In article ,
Ed Rasimus wrote:
On Sun, 22 Aug 2004 01:10:27 GMT, David Fritzinger
wrote:

What do you want as proof. Bush was in trouble against McCain in the
South Carolina primary in 2000, and suddenly people were making
accusations about McCain's patriotism. Same thing happened in 2002 in
the Georgia Senate race. Unless you are desperate to avoid it, there is
a pattern here.

You seem to have a selective memory. No one ever questioned McCain's
patriotism. What was questioned (and in retrospect, rightly so) was
McCain's conservativism. While he might clearly be acceptable to a
fiscal/traditional conservative, he was not viewed as acceptable to
the social conservative (AKA religious right) of the Republican Party.
He was not strongly pro-life and he was a bit erratic on gun control.


Those would have been fair questions.

What was decidedly not fair was the assertion (in pamphlets) that John
McCain had had a child out of wedlock, of mixed race. In fact he and
his wife had adopted one (and since, two) children from Pakistan.

These assertions were racist, false, and designed to make McCain
unpalatable to many citizens of South Carolina. They succeeded admirably
in that aim.

As a confirmed liberal, I think John McCain is a fine man. I don't often
agree with his politics, but were he running for president, I can easily
imagine voting for him.

What the Bush people did to him was outrageous.

David Derbes

Pointing out an opponent's position on controversial issues isn't
really "smearing", particularly when it is a primary and the opponent
is out of step with the mainstream of the party ideology.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
"Phantom Flights, Bangkok Nights"
Both from Smithsonian Books
***www.thunderchief.org