Bush's HHH
by smintheus

John McCain increasingly is looking like the hapless Hubert H. Humphrey of 1968. Captive to his own partisan support for a disastrous war; too timid to stake out an agenda for change; passively permitting an unpopular president to embrace him as heir; squandering what little was left of his good repute in shabby political maneuvering. It's Humphrey all over again. McCain is busy tying a dead weight around his shoulders that he imagines is the mantle of the presidency. The endorsement today by Bush went a long way toward sealing his fate.

During the rest of the campaign the president's embrace will become painful, paralyzing and toxic, just as it did for HHH. The press conference today gave a glimpse of what it will look like.



The thing that stands out most, apart from McCain's cringing presence, is how he passively allows Bush to dominate the event. Bush jumped on the first question to box McCain in as heir to his Iraq policy. It was in response to a question posed to both McCain and Bush, "how the Republican Party... is going to make the case that you're going to provide the change that the voters seem to want, both on Iraq and the economy?" Ignoring the economy (how typical), Bush gave a rambling version of his fear-mongering GWOT talk.

Finally, Bush permitted McCain to explain how he would offer voters the change they want.

SENATOR McCAIN: Thank you, sir. I don't have anything to add.

Heh, how Humphreyesque. No surprise, a chagrined McCain is already trying to figure out how to embrace his president while simultaneously ditching him.

Q Senator McCain, given President Bush's low approval ratings, will this be a negative or a positive for you? And how much do you hope he'll campaign for you on the trail?

SENATOR McCAIN: I hope that he will campaign for me as much as is keeping with his busy schedule.

Yeah, me too.