John McCain has cancelled an interview with CNN's Larry King in response to an interview in which McCain's spokesman fumbled, dodged and spun, unable to provide one specific examle of a "command decision" made by Gov. Palin as "commander of the Alaska National Guard", a resume-builder commonly cited by the McCain campaign. Campbell Brown insisted on getting an answer to the question, and Tucker Bounds continued to spin and to try to dodge the question, as he was unprepared to answer it.
Though the incident was obviously embarrassing for the McCain campaign, is canceling an interview with the candidate himself really an appropriate response? It would appear that the once "straight-talking" John McCain is no longer comfortable taking tough questions or telling hard truths. It would appear he is no longer comfortable relying on character and judgment, and would rather dodge the issue while his campaign attempts to spin the American people with answers like "any decision she made... is more experience than Barack Obama has", a simple non-answer, combined with a ridiculous smear.
Are we facing the possibility that the Republican presidential campaign is really deteriorating into an adolescent tug of war with media and with the public, both of whom feel that a campaign has to make its own case and not just be treated like the inevitable successor to the least popular president in history? Maybe John McCain is no longer responsible for his own decisions, but this "handling" of uncomfortable issues makes him look like a shell of his former self.
Comments are closed for this post.
