WP: Close Kerry-McCain Kinship Has Dissolved Since 2004

[beachmom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070802687.html?nav=hcmodule&sid=ST2008070803469&pos=

In 2004, many Democratic insiders thought a Kerry-McCain ticket would be a slam-dunk winner. And yet even as Kerry, a decorated Navy combat veteran, and McCain, a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war, seemed on the verge of making that happen, a rupture occurred and set the stage for everything that followed. But exactly what happened remains a matter of debate.

From the Kerry perspective, McCain had expressed genuine interest in the vice presidential nomination and then pulled away without warning, and while doing so leaked the story to the media to "put McCain in the best possible light," a Kerry friend recounted.

From the McCain perspective, Kerry was overly optimistic about the possibility of McCain joining him on the Democratic ticket. "Kerry convinced himself that he could convince McCain to be on the ticket," said one GOP strategist familiar with the discussions. "When that didn't happen, he took it really personally."

Kerry insists that the miscommunication about his conversations with McCain was the fault of staff members and not the two senators.

"I thought it was unfortunate that some people in his staff saw fit to leak someone's point of view which did not accurately reflect our personal conversations," Kerry said. "We never got to a serious point. We moved on."

I'll be honest, I am still confused and not 100% sure what happened. If you add up all the leaks, it makes no sense. And it is clear that the McCain side put out leaks to maximum effect to make McCain look good and Kerry look bad.

If the vice presidential offer/non-offer strained Kerry and McCain's relationship, the ad that the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran during the 2004 campaign attacking Kerry's military record threatened to end it entirely.

McCain quickly spoke out against the ad, calling it "dishonest" and "dishonorable" and comparing it to the criticism of his military service during the 2000 presidential primaries. But he did not allow Kerry to use his image in rebuttal ads -- a decision that many Kerry supporters viewed as insufficient payback for Kerry's support of McCain in 2000.

"John McCain pretty thoroughly revealed his character when he refused to defend his Vietnam 'brother' from the slimy Swift boaters," said Jim Jordan, who managed Kerry's presidential bid for much of 2003. "McCain's second campaign for the Republican nomination and his support for more U.S. troops in Iraq added to the strain. As the senator from Arizona grew more and more strident about increasing troop levels and about the danger of setting timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, Kerry emerged as a leading voice in favor of beginning a drawdown.

Although I don't care for Jim Jordan, I think he has nailed what I view as the ultimate rift between them. McCain's "triangulation" of the Swiftboater attacks. He officially condemned it, but did nothing to stop it. Now he has a Swiftboater as part of his campaign. Very sad.

[Alter Ego]

1. I can't imagine why.

Maybe because McCain has sold his soul?

[katandmoon]

2. I think Kerry finally discovered McCain has no soul and will sell out anyone to achieve his goal

[blm]

3. Not hard to figure out - McCain sold his integrity for Rove's promise of 2008.

McCain was close to leaving the GOP after Jeffords. Kerry would CONSIDER running with McCain IF he left the GOP. McCain's turn back to GOP was sudden, and I believe has more to do with blackmail by Bushies than anything else - probably McCain was set up for blackmail back in 2000 with that lobbyist friend of BushInc who popped into his life in 2000? Photos?

[karynnj]

4. Actually this is a rare instance where I disagree with you - but only somewhat

I think that McCain did lose his soul, when as a wounded ex-POW purple heart winner, he did not demand - whether in respect for the medal, the troops, basic decency or himself, that the purple heart bandaids be removed.

But, I think that Reilly, at the end of the article, has it exactly right - it is the intensity of what Vietnam means to each that both brought them together in a heartfelt effort on both sides to heal the wounds and in the wake of Iraq in how it led to the intensity that both have on what needs to be done. I know Kerry's speeaches and positions better than McCain's over the entire interval - and I think McCain is completely sincere. The problem is that - just as on Vietnam - he is wrong.

It actually goes to another difference as well. Kerry, even in his 1966 (not a typo) Yale speech on foreign policy spoke of the importance of understanding and respecting the impact on countries of their underlying cultures. Even in that speech, Kerry questiioned whether we were making the right decisions in Vietnam. In his speech in January 2007 when he said he wouldn't run, Kerry first spoke of the historical background og Shia/Sunni relations. In the FTN interview this article mentions - Kerry spoke of McCain not knowing that there was historical violence between them and he confuses which countries are which. This is an amazing digfference in foreign policy mind set - and I have a hard time understanding how McCain could ever get insight without trying to understand the background - the thought process is too foreign to me.

[blm]

5. I was centering on the political aspect and Bush's campaign in coopting McCain.

I do agree with your view of their perspectives on Vietnam.

[beachmom]

6. Yes, many things have happened at the same time, and we shouldn't

underestimate how much Bush and the Iraq War has torn them apart. After all, I hear this is the case for a lot of people -- they literally lost friends over those two things. Kerry saw what Bush did to McCain and couldn't imagine that McCain would sell his soul to the devil himself, but he did. That McCain did it while leaking like crazy unflattering stories of VP overtures, while only doing enough against the Swifts to retain his "maverick" label, must have been tough to swallow. Add in McCain pounding Kerry during The Joke, taking SBVT money, and not just being for the Iraq War but for MORE TROOPS in Iraq, and you have got a serious chasm between the two.

[mloutre]

7. Well, as JK himself said on Face The Nation this past weekend:

John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting. This is a different John McCain. This is not the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain.

And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about! I mean, this is extraordinary what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove.

If you like what has happened to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan.

I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There are very few who walk around and say, "Going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance." John McCain does.