Trailhead: A campaign blog.

Bush's Final Gift to McCain

McCain’s concession symbolizes the passing of many torches, not the least of which is the completion of the most historic screwing over in modern American politics. Consider the evidence:

• In the 2000 South Carolina primary, George W. Bush’s campaign conducted push polling suggesting that McCain had fathered an illegitimate black child. Bush won the state, halting McCain’s momentum from a win in New Hampshire and effectively ending his bid.

• One they reached the White House, the Bush Administration orchestrated a systematic effort to overload the executive branch with authority, doing its best to marginalize Congress—McCain’s milieu—and requiring absolute fealty from Republican lawmakers.

• In March 2003, Bush launched a war that most Republicans—and many Democrats—were politically compelled to support. That war became deeply unpopular.

• Bush’s plummeting popularity was instrumental to the Democrats’ takeover of both houses of Congress in 2006, further marginalizing McCain in the Senate.

• Bush left the nation deeply dissatisfied with Republicans and hungry for an alternative. It was that country in which McCain had to run for president.