It’s official: I relinquish any and all claims to knowing anything whatsoever about US politics. This – I blush – is me, back in January:
It may be pushing it to call [John McCain] ‘centrist’ – but he blurs the red / blue battle lines, and he’s perceived by both sides as having integrity. In their different ways, John McCain and Barack Obama – with his language of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ – both represent an acknowledgement of the need for some kind of rapprochement between red and blue America. But out of the two, it’s John McCain who currently looks the more credible prospect for achieving that goal.
What was I thinking?
As the New York Times observes, “what has been most striking about the last 48 hours on the campaign trail is the increasingly hostile atmosphere at Mr. McCain’s rallies, where voters furiously booed any mention of Mr. Obama and lashed out at the Democrats, Wall Street and the news media”. TPM puts it harder than that, and refers to the “unhinged” nature of the McCain / Palin crowds.
David Gergen pretty much agrees in this CNN interview –
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9LFX88ElQ]
– in which he says, “There is a free-floating sort of whipping-around anger that could really lead to some violence. And I think we’re not far from that … I think it’s really imperative the candidates try to calm people down.”
John McCain, ladies and gentlemem. Healer-in-Chief.
