No Straight Talk From McCain

This column was written by John Nichols.

The cynical Republican operative who is one of the many cynical Republican operatives trying to run what passes for a presidential campaign by John McCain spoke some truth when he told Fortune magazine that the Arizona senator's campaign would benefit from a little terrorism.

Noting the political boost that McCain got from the murder of the woman who held out a small measure of hope for the renewal of Pakistani democracy, the GOP ghoul chirped to the business journal about how the "unfortunate" assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December highlighted his man's "knowledge and ability to talk" about terrorism and "reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief. And it helped us."

So, insinuated Black, what could be better for a Republican tough guy who's on the ropes than more mayhem?

When asked if an election-season terror attack on U.S. soil would be good for McCain, the veteran GOP strategist admitted, "Certainly it would be a big advantage to him."

Black took some hits for his candor.

Amusingly, McCain said, "If he said that, and I do not know the context, I strenuously disagree."

Disagrees with what?

With the theory that a terrorist attack might help a campaign that has gone out of its way to suggest that the Republican candidate is ready to keep America safe while the Democratic candidate is not?

With saying something on-the-record that operatives like Black would usually leak as an off-the-record comment?

With openly airing the internal conversations of a campaign that -- as Black's words confirm -- has every intention of winning ugly?

No one expects straight talk from John McCain any more.

But if the "Straight-Talk Express" was still running, the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination would have said something like: "I wish Charlie hadn't been so blunt. But, my friends, I do believe that it would be to my advantage if the debate turned to the question of who best could respond to a terrorist attack."

That would be an honest statement of what McCain and his strategists actually believe. To suggest otherwise would be absurd -- and at odds with every signal that has been sent by the Republican camp in a daily barrage of email blasts, press releases, commercials and public appearances by the candidate and his surrogates.

Straight talk from McCain would invite straight talk from Barack Obama. And Obama would have plenty of ammunition. He could, for instance, suggest the fact that we are even discussing the prospect of a terrorist attack coming before the election confirms that the approaches of the Bush-Cheney administration -- which McCain would extend -- have not done enough to ensure that the American people are genuinely secure.

That honest -- and arguably correct -- response might well have opened up the deeper debate that American needs.

And we would have had Charlie Black to thank for it.

Unfortunately, while Black dared to be blunt, McCain's got no stomach for in-your-face politics. He prefers the back-channel rumor, the veiled charge, the none-too-subtle insinuation.

That said, some clarification has come from this creepy little incident, however. Anyone who doubted the dark character of the souls of John McCain's campaign strategists will have been disabused of that silly indulgence.

By John Nichols
Reprinted with permission from The Nation