Matthew Yglesias has two insightful short posts up today on stories that could, down the road, bite the Clinton and McCain campaigns. As he notes, if a President Clinton is raising money to pay off a campaign debt she owes to herself (and her campaign's debt is big) ... well can you imagine the coverage press coverage that would get? And I'm curious to see if the Iseman story attracts more coverage to McCain's first marriage and divorce.
After all, it's well known that he repeatedly cheated on his first wife Carol, of a number of years, with a variety of women, before eventually dumping her for a much-younger heiress whose family fortune was able to help finance his political career. That's well known, I should say, except to the electorate, who would probably find that this sort of behavior detracts from McCain's "character" appeal.
And since according to Bay Buchanan Republicans care about "character" and things like that (sure, it is to laugh, but they claim to), maybe this will be yet another reason why a lot of Republicans might not feel like going to the polls in November.
Posted by armand at February 21, 2008 08:54 AM | TrackBack | Posted to PoliticsActually it's conservatives who care about "character." Most of us (like me) have stayed home this electoral season. If McCain wins, it will be because of moderates and independents.
Posted by: Morris at February 23, 2008 11:05 AM | PERMALINKWell depends how you define "conservatives". Lots of people who claim to be "conservative" have delighted in the current administration's big spending, health care entitlements, feds in education, big debt, wars of choice, law is for the little people ways - though none of those things strike me as particularly conservative. In fact I'd say that the "conservative" and "liberal" tags are of pretty limited utility as words that supposedly describe a particular belief set in today's political environment.
But if your point is that lots of Republicans are perfectly happy to embrace those who have private lives that'd make The Church Lady blush - yes, that is true.
Posted by: Armand at February 23, 2008 12:08 PM | PERMALINK