From The Road
February 22, 2008 10:23 AM

McCain Campaing Pleased With Response to Times Story

By
Andante Higgins
Topics
John McCain
(CBS)
From CBS News' Dante Higgins:

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. -- After a full day of discussion and reaction to Thursday's New York Times article about John McCain and an alleged improper relationship with a lobbyist, the McCain camp has gone from angry to disappointed and now gratified.

They feel they were successful in responding and getting their message across that it was an "unfair smear" on McCain that should not have been printed.

The McCain campaign launched an offensive by sending out surrogates including campaign manager Rick Davis and senior advisor Charlie Black to speak in his defense. They appeared on morning television shows. They asked "where's the beef" in the story and called the article false gossip while highlighting that John McCain had not done anything illegal.

The next move was to have McCain make an appearance. He held a press conference in Toledo with his wife by his side and answered any and all questions related to the topic. He said he was disappointed in the New York Times story based on "anonymous sources" and denied any and all wrongdoing. Cindy McCain also stepped out in support of her husband calling him a man of great character.

After the McCains' appearance, the campaign's communications director Jill Hazelbaker told CBS News she thought their efforts were successful in refuting the story so far.

"I think our position has been to be cooperative as possible with the press. Answer as many questions as we can to make it clear that there is nothing to this story," she said. "The reality is that this was a very thin story based on background and unnamed sources."

As the day progressed, the campaign's message shifted, going on the offensive against the New York Times for printing a story with more innuendo than facts and the media was soon to follow.

"24 hours after it's been written it is largely discredited," advisor Steve Schmidt said. "A majority of people looked at it from the managing editor of Time magazine who said it shouldn't have run, [U.S. News and World Report publisher Mort] Zuckerman who said it shouldn't have run," advisor Steve Schmidt told CBS News.

The McCain camp also pointed out that outspoken conservative John McCain critics like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity spoke out against the publishing of this article yesterday.

"It's quite clear that professional journalists, media experts, and both liberal and conservative observers agree that today's New York Times smear job never should have made it to print," campaign spokesman Brian Rogers said.

At the end of the night, advisor Steve Schmidt reflected on the long day McCain's camp endured. "We feel gratified that the story has been discredited and that people care deeply about standards and fairness," he told CBS News. "It's been widely condemned as an unfair smear on John McCain. We look forward to getting back to the business of talking about issues that matter to the American people."

Today John McCain will have a town hall meeting in Indianapolis. Advisors say the topic today will be the Democratic presidential candidates and the debate he looks forward to having with them on key issues.

Add a Comment
by memekiller February 22, 2008 5:42 PM EST
At this point, regardless of how you feel about the Times piece, McCain has made it a story by issuing flat out denials that strain all credibility, and, let''s be frank, lying with a straight face, rather than straight talk.

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14667.html#comments

McCain has managed to pull a two-fer: a Clinton and a Gary Hart.
Reply to this comment
by memekiller February 22, 2008 3:30 PM EST
I imagine he''s pleased. It''s the same lesson from Rather -- if you can attack some specific detail of the case to cast doubt on a larger story that is not in doubt -- in that case, Bush''s missing months in the Guard and extreme efforts to cover it up.

I''m hoping the fact that the NYTs rushed this story and lawyered the sting out of it doesn''t overlook the very real questions about McCain''s commitment to campaign finance when he''s so closely associated with lobbyists, regardless of whether he slept with any of them (it''s an open secret he has, but you need some documentary evidence to back up the corroborating, independent accounts of McCain''s staff -- if the smeared is a Republican. Otherwise, a Drudge link will suffice.

It seems like CBS and the WP have kept the right focus, and have not allowed themselves to be intimidated -- yet -- into backing off the REAL story here, which is McCain being in bed with lobbyists metaphorically.
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