Legal Commentary

John McCain:Thinking Of Himself First, Last And Always

By Big Tent Democrat

NYTimes analysis:

Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis. Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end. At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.

. . . [T]here was no evidence that he was playing a major role in the frantic efforts on Capitol Hill to put a deal back together again. . . . [T]he day’s events succeeded most of all in raising questions about precisely why Mr. McCain had called for postponing the first debate and returned to Washington to focus on the bailout plan, and what his own views were about what should be done. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Eugene Robinson explains: [More...]

[I]n trying to put himself at center stage, McCain managed to insert politics into the situation. . . . McCain succeeded in focusing attention on himself, but not necessarily in a good way. . . . Putting himself at the center of events -- making any situation all about him -- is more than a political tactic for McCain. It's his nature, and I wonder if most Americans won't be unnerved at the prospect of electing a president who's always so ready for his close-up.

(Emphasis supplied.) John McCain, the Norma Desmond of politics. Country first my a*s.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 26, 2008 (boomark / email).