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Can't win for losing McCain Does the DanceBy Rick Horowitz
PHILADELPHIA -- "Gong!" cried the man with the sign in his hand. "Drag him off!" The sign was on a pole, and the man with the sign pounded his pole against the auditorium floor -- "Bang! Bang! Bang!" -- as the famous speaker tried to press on. There were hisses and catcalls from elsewhere in the hall, angry shouts and bitter chants. Rule of thumb for politicians trying to connect with audiences? "Gong!" is not a good sound. "Bang!" isn't any better. John McCain did not look happy, and it was hard to blame him. A week of this could be a real pain. A few months of it could be agony. Then again, nobody said walking the tightrope would be easy. John McCain, maverick? Or John McCain, loyal soldier? This was at the Shadow Convention, a gathering of self-described outsiders eager to contrast themselves with the well-connected, well-heeled, corporately-cozy types meeting across town. "DOWNSIZED," read one of the signs, the kind of skinny signs on poles that might say "DELAWARE" or "TENNESSEE" at an "official" convention. "NOT A PAC DONOR," said another. "DISILLUSIONED." "DISREGARDED." "DISAFFECTED." "DISRESPECTED." This was the crowd that greeted John McCain with a standing ovation, and practically hooted him off the stage a few minutes later when he tried to sing the praises of one George W. Bush. "A little evangelizing," McCain called it, and it was nothing like preaching to the choir. He was doing just fine exactly as long as he stuck to the reformist themes that had energized his campaign. "We need change," he declared, "and we need it now!" But then came the part about how "the Republican Party is my home," and how the Republicans offer "the best chance" to achieve meaningful change, and the applause was suddenly, decidedly mixed. Despite their imperfections, McCain continued, Republicans are "the party of reform" --- and the hissing and the shouting began. He and the soon-to-be nominee, he insisted, "agree on many more issues than we disagree on" -- and the noise got louder. "This isn't why we're here!" "Drag him off!" "Gong! Gong!" McCain turned toward the head Shadow, commentator Arianna Huffington, standing in the wings. "If you'd like," he said to her, "I don't need to continue." And to the audience, as if reminding them of something perfectly obvious, something that months of riding the reform rocket had somehow obscured, "My friends, I am a conservative." They weren't inclined to like it. Huffington took the stage to tell the crowd to pipe down: "This is the convention where we can hear everything with respect." Her warning worked momentarily, and then the shouts picked up again -- on corporate evilry, environmental concerns, Navajo rights. McCain finished his remarks, briefly acknowledged the applause from the friendly fraction, and was gone. Gone to spend the rest of the week on the other side of town, trying to sell the same line -- "My friends, I am a conservative" -- to a totally different audience. An audience that's not inclined to believe it. Not after all the shake-up-the-system things McCain has been saying for months, and the way he blasts Republicans as well as Democrats for their addiction to campaign cash. Not after all the dismissive things he had to say about George W. during the primaries, and his willingness (eagerness?) to play kissy-face with the media long past closing time. He can stand there on the podium at the "official" convention and say all the proper words in support of the nominee and the nominee's positions. He can pledge his full support, and promise to pound the campaign trail on the nominee's behalf. He can do all that, and some of the people in the building still won't trust him any farther than they can throw him. Poor John McCain -- too right for the left, too left for the right. Posted 7/31/00. "Rick's"
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Rick Horowitz