Missing the Mark on McCain: Politico's Simon Calls for Return of 'Reformer'

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By Mark Finkelstein (Bio | Archive)
April 11, 2007 - 07:19 ET
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Let's play a quick game of word association. I say "John McCain" and "reform." You say . . . I'm guessing . . . "campaign finance" or perhaps "McCain-Feingold." Am I right? And what's one of the biggest beefs that Republicans in general, and Republican primary-voting types in particular have with McCain? Correctamundo: his championing of campaign finance reform, which Republicans tend to oppose on philosophical grounds [unconconstitutional restriction of free speech] and pragmatic political ones [increases the power of the Dem-friendly MSM].

If further evidence were needed that it's hard for MSMers to understand Republicans, I refer you to Roger Simon's piece from yesterday at Politico.com, The Reinvention of John McCain. For what is Simon's advice to McCain for the reinvigoration of his campaign? You guessed it: that he return to his reformist roots.

Writes Simon:
  • When McCain ended his presidential campaign in 2000, he became that rarest thing in politics: a person whose reputation was enhanced by losing a presidential campaign. Back then, McCain came across as scrappy and authentic, a real reformer. And he won the admiration of millions in defeat.
  • What some voters would like to see, I suspect, is the old John McCain: the exciting, fast-moving candidate, who was heavy on reform and light on organization.
  • The John McCain campaign really doesn't have to invent a new John McCain. It just has to find the old one.
Really, find the "old one"? The McCain of campaign finance reform and opposition to tax cuts? The one that Republican primary voters overwhelmingly rejected in 2000? It's probably too late for McCain to convince Republicans he's changed, but one thing is certain: McCain the old reformer would be sure to go down in Republican flames again in the 2008 primaries.

Compounding his misreading of Republicans, Simon asserts: "McCain's full-throated support for the war is hurting him with Republican voters even though most Republican voters support the war." I'd say that if anything is keeping McCain afloat, if just barely, in the primary field, it's his support for President Bush's Iraq policy. Ditch that, and McCain would be in Hagel-land: out of the race.

Roger Simon might be part of the new media now, but at least in this column, his old media roots [Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report] were clearly showing.

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.


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Please, Republicans. When y

April 11, 2007 - 07:46 ET by sarcasmo

Please, Republicans. When you look at McCain, try to be like me and see another "it's my turn" Dole candidacy. If he's your nominee, you're gonna lose -- surely. He's an inside the beltway, northeastern RINO these days, with about as much connection to Arizona as me.
JMR

We hear ya.Your cloaking de

April 11, 2007 - 08:13 ET by MightyMouth

We hear ya.

Your cloaking devices is definitely OFF on this particular post sarc. :-)

"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...

MSM clueless when it comes to Main Stream Republicans

April 11, 2007 - 08:05 ET by CT

Sen. McCain was riding high in the MSM Party, not the Republican Party where he would be lucky to get voted in as the national dogcatcher.  That's not to say McCain the Maverick is all bad, he is a man with the courage of his convictions, a rare commodity today.  That is a concept that most of the MSM continually demonstrate they cannot comprehend.

The real issue and intrigue will be for whom will McCain give his support.

Exactly, CT.  MSM Party Can

April 11, 2007 - 08:26 ET by RJ

Exactly, CT.  MSM Party Candidate says it all.  Oviously, Simon is still looking at him through that same template, with no clue as to how most conservatives saw him.

Nice post, Mark. Good thing

April 11, 2007 - 08:13 ET by Matthew Sheffield

Nice post, Mark. Good thing for McCain that he's stopped listening to the media for political advice.

Well look at Simon's face, what do you expect ?

April 11, 2007 - 08:29 ET by SportPolitics

Well look at Simon's face, what do you expect ? That face says it all. Simon says so, and boy you should believe him, because he's got that sly almost laughing smart aleck smirk on his face that I would have if I whipped up a big pile for consumption.

 Didn't he include the gang of 14 ? lol Gosh, that was hard to recall, because republicans loved that too.

SIMON = LIAR for the dems.

Typical Lib double-speak

April 11, 2007 - 11:04 ET by exLib

This is typical liberal double-speak and I hear it ALL the time since I live in loony liberal-land.

I am now learning to laugh everytime I hear someone say that McCain is no longer a "Maverick" because he is trying to adapt his campaign more to the right.

As usual in liberal land the left is the natural position to take and if you are a Republican and somewhat left, then you are a "sane" Republican. (Not a Rabid, Rabid Republican).

As we see when McCain was openly contradicting and working aganst his party's majority, the MSM loved him and gloried in his "maverick" stance.

But if you are a hard-line conservative you are "cow-towing" (sp?) to "special interests" and the Right-lunatic Fringe. And of course we all know to the MSM there is no Left-lunatic fringe.