McCain did a dog-and-pony town-hall-meeting stop in Kansas City yesterday, in which he managed to fumble some of his lines, put himself at odds with a critical campaign ally, and falsely smear Obama's "left of socialist" voting record all in one swell foop.
Gee, imagine my surprise.
As the
Kansas City Star reported:
Sen. John McCain on Thursday renewed his call for a “brief” gas tax holiday — and quickly ran into a political fender-bender with his new Missouri campaign chairman, Sen. Kit Bond.
The Republican told an estimated 1,200 people at Union Station that suspending the federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel would help put millions of dollars into the hands of businesses and lower-income Americans.
Such a holiday, he later told The Kansas City Star, could be justified by cutting wasteful spending: “The most pork barrel-laden aspect of everything we do are the highway bills.”
One of the most vocal supporters of past highway bills? Bond, appointed this week as McCain’s state chairman.
“Sen. Bond and I have strong disagreement — have strong disagreement on pork barrel spending,” McCain said. “We have fought on the floor of the Senate, and I think the American people are fed up with earmark, pork barrel spending which has caused corruption.”
Bond — who opposes a gas tax holiday — deftly deferred.
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He also said Obama had the “most extreme” record in the Senate.
Asked later if he thought Obama was an extremist, McCain said: “His voting record … is more to the left than the announced socialist in the United States Senate, Bernie Sanders of Vermont.”
Does McCain think Obama is a socialist? “I don’t know. All I know is his voting record, and that’s what people usually judge their elected representatives by.”
Obama’s campaign, in a statement: “John McCain squandered an opportunity to talk with Missourians about solutions to our economic problems and chose instead to launch the same old tired political attacks that the American people are sick of.”
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