NYT Editorial: McCain Is Nasty

The New York Times did not approve of McCain's (non)message:

When John McCain embarrassed himself last month by declaring that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong,” he quickly claimed that he was talking about his belief in the American worker — and darkly implied that anyone who disagreed was less than patriotic.

For all of that concern, it’s a shame that Mr. McCain hasn’t come up with policies that would actually help America’s workers. Instead, he’s served up the same-old trickle-down theories and a government-is-wrong, markets-are-right fervor that helped create this economic disaster.

Wednesday night’s debate was another chance for Mr. McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this country out of its deep economic crisis.

But Mr. McCain stuck to his script, and the nasty tone of his campaign, including a rather bizarre claim that Barack Obama had told a plumber in Ohio that Mr. Obama wanted to take away his wealth.

In one astonishing exchange, Mr. McCain acted as though he was the truly aggrieved party. And he insisted that he had repudiated all of the attacks on Mr. Obama by surrogates and misguided supporters. Mr. McCain didn’t mention that his vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, is one the loudest attackers — and he certainly didn’t repudiate her absurd, repeated charge that Mr. Obama has been “palling around with terrorists.”

Thursday, October 16, 2008