2000 Primaries
It is not ironic that the beginning problem to be addressed with Bush is the 2000 primaries. Perhaps this paper on the GOP President would be nonexistent if Bush and his political attack team would have played nice when dealing with their own party. The beginning of the 2000 Primaries saw John McCain, the Arizona Republican Senator, become the frontrunner for his party’s nomination. Winning three of the first seven states(1) sent a message to George W. Bush; this would be race till the end. That’s when Bush’s team went to work on McCain. Using all forms of vile obscenities attacking both McCain’s policies and personal life, Bush with a seemingly unlimited treasure chest, went to work on the presidential candidate. Bush went to great lengths to discredit the maverick senator, even creating a push poll about McCain fathering an illegitimate child.(2)
The primaries were devastating to McCain with Bush using the media to leverage negative opinions about his opponent. During the South Carolina Republican primary in 2000, rumors were spread by fellow Republican senators about John McCain's mental health as a result of his imprisonment as a POW. McCain immediately quashed those rumors by voluntarily releasing his entire military record, which confirmed no indications of adverse physical or mental conditions.
McCain has always been a viable threat to corporate agenda. His continual call for campaign finance reform, limiting “soft” money donations, would undermine the influence big business would maintain within the political arena. McCain is the only Republican vocal enough to attack the tobacco companies (They gave close to nine million between '95-'01 to the Republican Party(3)) and conservative enough to fight the media sleaze broadcasted by some of Bush’s largest donors. Though “Bush’s silver-spoon fed business career"(4) yielded many embarrassments, it did teach him the power of corporate money. McCain was a threat to various corporations and Bush and friends were determined to keep him out.
John McCain is one of the last
decent politicians. A Vietnam POW,
McCain understood better then any politician the great divide that occurs with
decisions of such magnitude. McCain
retains job approval ratings of 70 percent among independents, and is a
favorite of conservative Democrats. His
dedication to his constituents and the
Howard Fineman of Newsweek writes: “His [McCain] media platform is nearly as tall as the president's, and he is using it right now to outflank him on the "corporate responsibility" issue. His speech to the National Press Club and his appearance on "Meet the Press" give him a chance to list the sweeping reforms he favors: truly independent corporate boards, free of personal and financial connections with management; the counting of executive stock options as salary, thus making them subject to income tax; a ban on corporate consulting by accounting firms; an independent federal agency to oversee the accounting industry; a renewed distinction (first written into law after the Depression) between stock brokering and investment banking.”(5) McCain is not influenced by corporate hierarchies, a model for Politicians and the opposite of George Bush.