# The Selling of John McCain **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 4, 2000, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076 "2000-08-04T01:42:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/21 "2000-08-04T16:04:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Bush, OTOH, severly limited his availability to the press. It could take weeks to get an interview scheduled. He was sometimes rude, and cut interviews short when asked questions he did not want to answer. And he called himself a Republican?!? For shame… ---
**Author:** ![Grendel69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7bcc69/32.png) [@Grendel69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grendel69)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/22 "2000-08-04T16:06:48Z")
Methinks that McCain and Bush cut a deal of sorts. McCain wouldn’t have supported Bush so enthusiastically if something wasn’t up. I suspect Bush may have agreed not to block his efforts to pass campaign finance reform in the Senate next year. In return, McCain’s speech at the convention probably handed Bush some of the Independent voters. Quote: “McCain was cruising along as a reasonably well known Senator. Most casual followers of U.S. politics recognized him by face and name. He got on the campaign finance reform bandwagon and suddenly the media chose him as their preferred Republican candidate. Being generally known as a one issue candidate, why does he have such a following?” I think that the media’s love for him also is what killed him. They concentrated so much on his efforts to reform campaign finance that they didn’t pay much attention to his other views and thus created a “one trick pony” of sorts. I think that a lot of people like him because of character. He doesn’t try to sell himself, he fought to defend this country, he goes against the overly rigid status quo of his party, etc. Dubya v Gore… ugggghhh. Hopefully 2004 will bring out some more interesting candidates. Rendell, McCain again, and, with divine intervetion, Powell. ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/23 "2000-08-04T17:08:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SouthernStyle \* > \*\*He got on the campaign finance reform bandwagon and suddenly the media chose him as their preferred Republican candidate. Being generally known as a one issue candidate, why does he have such a following? > \*\* That gives him one more issue than Bush. ---
**Author:** ![KeithB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@KeithB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KeithB)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/24 "2000-08-04T19:59:38Z")
There was an interesting report on NPR’s “Morning Edition” today. It was critiquing the speeches at the convention. When they got to McCain, both the Pundit (A Communications Professor) and the Reporter called it “odd.” Here was a fiery orator on the campaign trail that gave a speech to the convention as if he was phoning it in. He also did not mention campaign finance reform once. They concluded that it seemed as if someone wrote the speech for him and he was just reading it right then. Interestingly enough, Colin Powell lambasted the delagates about Affirmative Action (which is Powells issue, like campaign finace reform) and got a very cold reception from the floor. My guess is that McCain was told to not bring up reform, since it was a devisive issue in the primary. Powell could bring up AA, since there is no danger of 20% of the delegates shouting “Colin is right! Add Affirmative Action to our Platform!” ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/25 "2000-08-04T20:38:34Z")
Powell also didn’t win any Republican friends when he also announced he’d gladly accept the Secy. of State position from Al Gore as well as W. ---
**Author:** ![TampaFlyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@TampaFlyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TampaFlyer)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/26 "2000-08-04T20:51:22Z")
\> Also that should finally break the power of Limbaugh So if McCain were elected, people would stop listening to a radio show? Huh? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2000, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/27 "2000-08-05T04:59:22Z")
This doesn’t surprise me at all. There probably was an agreement, wither implicit or explicit, that whoever lost would support the other. That’s how politics works. I really didn’t get the impression that McCain was any more principled than the others. Perhaps I’m just cynical, but it really seemed that he was just telling people what they wanted to hear. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/28 "2000-08-07T00:24:45Z")
**Gadarene** wrote > [@](#): > > And Bill H., I understand what you’re saying, but surely campaign finance is a polar enough issue–given the fervence with which McCain decried our current, corrupt system–as to abjure “lesser-evilism” in this case. Both Bush and Gore oppose campaign finance reform (with Bush, of the two, the least likely to change his stance), and campaign finance reform was an issue about which McCain cared deeply: why, then, would either candidate be palatable to McCain, were he not abandoning his previously stated principles? Mr. McCain believes strongly in campaign finance reform, but not to the exclusion of all other topics. In fact, as I said, I happen to personally believe that campaign finance reform is bad, yet I strongly supported McCain. Does that make me a sell-out? I’ve yet in my life to find a candidate who exactly matched my positions. But you pick the closest match and go. For that matter, did McCain match your positions **exactly**? There was probably a thing or two that went against what you believed. But that doesn’t make you a sell-out. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2000, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076/29 "2000-08-07T14:27:11Z")
Gadarene: > [@](#): > > So has McCain utterly compromised his principles (not to mention his stance on campaign finance) by backing Bush? Given the fact that Gore is hardly a campaign-finance choirboy, Bush is certainly more aligned with everything else McCain believes in. Doesn’t sound to me like a “sellout.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-selling-of-john-mccain/28076.md?page=1)