 Senator John McCain (left) talked yesterday with Bob Schieffer, host of ‘‘Face the Nation,’’ from the Republican convention site in New York. (Reuters Photo) |
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McCain to embrace Bush tonight, but it wasn't always soNEW YORK -- When John McCain hugged George W. Bush at Fort Lewis, Wash., earlier this summer in a gesture of personal and political affection, the Arizona senator could lift his arms no more than chest high. It is an enduring physical reminder of the two broken arms he suffered when his Navy fighter was shot down during the Vietnam War, an experience that Bush once said did not necessarily prepare McCain to be commander-in-chief.
Such is the vicissitude of the Bush-McCain relationship: two sons of proud military veterans who had a bitter head-to-head match for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, but four years later are campaigning side-by-side against Democrat John F. Kerry, one of McCain's Senate friends. Bush beat McCain for the Republican nomination by launching negative attacks against him, the same man awarded the spotlight tonight for a speech to the Republican National Convention. The then-Texas governor accused McCain of "Washington double-talk" over campaign financing, questioned McCain's commitment to breast cancer research, stood beside a veteran who accused the former prisoner of war of abandoning their comrades, and sat idly as some of his political friends aired the kind of negative TV ads against McCain that the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth have been making about Kerry. Asked yesterday on "Face the Nation" whether he has gotten over the 2000 attacks, McCain replied: "Was I angry at the time? Sure, but you've got to get over it. I would hate for my legacy in politics in America: 'Well, he was angry for four years after something that happened in a political campaign.' You just simply can't do that." There is another reason that McCain has become akin to a third person on a date in this year's presidential race. The senator's reputation as a moderate and straight talker prompted Kerry to ask him whether he would consider being his running mate as the ultimate expression of bipartisanship. His work on campaign finance legislation gave McCain a platform to decry the negative ads aired by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and other independent groups that have attacked Kerry. And Kerry's decision to use his military record as the foundation of his presidential candidacy has made McCain something of a referee as critics have questioned Kerry's combat medals and activities as an antiwar leader after returning from Vietnam. "He's certainly one of the most popular figures in American politics," William Schneider, a political analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said of McCain and his appeal to Democrats and Republicans. "In these days of political polarization, that's rare." Giving the Arizona senator a prime-time speaking slot is part of a Republican plan to appeal to moderates and independents through such crossover figures as McCain, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, and Laura Bush, the president's wife. Continued... |
