Christina’s Common Sense

For all his years in politics, John McCain seems not to understand that his business is the game of rewarding your friends and punishing your enemies. In fact, he frequently gets it backwards.

Today, McCain has issued a decree to pull an anti-Obama ad in North Carolina featuring Rev. Wright. McCain claimed it to be dishonorable and says he wants to run an honorable campaign. Apparently, that means not calling out the fact that your opponent has listened—or not listened, depending on who you believe—to his preacher calling for God to damn America.

An “honorable campaign” does not mean letting your opponent walk all over you. That is not honor, it’s suicide. Having served a couple of decades in the Navy, McCain should know a thing or two about honor. There is nothing dishonorable about calling out your opponent’s mistakes. That is politics. If McCain can’t deal with that, he should go find another job.

Linda Daves, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, has said that she will run the ad anyway because it’s her job to point out the weaknesses of the Democrat party. When Norah O’Donnell accused her of playing the race card, Daves replied that it has nothing to do with race and that as chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, it’s her duty to do what’s best for the party.

John McCain should drop to his knees and thank God that his opponents are so maladroit. Otherwise, strategies like this would ensure his defeat in November.