Campaign Desk
“McCain Lies His Ass Off”?
Florida, Simi Valley, and The Real World
By Megan Garber Thu 31 Jan 2008 03:39 PMThis is the true story
of four candidates
picked to stay in the race
and have their lives taped.
Find out what happens
when candidates stop being polite—
and start getting real.
************
We’ve been finding out, all right. As the five still-standing GOP candidates made their way through the diners, retirement homes, and gas stations of the Sunshine State in the crucial days before Tuesday’s primary vote, the view of the campaign trail that was edited, produced, and packaged for viewers often seemed less “real”… and more “reality.” A marathon showing, in other words, of the docudrama that was The Real World: Florida. (The schticks! The cliques! The slights! The fights!) And MTV’s central casting could hardly have picked a more Drama-Inducing mix. Having voted the Frat Guy (Duncan Hunter), the Slacker (Fred Thompson), and the Activist (Tom Tancredo) out of the house, we were left with the Player (Giuliani), the Joker (Huckabee), the Nerd (sorry, Ron Paul)…and, of course, the made-for-insta-rivalry pairing of the Rebel (McCain) and the Suit (Romney).
The McCain/Romney combat boots-versus-corporate suits enmity has been building for a while, but it reached a new level this week, with the GOP house’s chief rivals taking dig after dig at each other as they traipsed around Florida. And—“to have their lives taped,” and all—the media were there to record it.
But this is Sweeps Week for the news networks; minor insults won’t do. Ratings depend on Drama. And the clash between McMentum and Mittmentum came to a head last night as the intensity—and, yes, reality—of the candidates’ rivalry was put on display during RW:F’s reunion special, The Real World: Simi Valley. In the Air Force One Pavilion of the Reagan Library, against the meant-to-be-inspiring-but-ultimately-cartoonish backdrop of the plane that had lofted Reagan only partially as high as his wannabe-successors did last night, the four still-keeping-it-real candidates met to relive old times, rehash old tensions, and argue about who among them was most ready to become Reagan Redux. The two main rivals from RW:F, in particular, came ready for a fight—Romney, with a head full of facts and figures; McCain, as Anderson Cooper noted, “with a head full of steam.” And Drama, to be sure, ensued.
According to the LA Times,
The tension between McCain and Romney, the two leading Republican candidates, was heightened because the two sat next to each other, uncomfortable and occasionally glaring, as the insults burst forth. Former Arkansas Gov. Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the two other participants, were often left out.
Much of today’s Simi Valley coverage has focused either on that “tension” or on McCain’s debate “victory”—a bittersweet one earned, the consensus suggests, mainly by the fact that Romney fell short of trajectory-reversal. (“Boy, was that not the momentum-changer Mitt Romney needed,” wrote The New Republic’s Michael Crowley, expressing the majority opinion.) But the tone of the coverage has been remarkable, given that, as they brushed over the debate’s significance (“I saw a mostly predictable news-free affair,” Crowley wrote), many also acknowledged that the accusations McCain leveled against Romney last night—that the governor was in favor of setting a timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq—stretched/distorted/ignored the truth. This from The New York Times:
In a caustic encounter that saw the candidates often talking over each other, Mr. Romney called the accusation “offensive” and “absolutely wrong.” … Mr. McCain stood by his assertion, which has been labeled misleading by many news organizations, and continued to accuse Mr. Romney of wavering in his support of the troop build-up in Iraq. He noted that Mr. Romney had been the first in the campaign to use negative attacks, through millions of dollars of advertisements.
And here’s Andrew Sullivan:
This struck me as McCain’s worst performance of the campaign. He seemed—understandably—exhausted. He kept pushing some untruths about Romney’s position on Iraq. He seemed vague and unfocused on the economy. He was also more aggressive in swiping at Romney who was more civil and more engaging than I have seen so far.
And Huffington Post’s RJ Eskow:
McCain misrepresented Romney’s record, which triggered a “did so! did not!” argument that resulted in both of them becoming visibly smaller as we watched. They were paramecium-sized and still shrinking when it ended. Meanwhile Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee sat at the sidelines like squirrels at a tennis match.
And The Fix’s Chris Cillizza:
The most heated rhetoric of the debate came in a discussion over the correct course of action in Iraq. McCain insisted that Romney had supported a timetable for withdrawal, while Romney bitterly disagreed and accused McCain of “the sort of dirty tricks Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible.” That was the hottest flash point of the night, but it was far from the only time the two men butted heads.
In other words, the Real World coverage of the show last night seems to have drowned out the real-world coverage: summaries were much more interested in the debate’s “stop being polite” angle than its “start getting real” counterpart. Which amounted, it seems, to a free pass on accountability for the GOP’s current “straight-talking,” “straight-shooting” front-runner. And last night’s debate was an instance in which all that was required of reporters to check McCain’s claims was simple stenography. At the height of the fighting, when McCain and Romney were arguing over each other about what Romney had actually said, Anderson Cooper interrupted with the quote in question, from an interview Romney gave last year to ABC News:
There’s no question that the president and [Iraqi] Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement. You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re going to be gone.
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Carl Olson![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.cjr.org/nav-commenters.gif)
Fri 1 Feb 2008 07:12 PMDear Editor:
Senator John McCain is apparently not eligible to be elected President of the United States under the clear provisions of the Constitution. McCain is not a natural born citizen inasmuch as he was born in the U. S. Navy Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone, which was never part of the United States.
The Constitution states, “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible for the Office of President.” The 14th Amendment did not alter this provision.
The status of the U. S. Navy Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone is described by the U. S. Department of State in its Foreign Affairs Manual (7FAM1116.1-4(c)): “Despite widespread popular belief, U. S. military installations abroad and U. S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U. S. citizenship by reason of birth.”
This issue should be addressed as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Carl Olson
Chairman
State Department Watch
P. O. Box 6102
Woodland Hills, California 91365
818-223-8080
fredricwilliams![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.cjr.org/nav-commenters.gif)
Mon 7 Apr 2008 02:47 AMDespite the State Department manual, the issue is not McCain's the place of birth, but his status at birth. He was a citizen of the United States, under our laws, at the moment of his birth. Natural-born does not mean born inside the territory of the U.S. -- but excluded citizens who are "naturalized" -- made citizens at sometime after their birth by legal processes which convert their citizenship from that of another country.