Back in May, John McCain admitted that this year he’d face the “race of his life” against middle class champion and problem solver Ann Kirkpatrick. But if the first week of the general election is any indication, McCain might have been underselling his challenge.
To start off, McCain got less than 52% of the vote in his Republican primary, exposing an alarming weakness with his base voters who should know him best. Just two days later, The Rothenberg & Gonzalez Political Report changed its ranking in Ann Kirkpatrick’s direction, moving the race from Republican Favored to Leans Republican and calling McCain “more vulnerable in Arizona.” Politico asked “Could McCain lose?” and noted that Kirkpatrick was giving him “all he can handle.” And the Arizona Republic mocked McCain’s unwillingness to condemn Donald Trump, renaming him a “milquetoast maverick.”
And that was all before the worst of the headlines started.
The Arizona Republican Party, in a stunt as stunning as it was shameful, released a poster featuring an image of Ann Kirkpatrick surrounded by bullet holes. The disgusting poster was immediately condemned by Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Captain Mark Kelly, former Congressman Ron Barber, and members of the Arizona press. Conspicuously absent? John McCain, prompting the Arizona Republic’s EJ Montini to lament: “WANTED: John McCain to condemn Kirkpatrick ‘Wanted’ poster” and Esquire’s Luke O’Neil to ask, “Wanted: John McCain’s soul. Has anyone seen it?”
McCain’s stumbles only continued. Coming out of Labor Day weekend, McCain embraced Donald Trump as a partner on immigration, saying he can work “best” with the divisive and bigoted nominee who called Mexican immigrants criminals and rapists and favors mass deportation.
Then we discovered the candidate who used to tout his “straight talk” has changed, morphing into a “say anything” Washington politician.
In a striking report, the Washington Post exposed McCain’s immigration doublespeak, revealing that he delivers different messages on immigration to English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Arizonans:
The Spanish language site, for instance, lauds him as a member of the Gang of Eight that sought comprehensive immigration reform, and a supporter of a pathway to citizenship for the children of immigrants who came to the country illegally — a group known as the “Dreamers.” The English-language site makes no mention of either and portrays the senator as a champion of tougher border security.
One week into a general election after 33 years in Washington, and it’s clear that McCain is not the same “maverick” Arizonans used to know.
