So, how do we spin this: Biden urged Kerry to select McCain as his running mate?

[WA98296]

just wondering



http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/23/33649/5942/237/573369

[Beregond2]

1. "That was a different McCain."

It's lame, but what else do we have?

[pokercat999]

17. Also it shows Biden's willingness to work across the isle and

put partisan politics aside for the good of the American people.

Personally I'm not much for that, I'd rather exile all Rethugs to their own little country in the south western part of the US. But then again I'm some kinda nut so take it for what it's worth.

[endthewar]

19. Plus it points out to the conservative base that McCain is more liberal than them.

Problem solved. That was some quick work. :patriot:

[Beregond2]

28. Aack! Nowhere west, please!

But I like your thinking.

[democrattotheend]

2. Same way Kerry's handled it

Say that McCain has changed a lot, which is totally true. I used to have a lot of respect for McCain, even as recently as 6 months ago. I've lost all respect for him after seeing the way he has conducted himself in this campaign.

[Davis_X_Machina]

12. This tack reinforces...

...the idea that McCain's a sellout, that he'll do anything to get elected, that he lacks core principles, etc.

I don't see a problem -- in fact, I'd hit hard on it.

After we're through laughing at McMansion, we can move on to "Sheesh, John, what the hell happened to you man?! We thought we knew you, and now this shit. More in sorrow than in anger. Pity for the last grasp of a desperate old man for significance.

And then we'll go back to laughing.

[AZ Criminal JD]

30. He has not changed at all

His positions are the same as in 2004. Obama has changed more than McCain. Get real.

[democrattotheend]

35. Torture? Offshore drilling? Wrapping his arms around the Christian Right he once disdained?

Whose side are you on, anyway?

[pokercat999]

34. I lost all respect for him when he called Chelsey Clinton

ugly in an awful joke in front of a large gathering of rethugs....may have been a fund raiser. I think Chelsey was in her mid teens at the time.

I lost respect for Bill in that he didn't beat the shit out of McClown the next day.

[annabanana]

3. That was the other McCain.. the one who actually bucked the party line..

You know. . preflop McCain

[blondeatlast]

7. "Pre-Flop McCain." I love that. It says so much about him so quickly. nt

[blm]

4. That was when Mccain was considering leaving the GOP and when he opposed Bush the most. Then Karl

got hold of Mccain and brought him back on board. McCain hasn't been his pre2004 self ever since. Blackmail that would keep him slavishly serving Bush is quite likely a certainty - probably pics of McCain with that lobbyist.

[mtpnbc]

5. EASY

Biden's reasoning was that it could heal the "vicious rift" in the country -- Biden saw that so clearly, before others, and thought it required the extreme measure of asking the previous version of McCain to help.

[LSparkle]

10. Exactly -- Biden wanted to engage in a "different kind of politics" before Obama!

Reaching across the aisle isn't a bad thing and,
as noted, Bomb Bomb hadn't drunk the Koolaid at
the time Biden made these comments.

[Occam Bandage]

6. McCain used to be a maverick. Remember when he voted against Bush's tax cuts?

Now he's in favor of extending them. McCain's become a shallow party-line Bush Republican.

[rzemanfl]

8. Eight years ago McCain wasn't senile. n/t

[C_U_L8R]

9. Blind ambition has warped McCondo's integrity

he's not only lost his bearings but his screws are all loose.

[GarbagemanLB]

11. McCain won't touch this with a ten foot pole. He has trouble enough with the GOP base.

[Arkana]

13. Four years ago, different McCain, etc.

That was easy. Next?

[wisteria]

14. Biden has been wrong on a lot of things. n/t

[still_one]

15. No excuse, that is why Biden needs to be on a short leash

However, when Biden shines, no one can come close

[Jackpine Radical]

16. "There was once a man of principle named John McCain. He bucked his party

to vote his conscience. I deeply regret to say that that John McCain no longer exists."

End of problem.

[hughee99]

18. One question about the "different McCain" strategy.

If the spin is going to be that McCain has changed in the last 4 years, and that he's not the same person as he used to be, does that mean that we shouldn't really be criticizing the bad things he did 4 (or more) years ago? After all, he's a different person now, isn't he?

[ProSense]

20. That quote in the article about Kerry making McCain Secretary of Defense is spin

Kerry was talking about replacements for Rumsfeld.

BLITZER: If Democrat John Kerry is elected president, he may look outside his own party for a defense secretary. Kerry has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

In a radio interview today he suggested that Republican Senator John McCain might be a good replacement.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have any number of people that I would make secretary of defense, beginning with our good friend John McCain, as an example, and many others who could manage it very effectively.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Kerry also mentioned two other possible choices for defense secretary, Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Senator John Warner of Virginia.

link

Spin:

After emphasizing his relationship with the Arizona Republican in one of his new television commercials, the Democratic presidential candidate intimated in a radio interview today that Mr. McCain would be under consideration to be secretary of defense in a Kerry administration.

"I have any number of people that I would make secretary of defense, beginning with our good friend John McCain, there's an example," Mr. Kerry told the radio host Don Imus as they discussed what Mr. Kerry described as a "command failure" in Iraq by the Bush administration.

Mr. McCain was not the only possible candidate cited by Mr. Kerry, who also mentioned Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the current senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, as well as John Warner, the Virginia Republican now in charge of the Senate inquiry into the abuse of Iraq prisoners. Donald H. Rumsfeld was not on the list. "I'd give you any number of people who I think would be more effective," said Mr. Kerry, who for most of the week has been focusing on the cost of health care, not the turmoil in Iraq.

The Kerry campaign obviously sees a political benefit to being linked with Mr. McCain, who has national stature as an independent political voice. Mr. McCain, who is supporting President Bush in the election, is constantly being asked if he would consider joining Mr. Kerry as his running mate and he has said repeatedly that he would not. And Mr. Kerry is not the only one thinking about installing Mr. McCain over at the Pentagon. His name is whispered by members of both parties as a possible replacement for Mr. Rumsfeld should the secretary of defense end up out of the job, even though Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld have both said that is not in the cards.

link

[scheming daemons]

21. Simple: McCain in 2000 and 2004 wouldn't even vote for McCain in 2008

[knixphan]

22. ding ding ding!

[blondeatlast]

23. How very, very true! (Although the Bush hugging 2004 McCain might be arguable). nt

[rucky]

24. I guess it depends on which John McCain we're talking about. n/t

[eleny]

25. McCain even flip flopped on himself

[Bluerthanblue]

26. same way we spin the fact that Lieberman actually WAS a VP candidate

times change.

[Ron Paul- voting BO]

27. From "straight talk express" to "watch for turns ahead"

[anonymous171]

29. John McCain chose to endorse Bush instead. That's bad judgment

[ErinBerin84]

31. that McCain has proven himself to be a complete partisan hack sell out

but Biden should find a way to say it in a classy way of course.

[marlakay]

32. since then mccain has voted with bush almost 100%

of the time...look at the change in Lieberman, do you think Gore would pick him now?

as for that matter would kerry pick edwards now? come on...easy to fight those kinds of statements.

[Enrique]

33. we'll see

the republicans will surely bring it up, and the Obama campaign surely expects it and has a response.

[Motown_Johnny]

36. You point out all the flip flops.. Joe Says... "When I suggested that, John was against off shore

drilling, the Bush tax plan, torturing prisoners of war, a gas tax holiday.. etc etc etc"

[Overseas]

37. Luckily, Biden will be best able to explain how much McZombie has changed.

That's one thing I like about Biden. He can explain to all those people clinging to the old John Sidney McCain III the maverick who pretended more effectively that he was a regular guy.

Biden can tell of how he used to count on JSM III to vote his conscience but all that changed.

Now that the public are getting to see more of what John Sidney McCain III is really like, we've got Biden available to empathize with their disappointment that the maverick of yore is no more.

He can tell them he is sad that the guy he once admired has changed so much. And how.

[CreekDog]

38. McCain has changed all those positions since 2004

it's a good comeback.

he's turned his back on every good idea since running for president.