Well, that certainly didn’t take long. On July 3, news reports said Senator John McCain, worried that he might lose the election before it truly started, opened his doors to disciples of Karl Rove from the 2004 campaign and the Bush White House. Less than a month later, the results are on full display. The candidate who started out talking about high-minded, civil debate has wholeheartedly adopted Mr. Rove’s low-minded and uncivil playbook.
In recent weeks, Mr. McCain has been waving the flag of fear (Senator Barack Obama wants to “lose” in Iraq), and issuing attacks that are sophomoric (suggesting that Mr. Obama is a socialist) and false (the presumptive Democratic nominee turned his back on wounded soldiers).
Mr. McCain used to pride himself on being above this ugly brand of politics, which killed his own 2000 presidential bid. But he clearly tossed his inhibitions aside earlier this month when he put day-to-day management of his campaign in the hands of one acolyte of Mr. Rove and gave top positions to two others. The résumés of the new team’s members included stints in Mr. Bush’s White House and in his 2004 re-election campaign, one of the most negative and divisive in memory.
The Anti-Bush
How the neoconservatives gave Obama the world
by Jack Hunter
There is no victory in Iraq, only prolonged defeat. Obama knows it, Iraq knows it, and the entire world knows it. Only Bush Republicans remain in the dark.
If Republicans want to know why Obama is being received so well in Europe, they need to look no further than their own president and his yes men. GOP propagandists like Hannity can pretend that Europe is simply attracted to the Illinois senator because he's a "socialist," when Obama's popularity is actually more of a reaction to the neocon scoundrels who constitute the guest line up on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes on any given evening.
Low-Road Express
a New York Times editorial
