Don't Despair

At HuffPo, Max Bergmann writes "The Week That Should Have Ended McCain's Presidential Hopes":

This is the week that should have effectively ended John McCain's efforts to become the next president of the United States. But you wouldn't know it if you watched any of the mainstream media outlets or followed political reporting in the major newspapers.

During this past week: McCain called the most important entitlement program in the U.S. a disgrace, his top economic adviser called the American people whiners, McCain released an economic plan that no one thought was serious, he flip flopped on Iraq, joked about the deaths of Iranian citizens, and denied making comments that he clearly made -- TWICE. All this and it is not even Friday! Yet watching and reading the mainstream press you would think McCain was having a pretty decent political week, I mean at least Jesse Jackson didn't say anything about him.

You should really go read the whole thing. It's a spot-on analysis of this disastrous week for McCain, which continues today with news that he married his second wife while still married to his first wife.

But I don't agree that McCain will skate by this week's gaffes unscathed. I remember back in January, when McCain made the "100 years" in Iraq comment, it was mostly ignored by the media for a few days, came up in a question during a media interview, but then was ignored by the press for another few months. The Democrats kept hitting McCain on it in their speeches, but the press either ignored it or tried to spin it to McCain's advantage. Yet eventually the DNC put out a great ad on it, the attack caught on, and now it is considered one of the most damaging gaffes McCain has made.

I think McCain's "disgrace" comment about Social Security will be the same way, along with the "nation of whiners" comment. His joke about killing Iranians with cigarettes was lame and unpresidential, but will probably remain fodder for jokes ala his "bomb bomb Iran" song. But those first two gaffes have the potential to be used in future attack ads all the way until November, and they will decimate his standing with seniors and working class folks worried about the economy.

It doesn't matter that McCain didn't say the "nation of whiners" comment. He has said similar things many times, saying we are in a "psychological" recession. And Gramm isn't some outside supporter like Wes Clark, he is McCain's top economic advisor. Even if McCain were to fire him or take further action, the damage will be long-lasting. Obama simply has to run an ad saying that "McCain's top economic advisor believes we are a nation of whiners" or "McCain's campaign has called us a nation of whiners".

Make an ad combining the 100 years remark, "nation of whiners", and his vows to dismantle the disgraceful Social Security system, and I just don't know if McCain could recover. He'd have to hope that dumb voters either don't believe the ad or don't care about those issues. But who doesn't care about the war, the economy, and Social Security?

So instead of lamenting that this week should have ended McCain's presidential campaign, I say just wait. This is the week that will end his presidential campaign. In it is planted the seeds of his doom.