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Ambinder comes up with reasons why the McCain Campaign’s Ayers push is not John McCain’s fault:
(1) He could put lots of money into an Ayers ad — video press releases don’t cut it.
(2) He could devote a stump speech to Obama’s associations and Obama’s associations only
(3) He could mention Ayers in a debate.
1. Why should the McCain Campaign pay, when the press is talking about it for free?
2. He’s using it now:
"Senator Obama has a clear radical, far-left, pro-abortion record," McCain said after being asked about the issue.
The answer prompted a shower of boos from the crowd members. They booed again when he mentioned William Ayers, who bombed U.S. facilities to protest the Vietnam War as part of the domestic terrorist group the Weather Underground. They booed again at the mention of Rep. Barney Frank, a liberal from Massachusetts.
3. I actually think that would be a horrible idea strategically. Anyway his campaign got every network talking about it.
As I wrote on Wednesday,
Candidates are ultimately responsible for the campaigns they run. Boundaries are set from the top. When advisers cross the invisible line, they are removed.
This attack is coming from the McCain Campaign, the RNC and their appendiges such as Fox News. John McCain could stop it if he wanted to.
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I’m trying to understand McCain’ behavior from another standpoint:
He must know the election’s lost. It’s an inescapable conclusion now. In addition to the polls, Republican pundits, columnists and party leaders are bracing for it.
So how does McCain think he’ll survive in a Senate where his reputation is so irretrievably damaged? Does he really think he can work with a President Obama after this? There’s nothing for him beyond November 5th. Hell, even Lieberman may be forced to abandon McCain at that point as he cozies up to the Democratic majority.
Of course, being ostracized is nothing compared to being reviled forever if Obama is assassinated by a whackjob McCain/Palin supporter.
So, where does this go for McCain? Who’s really pulling the strings here? Does Rove really want to win this badly? Even Rove understands this election is just part of the battle, not the war.
I disagree that his reputation is irretrievably damaged in the Senate. Republicans will take him back.
That’s true. McCain may have been exposed as a troll, but a vote is a vote. After all, the Republics were content to let Larry Craig just ride it out.
With the wars, bailout and the stoking of the mobs’ anger, they’re really trying to ruin the next four years in advance.
I think that soon Palin will start to undertake an insurrectionist campaign. She’ll conspire with the McCain advisors and start to solidify her own “base support” looking off to the 2012 Primaries. This will, of course, be utterly disastrous for the McCain campaign. But she’ll be viewed as the one that actually fought, while McCain whimpered.
It’s gonna be very dirty inside the campaign over the next three weeks…and people like Rove and Schmidt and others will be looking to the future. They’ll lie to McCain, cut him out of decisions, and marginalize him. The press should be looking for this sort of coup-de-tat.