experience many times. This response is too pathetic to require comment.
McCain completed his cycle of cheap evasion when he noted that Romney had engaged in negative advertising, not just against him but also against Mike Huckabee. But the issue is not negativity, it is accuracy and honesty. This where McCain suddenly and unexpectedly is struggling.
McCain’s desire to smear Romney so overwhelmed his judgment that he returned to this attack in response to a totally unrelated question about his ability to lead the economy. McCain answered the question by talking about his service in the U.S. military, during which he took another shot at Romney over his alleged proposal to withdraw from Iraq. This one had even my wife, who likes McCain and is skeptical about Romney, rolling her eyes.
More generally, if McCain thinks that invoking his military experience is going to persuade voters that he can be trusted on economic issues, he should reconsider. He’s starting to sound like Rudy Giuliani, who answered every hard question by talking about New York. McCain can probably skate past Super Tuesday with this sort of line – his persistent smirk certainly suggests he thinks he can – but it won’t work against Clinton or Obama. But then, McCain doesn’t hate them like he hates Romney, at least not yet.
McCain also took a ridiculously cheap shot at Romney when he talked about how some people at companies Romney helped turn around lost their jobs. This, along coupled with his shot at Romney for being concerned with "profit" as opposed to patriotism, makes me wonder whether even Phil Gramm can help McCain when it comes to economics -- capitalist economics, anyway.
The McCain campaign has been taking the position that, since their guy is the inevitable nominee, Romney’s attacks on the Senator can only help the Democratic nominee. Under our system, McCain cannot stop Romney from damaging him through political speech. He can, however refrain from damaging himself by revealing his darker instincts when he responds to Romney. Or maybe he can’t.
Touching on the issue I've mentioned before (can a conservative cast a ballot for McCain and not feel like a fool?), Malkin ran a poll for registered commenters.
Here’s some food for thought before the debate: Results of the closed poll on McCain vs. Hillary. I kept it accessible only to MichelleMalkin.com registered users, with one vote allowed per day, for cleaner, more useful results (e.g., no Ron Paul trolls). Interesting, no?
Yeah, I'd say that's interesting. While a relatively small sample, it does seem to accurately capture the less-than enthusiastic reaction of conservatives to a McCain candidacy. Approximately 42 percent are willing to either stay home or actually vote for the Hildebeast, with another 29 percent trying to figure out just what the hell they'll do on election day.
Meanwhile, only 28 percent are ready to vote for McCain -- and I'm betting that number will drop as conservatives take a closer look at the man's recent history.
Think about that. Almost half of the participants are essentially willing to throw the election to Clinton.
Posted by Mike Lief at January 30, 2008 09:26 PM
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