Why Is McCain’s Former Campaign Chair Stumping for Obama?

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Yesterday brought the news that Mark McKinnon–one of McCain’s key campaign advisors–fulfilled his promise to step down rather than work against Barack Obama.

Mark McKinnon said last year that he would leave McCain’s campaign after the primary season if the Arizona senator were to run against Obama.

[snip]

In a 2007 interview with Cox News, McKinnon said he would vote for McCain, but "I just don’t want to work against an Obama candidacy." He added that if Obama were to reach the White House, it "would send a great message to the country and the world."

Part of McKinnon’s unease with running against Obama, incidentally, is that he didn’t want to run negative against Obama. So I guess we can look forward to lots more smear campaigning from the Republican side, now that McKinnon has stepped down.

More interesting than McKinnon, though, is reality-based Republican Chuck Hagel’s apparent support for Obama.

The Republican Senator from Nebraska was a political thorn in McCain’s side on Tuesday night, repeatedly lavishing praise on the presumptive Democratic candidate and levying major foreign policy criticisms at the GOP nominee and the Republican Party as a whole. At one point, Hagel even urged the Arizona Republican to elevate his campaign discourse to a higher, more honest level.

[snip] 

Much of Hagel’s address, hosted by the Ploughshares Fund, was spent weaving between Obama praise and McCain quips. He urged the media, for example, to focus on important policy issues an "not just why Barack [doesn’t] wear flag pins on his lapel."

Asked whether he would be open to serving as Secretary of Defense in a hypothetical Obama administration, Hagel demurred. But in the process, he praised the Illinois Democrat for being open to a bipartisan cabinet.

You see, Chuck Hagel is not just any reality-based Republican. Chuck Hagel was the Co-Chair of McCain’s 2000 Presidential campaign.

Now, there are several conclusions one might draw from Hagel’s apparent endorsement of Obama over his former candidate. Perhaps Hagel is fickle or a flip-flopper. Perhaps Barack Obama is so charismatic, he has been able to woo Hagel over just a few years in the Senate, in spite of Hagel and McCain’s lifelong friendship and shared background as Vietnam Vets. 

Or perhaps McCain is not the man he was in 2000. 

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63 replies
  1. WilliamOckham says:

    Mark McKinnon has no principles. He’s a rat leaving a sinking ship. Hagel is everything McCain pretends to be. A real conservative maverick, military man, and ethical politician. I’d never vote for Hagel, but I’d trust him to keep his word.

    • klynn says:

      I agree about Hagel. I have appreciated the work that Hagel and Biden have done together on many occassions in terms of their public statements about the war as well as statements against Bush policy.

      This was interesting to watch/read last month:

      http://delawarewatch.blogspot……icket.html

    • Leen says:

      Would you vote for him if he was with Obama on the ticket? What is it that you do not trust about Hagel?

      • freepatriot says:

        What is it that you do not trust about Hagel?

        well, he belongs top a party that is led by the scum of the earth for one thing

        he doesn’t have enough sense to understand that his continued presence in the repuglitard party denotes a severe lack of morals

        that’s why I don’t trust him

        and he don’t help the Democratic Ticket

        so why bother with this morally bankrupt repuglitard ???

        • barbara says:

          My adult brother has mental retardation. He and his peers have battled stereotyping and belittling comments all their lives. They are loving people who work, play and vote in the community. They pay taxes. They care deeply about others.

          May I respectfully request that terms like “repuglitard” are hurtful to a broad spectrum of kind and vulnerable people? I assume that was not your intent, but it could be the result all the same.

        • trianarael says:

          “Tard” has become a pervasive pejorative referring to people with developmental disabilities. The use of the term always reflects back to this community in a most disrespectful manner.

      • Raven says:

        When the Hagel boys came home (Chuck saved his brother when he got hit) they would fistfight about Vietnam because his brother turned against i before Chuck did.

        • Badwater says:

          No such problems among members of the Bush family. For them, nonservice promotes harmony.

      • cbl2 says:

        his voting record – 95% with Cheney and there is the no small matter of his interest in electronic voting machines

      • WilliamOckham says:

        I said I trust Hagel, not the reverse. I hope Obama has enough sense not to put Hagel on the ticket, though. There are plenty (in this case, that means more than 3) of Democrats who are honorable, trustworthy, and would bring more to the ticket.

  2. AZ Matt says:

    It makes you wonder how negative McCain will let his surrogates go. Of course he will “have no control” over them.

  3. JGabriel says:

    William Ockham:

    Mark McKinnon has no principles. He’s a rat leaving a sinking ship.

    That’s rather ingracious.

    McKinnon stated all the way back in 2007 that he would leave McCain’s campaign if Obama won the nomination. Last night, Obama reached the *minimum* threshold for compelling McKinnon to honor that pledge, the majority of elected delegates, minus FL & MI.

    Look, I have no brief for McKinnon, and it’s possible that if I knew more about him I would be just as cynical regarding his motives.

    But, frankly, the guy made a pledge and he kept it. That hardly seems like an occasion for attacking him.

    .

      • freepatriot says:

        WilliamOckham is RIGHT

        this guy McKinnon is the sxum of the earth

        and stupid as dirt too

        McKinnon and Bush hooked up and the former Democrat rationalized it away by saying he was “a Bush guy” and not really a Republican.

        so he’s “a bush guy”

        how’d that work out for ya ???

        george bush is a stain that ain’t EVER gonna come out

      • JGabriel says:

        WilliamOckham @ 6:

        Dude, I was being nice.

        Thanks, good article.

        That said, and even agreeing with everything in the above linked essay, I still think McKinnon did something marginally praiseworthy in honoring his pledge to drop out if Obama got the nomination.

        I certainly don’t think that means Obama should go hire the guy. McKinnon’s clearly an unreliable political opportunist.

        But I also don’t see the need to attack him over something that is arguably admirable. Seems kind of ingracious, as I said at top. If there are cynical motives, I’m sure they’ll become clear within a couple of day, and then we can all join the mocking with a clear consience.

        In the meantime, I’m willing to give him a pass for a few days and give him respect for honoring his pledge – a rare occurence amongst Republicans, as noted by others in this thread.

        .

  4. wavpeac says:

    If you were republican, having committed all the crimes that this regime has committed, wouldn’t you do whatever it takes to win??

    I think that is what we have in store for us.

    I very much admire the things that Hagel has stood up for. I admire the fact that he dropped out rather than playing “their” game. I admire his honesty about the war, torture and about Obama. However, I just cannot figure out why he voted the way he did on some issues, and why he supported the wealthiest corporates of this nation for so long…which he did.

    I think it is clear that if you supported the Bush regime, you were rewarded with money, following, status and power and if you did not, you were punished. Hagel was punished and McCain, wanted power more than his integrity. It seems an obvious neo con pattern.

  5. azportsider says:

    “But, frankly, the guy made a pledge and he kept it.”

    That alone is virtually unheard of in today’s Republican party. OTOH, I agree that if I knew more about McKinnon I might be a lot more cynical about his motives.

    As to Hagel’s apparent defection from McCain’s camp, I vote for “McCain’s not the man he was in 2000.” Whenever someone tells me he or she’s voting McCain, I always ask, “Which McCain?” He’s flip-flopped on so many issues, pandered to so many special interests, and backpedaled so often since 2000 that no one has a clue where he really stands anymore.

  6. BooRadley says:

    Hagel’s from NE, not exactly a bastion for liberals. I don’t know enough about him to comment authoritatively, but maybe one of the Cornhuskers here can help me out. I seem to remember Hagel punishing a GOP candidate in a local race for letting his people anonymously send out anti-semitic literature against another candidate.

  7. Rayne says:

    McKinnon’s departure makes one wonder what the rest of McCain’s five-man strategy team are now thinking (Rick Davis, Mark Salter, Charlie Black and Steve Schmidt), as well as McCain’s consultants (Foxhole Media: Fred Davis, Chris Mottola, Mike Hudome).

  8. merkwurdiglieber says:

    McKinnon started out as an adviser to Ann Richards, fell in a swoon for
    codpiece and now wants to switch again, he is another boomer on the make.

  9. Minnesotachuck says:

    Earlier this morning, before the caffeine kicked in, I scanned a piece by some guy named Schur who was also some sort of poobah in McCain’s 2000 campaign (finance chair, IIRC), and it was in a similar vein. I intended to post the link but can’t find it now.

    • Minnesotachuck says:

      Found it! It was in this morning’s NY Times, and by Dan Schnur (not Schur). Here’s how he closes out:

      Shrugging is rarely the indicator of a motivated political party. And Republicans seem particularly unenthused. Worse, 12 years of a G.O.P. congressional majority have added to the complacency, and two years under Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid don’t seem to have been enough to rouse the party faithful.

      John McCain has no shortage of challenges in this uphill race. He is taking on the war debate full force, and is working hard to convince voters that his path toward eventual peace is less risky than Barack Obama’s. While he carries the burden of a recession that most voters attach to the current administration, Mr. McCain argues strenuously that tax increases during tough economic times is unwise. He turns questions about his age into answers about experience and preparation. Uphill fights all, but none more challenging than the broader task of reinvigorating a dispirited Republican Party.

  11. Leen says:

    Senator Hagel jumped off the Republicans bus years ago. He has been on Tim Russerts up against the radical nutcase Lieberman several times. Hagel has even brought up the Palestinian Israeli conflict in fair and balanced ways. Addressing the illegal settlements and other issues.

    Chuck Hagel Smacks Lieberman: Questions his competency
    http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..lieberman/

    I really enjoyed when Hagel turned up the heat on Condi Rice
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wlMxxyKztw

    Hagel and the next President
    http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=bW69WfcEmJc

    Hagel has been focused on the truth of this illegal and immoral war for years now.

    I have thought for a long time that he was a potential for the Democratic V.P spot.

  12. Minnesotachuck says:

    Here’s John Dean’s comparison of McCain with Barry Goldwater that appeared earlier this month. Here’s an excerpt:

    . . [Matt] Welch [author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick] reports that McCain seeks to use the federal government to generate greater patriotism and expand the nation’s greatness, while Goldwater – knowing the folly of empire and excessively large government – sought to maximize individual liberty and local autonomy.

    Welch notes, too, that McCain has no problem whatsoever being a nasty if not a devious s.o.b. when he sees doing so as necessary to serve or accomplish a greater cause. Goldwater, on the other hand, rejected all incivility and dishonesty in public service, and refused to take the low road; for him, the ends never justified any means. McCain, we learn from Welch’s book, has wanted to be president since returning from Vietnam, while Goldwater was drafted to be the GOP standard-bearer. Stated a bit differently, McCain’s oversized ego provides him strength, while Goldwater curtained his natural strengths by always acting with great humility.

    No wonder, then, that when McCain sought to suck up to Goldwater, Goldwater declined to embrace this very different politician. Welch points out that “McCain has spent much … time puzzling over Goldwater’s lack of embrace.” Indeed, McCain stated in his memoir Worth the Fighting For when discussing Goldwater, “I admired him to the point of reverence, and I wanted him to like me…. He was usually cordial, just never as affectionate as I would have liked.”

    This is no surprise to anyone who knew Goldwater. Welch sums it up accurately: “[T]he biggest differences between McCain and Goldwater were so obvious, [and] so destined to keep the two men out of each other’s arms, that McCain’s inability to identify them borders on self-denial and political tone-deafness.” The gulf is wide, and the difference fundamental: Goldwater loved America and its people; McCain loves power, and what it can do for McCain.

  13. Raven says:

    Now, there are several conclusions one might draw from Hagel’s apparent endorsement of Obama over his former candidate. Perhaps Hagel is fickle or a flip-flopper. Perhaps Barack Obama is so charismatic, he has been able to woo Hagel over just a few years in the Senate, in spite of Hagel and McCain’s lifelong friendship and shared background as Vietnam Vets.

    You left out, because he has integrity. Did you read the NYT Mag piece on McCain where they discussed the difference between a pilot in a POW camp and people on the ground acutally seeing, smelling and tasting what was happening. It doesn’t detract from McCain’s ordeal but it’s not the same. This can account for the difference between McCain and Kerry, Webb and Hagel. (ps, it doesn;t excuses Webb’s insistence that the VN Anti-War movment was wrong).

    • puravida says:

      There’s also pragmatic. A solid Viet-Nam vet in Obama’s corner innoculizes him against McCain’s service (somewhat) and buttresses Obama’s foreign policy cred. There’s also the likely scenario of a spot for Hagel in Obama’s cabinet.

      • Badwater says:

        Too bad that being a solid Viet-Nam vet didn’t help Kerry against the draft dodger Bush.

  14. Mary says:

    OT
    A few of the amoral jerks in Congress finally get around to talking to one of our ex-detainees. And just like no one in the network media paid any attention to the satellite feed of Executive Crimes victim Arar when he spoke to Congress months back, they haven’t paid attention to this testimony by Kurnaz either.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/n…..fies_o.php

    So the timeline is that Congress allows an illegal attainder facility, peopled with human trafficking victims purchased using US tax$, to be established while they all run out and buy lapel pins. Hillary Clinton and John McCain on the armed services committee receive daily chiropractic therapy from the damage done by the bizare stresses placed on their necks as they make sure they never look at what is going on.

    Then you have people determined to be absolute ”mistakes” at GITMO (except, of course, that kidnapping and disappearing a ”mistake” out of country for shipment to a concentrated population detention facility is a major breach of the G. Conventions and subject to the War Crimes Act. So suddenly no one wants to release the ”mistakes.”

    Some, like Kurnaz, despite years of being held for no reason, at last do get to court. Of course, they first have the challenge of anyone getting access to the super-duper-secret files. DOJ can be so proud – Comey isn’t the only one who can invoke secrecy to help out his buddies. And when attornies do get access to all the exculpatory material in the files they then get threatened that they can’t use it, bc it’s ”secret”

    Finally they get to a judge who is appalled and orders release, but DOJ appeals and continues Kurnaz’ torture detention in the concentrated population camps.

    ALL OF THIS IS GOING ON PUBLICALLY. In freaking DC. So what does Carl Levin do? He scratches his butt, rushes to huddle with Warner and McCain and Graham and starts the path to suspending habeas so that George Bush’s war crimes victims won’t have access to courts. He says he just meant for the victims who hadn’t already filed cases to lose their rights – God bless his furry little soul – and thank God the Sup Ct in an ’everywhichway’ opinion pretty much agrees that pending cases are not disenfranchised. Leaving open the question of after-filed cases and, more importantly, the question of what ”better” drafted legislation could do to complete the disenfranchising process.

    So then we get round two. The US moaning and complaining that other countries ”won’t take” people we’ve been torturing for years (with no one mentioning the fact that we are trying to force foreign governments to agree to hold as prisoners anyone released to them no matter how innocent they were before the kidnap/torture started) while getting to work on new legislation. Legislation that Harry Reid won’t block for love or money. Legislation that he insures will get through, while still being able to blink and pretend he voted ”against” it. Where are Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama – making a few lightweight statements on the floor. Only Leahy and Dodd really tried to fight the fight.

    And while Dems like Sherrod Brown RUSH to support the MCA and fawningly cling to McCain as their touchstone for that support, we now have Congress, despite a whole RAFT of PUBLISHED stories like Kurnaz’ going on right under their noses in DC courts, and despite the publicized Arar case being decided during the actual build up to the MCA vote – a charlatan Congress crawling before George Bush and doing what even the OLC opinions did not and could not – – a Congress making it an irrebuttable presumption that ANYONE termed an ”unlawful enemy combatant” at a kangaroo court be irrevocably put into that status – while taking all habeas rights away.

    And now, NOW, they hold a little under the radar session to tsk tsk over Kurnaz’ story.

    Which, btw, includes descriptions of his ”water treatment” as well. Three waterboardings evah? Yeah, right.

    • selise says:

      thank you mary. i don’t know what infuriates me more – congress’ lack of desire to hold the administration accountable or our inabiltiy / lack of desire to hold our dems in congress and on the campaign trail accountable.

  15. sadlyyes says:

    good morning andGLAD TIDDINGS

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrat Barack Obama has opened an 8-point national lead on Republican John McCain as the U.S. presidential rivals turn their focus to a general election race, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.

    ADVERTISEMENT

    Obama, who was tied with McCain in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup last month, moved to a 48 percent to 40 percent lead over the Arizona senator in May as he took command of his grueling Democratic presidential duel with rival Hillary Clinton.

    The Illinois senator has not yet secured the Democratic presidential nomination to run against McCain in November.

    The poll also found Obama expanded his lead over Clinton in the Democratic race to 26 percentage points, doubling his advantage from mid-April

  18. i4u2bi says:

    From a fellow Michigander…are there other reality based Republicans out there somewhere? Not looking for one just wonderin’.

    • emptywheel says:

      I think John Schwarz is reality based (another McCain Chair who, I suspect, won’t be supporting McCain this time around). That’s why he’s not running this year, of course.

  19. Bluetoe2 says:

    Aside from an occasional criticism of Bush or McCain, Chuck Hagel has a very conservative voting record. He may have ethical standards but he does not fit into a progressive agenda.

    • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

      If he actually **has** ethical standards, he could arguably join the progressives.
      It’s the people who lack them entirely who’ve created most of the trouble we’re in.

      Litmus tests took the place of ethical conduct and the cart took the horse for one hell of a destructive ride.

  20. linda says:

    i don’t buy the mckinnon spin; he’s worked too hard to install this rancid cabal of bush cronies. he just doesn’t want to be front and center of the race-baiting and rnc assholery that will be employed against barack obama. he’ll sit and advise from the sidelines instead.

  21. ironranger says:

    Interesting. Last fall as my husband & I were boarding plane from NYC to Mpls, I heard a guy having what seemed to be a conference call with others coordinating some arrangements. I just can’t remember what I heard that made me think it had to do with a campaign thing. This was the sunday before Halloween. I thought he looked familiar & when I searched later I found a video of McKinnon. Looked the same person to me. I’m not sure but think Obama was in MN around that time.

  22. siri says:

    “Or perhaps McCain is not the man he was in 2000. “
    ya think???
    The current McCain is but a shadow/evil twin of the John McCain of the past. This has been pointed out repeatedly by many over the course of his “transformation”. I think the “original John McCain” must be horrifically p*$#ed at this new guy. I don’t think we need “Sybil” in the White House.

  23. bystander says:

    In defense of Hagel from Think Progress:

    Yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) suggested impeaching President Bush if he attacks Iran. “You’ve got the power of impeachment, now that is a very defined measure if you are willing to bring charges against the president at all,” said Hagel. Attacking Iran without Congress’s consent “would bring with it…outstanding political consequences.” Hagel also raised impeachment in March 2007.

  24. freepatriot says:

    wanna here a howler:

    mcsame’s campaign adviser was lobbying mcsame’s senate staff back in november

    John McCain’s top foreign policy adviser lobbied the Arizona senator’s staff on behalf of the republic of Georgia while he was working for the campaign, public records show.

    Randy Scheunemann, founder of Orion Strategies, represented the governments of Macedonia, Georgia and Taiwan between 2003 and March 1, according to the firm’s filings with the Justice Department. In its latest semiannual report, the firm disclosed that Scheunemann had a phone conversation in November about Georgia with Richard Fontaine, an aide in McCain’s Senate office.

    you really can’t make this stuff up anymore

    it’s beyond parody

    mccain was lobbying mccain

    there’s no other explanation

  26. HelplessDancer says:

    From the Huffington Post piece:

    Chuck Hagel is quickly becoming Barack Obama’s answer to Joe Lieberman.

    Hey, no need for gratuitous insults.

  27. Raven says:

    WASHINGTON (CNN) — The United States will allow Americans to send mobile phones to relatives in Cuba under a change in policy that President Bush announced Wednesday.

    Bush said he is making the change since President Raúl Castro ”is allowing Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time.”

    ”If he is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people,” Bush said.

    Bush urged the Cuban government to loosen restrictions further, saying if Cubans can be allowed to own mobile phones, ”they should be trusted to speak freely in public.”

    They should be allowed to watch uncensored movies and have free access to the Internet, he said.

    And he called for the government to implement major free-market reforms.

    Relations between the United States and Cuba remain tense nearly 50 years after Fidel Castro overthrew the pro-American government in Havana. The United States has maintained an embargo against Cuba for decades.

    Cuban officials on Monday accused the top U.S. diplomat in Havana of delivering money from private anti-Castro groups in Florida to dissidents in Cuba.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that ”the U.S. government has programs to provide humanitarian assistance to people that are essentially forgotten by the Cuban government and that we … do not stand in the way of private groups doing that as well.”

  28. Mary says:

    selise – I think Congress and the lawyers in DOJ provoke my strongest and most lasting resentment. I’m not worried over the label liberal, but God forbid I should have the same “democrat” label as Harry Reid. blech.

    Re: McKinnon, what merkw… said at 10. McKinnon was a Dem and Dem consultant, then as he recites it, he saw Bush across a crowded room and fell in love. Truly.

    I hope when he looks at the 9/11 victims and the limbless US soldiers and the dead Iraqi babies and lines of flag draped coffins coming home, he’s able to see it all “prettified” in that haze of lovelust.

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