Is McCain About "Country First"?

Chris Cillizza reports in the The Fix today that the theme of the GOP Convention, "Country First," is designed to make the case that John McCain is all about the welfare of the nation, while Barack Obama is the "me first" celebrity. Clearly that is a focus of the steady barrage of negative ads---along with the steady stream of pictures of Obama next to attractive white women (four in the new ad up today.)

To my surprise, the normally cautious Cillizza then raises some of the very questions that have troubled us at The Sensible Center about McCain's campaign themes:

"But is McCain's campaign really about putting the "country first" -- and not about the candidate himself? It's hard to support such a premise when the presumed Republican nominee has based much of his campaign on various deceptions. First, and most obvious, are McCain's campaign ads. In the last month and a half, McCain frequently put out advertisements that contain false or misleading information, according to FactCheck.org. When we asked him about the ads, McCain was dismissive and appeared to stand by them.

McCain has also enthusiastically promoted the fallacy that lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling will have an immediate impact on gas prices -- which many Americans, apparently, have been eager to embrace. A recent CNN poll found half of Americans believe expanded offshore drilling will lead to lower prices at the pump. At the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota last week, McCain repeated this message, which has become a central pillar of his stump speech...."

The best line I have heard about the McCain campaign to date is: "The John McCain of 2000 wouldn't vote for the John McCain of 2008." There is no denying that the current campaign themes are right on target if you want to create doubt about Obama's qualifications and character, but McCain's enthusiastic endorsement of fact-challenged assertions and salacious innuendo is beneath the dignity of the man and, in an earlier era, the Republican Party.