Who are you?

One of the most striking things about the McCain campaign is that they not only are willing to rationalize any hypocrisy or sleaze, but that they do it in such a ridiculously laughable fashion. Read this interview between Jeff Goldberg and McCain aide Marc Salter, who wrote McCain's auto-hagiographies. What emerges is what we already knew: John McCain is a great and good American hero, and anyone who disagrees is a bad person. But they can't even make it seem like anything other than spin. His answers to all the sharper questions Salter answers are all of the form, "We're nothing compared to how bad Barack Obama is," which happens to be untrue and stupid, since it's an implicit admission of guilt. Which also happens to be Rick Davis's rationale for revisiting Jeremiah Wright. They're intentionally getting wrong what John Lewis said in hopes of inciting racial backlash. Lewis didn't call McCain a racist, but said that the mob mentality at some of these rallies is reminiscent of the Wallace rallies. And it is. In any event, Ambinder is right, "And blaming Rep. John Lewis, he of certainly intemperate comments, for McCain's decision to lower himself? That sounds like it was cooked up in a fit of anger, not rational thought." John McCain: a uniter, not a divider.