How McCain Could Make Himself Even Duller
Candide's Notebooks / July 18, 2008
Word has it John McCain and Mitt Romney are making up. “The McCain-Romney feud was the juiciest of the Republican primary season, featuring two men who generally just did not seem to like each other,” the Times reports. “But that was then. These days Mr. Romney, the telegenic former Massachusetts governor, is serving as a wingman extraordinaire for Mr. McCain.” Telegenic? Well, John Tesh is “telegenic,” Paris Hilton is “telegenic,” every other local news television anchorette is “telegenic.” That doesn’t make them compelling, smart, or presidential material. It makes them fit for 32-inch screens. “Now Mr. Romney is attracting perhaps more buzz than anyone else as a potential running mate for the man he once derided.” So McCain’s assisted-living candidacy (well, he calls his politico-intellectual walkers his “campaign surrogates”), as deadening a presidential candidacy as Bob Dole’s in 1996 and Walter Mondale’s in 1984 combined, appears ready and willing to inject itself with yet another dose of dull. Barack Obama should be dancing in his turbans.