McCain’s Big Problem

When Bill Clinton had his tussle with the GOP in 1998, so much was made of a guy cheating on his wife that he became only the second president to be impeached. Now, it was mainly over the phrasing of a question and how he answered it, but it really came down to the Republicans knowing that the economy was going too good and they had to have a super scandal or Al Gore would be President. Therefore, the country was so angered about a sex scandal that they scorned a President.

John McCain’s problem is that his party has so focused on sex scandals being worse than the Holocaust that anything resembling the same type of scandal and you get hit in the head with that same boomerang you slang years before. The page scandal and gay republicans in 2006 (and beyond) proved just that.

However, the bigger problem for John is that he has spent 16 years restoring his credibility with the nation and upsetting his Republican partners after being caught up in the Keating 5 savings and loan scandal from the 80’s and early 90’s. McCain had to move to center and sign on to campaign finance reform for anyone to trust him again. However, Republicans hate this bill as it cuts off their corporate funding. Barack Obama (and Hillary may be too, she may even show her tax return after the democratic convention) is pulling all of his money in from individual donors…republican would like to offset that with Exxon and AT&T money. Unfortunately for the GOP, in his attempt to absolve himself from his sins, signed away many of those rights (of course, they can still give millions to Swift Boat someone in a 527 ad…but that’s for another time).

The story will likely be turned into a story about why did the NY Times report this information, not what they reported. In Washington terms, it’s probably somewhat minor. However, for someone who wanted to act like he was above the Washington Lobbyist’s and against earmarks, he just lost his ability to appear above reproach…and may have lost a chance at the White House.