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Figured I’d try a political blog entry out.  I did study Political Science in college after all—like half of my law school classmates.

Yesterday a McCain adviser told Fortune magazine that a terrorist attack would help McCain’s chances on winning the election…and EVERYBODY is freaking out about it.  Specifically he said, "a fresh terrorist attack 'certainly would be a big advantage to him.”

John McCain, in response said, “It’s just not true…If he said that, and I do not know the context, I strenuously disagree."

Okay, let’s start here, the advisor was obviously right.  Terrorism is a Republican issue, for better or worse—and what I mean by that is people who prioritize homeland security above all else vote Republican more often than they vote Democrat.  Common knowledge, right?  And if a terrorist attack were to happen in the US, it would bring the terrorism issue to the political foreground.  Commonsense, right?  ERGO, a terrorist attack would help McCain’s chances of getting elected.

John McCain obviously knows all this.  So why does he have to play dumb and pretend that he doesn’t?  (This is rhetorical; the answer is obvious: if he did, the media/Obama camp would have a “John McCain wants a terrorist attack” field day.)  I always thought he was one of the most honest politicians around, and this false naivety doesn’t suit him well. 

Of course, his advisor boarded the false naivety express earlier today: “I deeply regret the comments—they were inappropriate. I recognize that John McCain has devoted his entire adult life to protecting his country.”

And I’m sure if some reporter were to remind McCain that Presidential Elections are zero-sum games and that his quote implicitly suggested that an attack would help Obama, he’d keep the false naivety shtick going and say something like, “Terrorist attacks don’t help anybody—not me, not my opponent, and certainly not the people of America.” 

And don’t you think the John McCain of 2000 would have said, “Yes, an attack would help my campaign, but not, I don’t want one, and anybody who suggests otherwise, well, I’d like them to tell me that to my face”?

For more on this story, check out http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com, http://rawstory.com/, http://www.thedestinlog.com/, or http://www.newsgroper.com,

So...more....less political blog entries???