McCain Muzzles His Own Mother, Wesley Clark Politicizes Facebook, and the Return of the Swift Boaters! 126 Days to Go!

We've seen a lot of big news in the last couple of days that could very well frame the dynamic of this race for the next several months. Let's get to it.


--> Partly in response to General Wesley Clark's comments that questioned McCain's qualifications to be Commander-in-Chief (although if you only listened to the pundits you'd think that Clark suggested that McCain was a bad soldier), the McCain campaign has unveiled their own Truth Squad. Ironically, leading this defense of McCain's war record will be none other than Colonel Bud Day, one of the leading members of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Obviously Day stands for truth, but it is interesting that such a controversial veteran will be helping to defend McCain's Vietnam record after so aggressively blasting Kerry's. For those of you who don't remember, 2004-era John McCain (when some parts of his soul were still intact) condemned the Swift Boat attacks as "dishonorable and dishonest."


--> Meanwhile, General Clark seems to not be sorry about his somewhat controversial remarks. How do we know? Not from an interview, or a TV appearance, or a press release, but from his Facebook status. Yesterday afternoon, it read: "Wes Clark knows that John McCain is largely untested and untried when it comes to national security matters." Of course, national figures have a long history of communicating with the American people through Facebook. I think we all remember FDR's celebrated status, "Franklin Roosevelt has nothing to fear but fear itself," or even the controversial "Dick Nixon is not a crook."


--> The New York Times takes a look at the timing of Vice-President selections, and suggests when it may make sense for the candidates to roll out their picks. McCain may, in fact, have a very nice opportunity to pick his running mate shortly after the Democratic Convention, in order to limit the bounce from this event. With the Olympics running from August 8th to August 24th (capturing all Americans' undivided attention - like two weeks of the Super Bowl), neither of them can announce their picks then because it would get drowned out by Olympics coverage. So, they can either announce at the end of July, or after the Olympics end (the Dem's convention begins the day after that). Obama announcing his pick the first day of the convention might be a mistake, so look for his choice in late July, and McCain's at the end of August.


--> Roberta McCain, potential First Mother of the United States, has remained very quiet during this campaign. When contacted by a reporter, she told him, "They've got me muzzled." Chuckling, she added, "Now don't you print that. . . . I really don't like to be interviewed."

Mrs. McCain has apparently led a fascinating life, including hanging out with Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, but I do wish that we could hear some of her stories.

More tomorrow.