Is McCain the 2008 Bob Dole?

A friend texted me last night and brought up a crass joke McCain said about Chelsea Clinton. It was made in 1998 at a Republican fundraiser and Salon reported it

"The fact that McCain had made the tasteless joke was reported in major newspapers, as was the vain attempt by his press secretary to initially deny what McCain had done. But in several major newspapers, the joke itself was kept a secret.

Salon feels its readers deserve the unadulterated truth. Though no tape of McCain's quip has yet emerged, this is what he reportedly said:

"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly? Because her father is Janet Reno."

That story never got any traction in the MSM and I doubt that the most ardent Clintonites will be swayed. They are too blind and angry at Obama right now. Over the weekend, some of the pro-Clinton blogs were actually referring to Russert's death as "karma" and "god's justice", still angry at Russert for his tough questioning of Clinton. In the land of the Clintonite crazies it's everyone else's fault, but their candidate. I will not hold my breath on this one.

Actually, I am more intrigued by a recent HuffPo article comparing McCain to Bob Dole.

In it, Arianna Huffington writes:

The "forces of inertia, arrogance and self-denial will probably conspire to keep the Republican establishment circling the wagons" around him, but his "yawning credibility gap" will result in "a spectacular defeat in November."

"Nearly half of those who plan to vote for him in November expect him to lose."

Someone being tough on John McCain?

Actually, I wrote all of the above about Bob Dole during his 1996 presidential campaign. But it fits John McCain like a glove, right down to his "shrunken vision for the greatest nation on earth" -- as I wrote about Dole on October 7, 1996.


She goes on:

An already desperate McCain tried to make news last week by comparing Barack Obama to Jimmy Carter, but McCain should be careful about forcing people to make comparisons to ill-fated campaigns of the past.

As was the case in '96, we have a Republican nominee who is a war hero wounded in sacrifice for his country, personable and engaging, with a long Senate career, who is so out of sync with the times that his campaign feels stillborn. It's Doleja vu all over again

In fact, McCain does remind me of Bob Dole, screaming "Where's the outrage?" against Bill Clinton in 1996. The GOP brand is in shambles and the once maverick McCain has sold his soul to win his party's nomination. He has fully embraced the policies of one of the most unpopular presidents in modern times and it will be difficult for him to pivot to the center while tries to unite and galvanize GOP base.

All we need now is a defining Bob Dole moment.

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