October 17, 2007
HOPKINTON, N.H.
WAIT a minute, Mittster Boast-man.
That's John McCain's message to Mitt Romney - and McCain has a point.
It takes no small measure of chutzpah for a candidate who opportunistically recast himself as a conservative in order to run for president to now declare himself the tribune of true Republicanism. Of course, chutzpah might as well be Willard Mitt Romney's middle name. (As opposed to his nickname: Slick Willard.)
But chutzpah can also lead a hyperambitious candidate to overreach. And thus it was that, speaking in Nevada on Friday, Romney asserted that he spoke for "the Republican wing of the Republican Party."
McCain, who was a GOP stalwart back when Mitt was an independent donating to Democrats, promptly pounced. In a Saturday speech, McCain noted that his Republican rival had voted for Democrat Paul Tsongas for president in the 1992 primary, spoken slightingly of the Reagan era, and even opposed Newtie's Contract with America.
That blast made front-page news in New Hampshire - and when I talked with McCain on Sunday, the Arizona senator was ready to press the point.
"If you're going to make that claim, then it's important to look at the record," McCain told me. And Romney's record, McCain said, left his claim "very much open to question."
McCain underscored two things: Romney's status as a registered independent back before he first ran for office, plus his claim, during a 1994 debate with Ted Kennedy, that he didn't want to return to the Reagan years.
In a GOP campaign where nearly everyone is vying to be the New Old Gipper, wrinkling one's nose at Reagan is as close to heresy as a modern Republican can come. Which is no doubt why the McCain campaign included in a Monday e-mail a handy-dandy link. Click it, and there shimmers onto the screen a damning doppelganger from Mitt's moderate past.
"Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush," that early-model Mittster declares as he deflects a dart from Kennedy. "I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush."
Could molten lead burn any more searingly in GOP ears? Most Republicans, as McCain noted archly, view the Reagan presidency "as one of the finer eras in the Republican Party."
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK HERE
HOPKINTON, N.H.
WAIT a minute, Mittster Boast-man.
That's John McCain's message to Mitt Romney - and McCain has a point.
It takes no small measure of chutzpah for a candidate who opportunistically recast himself as a conservative in order to run for president to now declare himself the tribune of true Republicanism. Of course, chutzpah might as well be Willard Mitt Romney's middle name. (As opposed to his nickname: Slick Willard.)
But chutzpah can also lead a hyperambitious candidate to overreach. And thus it was that, speaking in Nevada on Friday, Romney asserted that he spoke for "the Republican wing of the Republican Party."
McCain, who was a GOP stalwart back when Mitt was an independent donating to Democrats, promptly pounced. In a Saturday speech, McCain noted that his Republican rival had voted for Democrat Paul Tsongas for president in the 1992 primary, spoken slightingly of the Reagan era, and even opposed Newtie's Contract with America.
That blast made front-page news in New Hampshire - and when I talked with McCain on Sunday, the Arizona senator was ready to press the point.
"If you're going to make that claim, then it's important to look at the record," McCain told me. And Romney's record, McCain said, left his claim "very much open to question."
McCain underscored two things: Romney's status as a registered independent back before he first ran for office, plus his claim, during a 1994 debate with Ted Kennedy, that he didn't want to return to the Reagan years.
In a GOP campaign where nearly everyone is vying to be the New Old Gipper, wrinkling one's nose at Reagan is as close to heresy as a modern Republican can come. Which is no doubt why the McCain campaign included in a Monday e-mail a handy-dandy link. Click it, and there shimmers onto the screen a damning doppelganger from Mitt's moderate past.
"Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush," that early-model Mittster declares as he deflects a dart from Kennedy. "I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush."
Could molten lead burn any more searingly in GOP ears? Most Republicans, as McCain noted archly, view the Reagan presidency "as one of the finer eras in the Republican Party."
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE CLICK HERE
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