July 18, 2008
McCain, Machiavelli -- spoke too soon edition
A reader provides an apparently authoritative report from The Hill that Phil Gramm has now stepped down as co-chair of the McCain campaign. MSNBC is reporting that he is out as economic adviser as well. Politico has an item that reports a McCain spokesman saying that Gramm would no longer represent the campaign, preceding Gramm's resignation that was released after the network news shows.
This invalidates the premise of my post earlier today, which was based on a Robert Novak piece that Mark Halperin gave currency and the Obama campaign appeared to credit. This reminds us never to rely on information from Robert Novak.
If may be that there was an original Machiavellian plot, but that the McCain campaign was too incompetent to stick to the script. Or there was not an intention to get rid of him until perhaps the porn investor story made Gramm too great a liability with the Christian right.
The main takeaways:
(1) both of McCain's original National General Co-Chairs are now gone, tainted by scandal.
(2) the McCain campaign appears tactically incompetent
Though the Democrats won't have Phil Gramm to kick around anymore, don't expect McCain's economic policies to get any more fair or more sensible.
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