John McCain, American Everyman

Faux-populism has always been a prevailing feature of the conservative movement, an election-year strategy that has proven to be indispensable at dispatching liberal opponents. In 2000 Bush proudly stated at a black-tie dinner, “This is an impressive crowd: the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base.” Four years later, he proceeded to run a campaign based on the idea that John Kerry was a elitist, rich, out of touch debutante, while Bush himself was a man of the people, a rancher, more middle-class than prep-school.

While this version of reality was preposterous, many Americans bought into the line, and voted for George W. Bush because he claimed to respect them and share their values (in all fairness, John Kerry was all the things that Bush tagged him with, other than a traitor; it's just that Bush was an even better example of this type of person).

Now, Sen. McCain, John McCain of $520 shoes and 10 houses, is using the same tactic against Obama. His new ad talks about how easy Obama has it, while ordinary Americans “like us” struggle in an economic climate suddenly, inexplicably, turned against us. This is John McCain, son of a four-star Admiral, grandson of a four-star Admiral, schooled at a preparatory academe, legacy admission to and bare graduation from Annapolis.

Yes, yes, he spent five years sleeping on the floor of a bamboo cage. But lets be serious, if only for a second; those five years were the only five years McCain hasn't gone to bed on silk sheets. He was born into an elite family, married into one even more so, and now claims that his opponent, fathered by an immigrant nobody and raised by another nobody, who rose from obscurity to become the first black editor of the Harvard Law Review, is the one who had a smooth ride. Yes, John McCain was a prisoner of war and American hero. But as Wesley Clark said, if you run for President in 2008, you gotta bring something more to the table than, “I got shot down in 1967.”

But it's not just in this area that McCain sounds ridiculous. On August 19, John McCain apparently referred to lobbyists as “birds of prey” who feed on destroy good government, and pledged that there would be no place for them in his administration, should he be elected. McCain is going to have a hell of a time keeping lobbyists out of his White House when he doesn't even have the fortitude to keep them out of his campaign.

The loudest voice on his crew calling for the admission of Georgia into NATO was none other than a former lobbyist for Georgia. He's already had to ask several members of his team to step down, not because of lobbying, but because of blatantly inappropriate lobbying that presented numerous conflicts of interest. The fact is that in the primaries, John McCain took more money from lobbyists than any other candidate running for President. His campaign manager and top adviser are both registered lobbyists. There's no ambiguity here; McCain is extremely cozy with lobbyists. Statements to the contrary are patently absurd.

Now, I'm not going to go so far as to say that lobbyists are Satan's spawn. There's nothing wrong with advocacy for a viewpoint, even paid advocacy. I've even spent time lobbying legislators in an official capacity when I was in college. The problem is when lobbyist associations create either perceived or potential conflicts of interests with one's professional responsibilities.

I lobbied for several pieces of legislation on behalf of my college, but it's not like I worked for the legislators that voted on the bills, or really even the education "industry" itself. I don't necessarily agree with McCain that lobbyists are "birds of prey," but that's OK since neither does McCain. Nor do I think that being affluent should be a barrier to public office (though neither should a lack of worldly wealth); again, McCain clearly agrees with me. I just wish he'd cut the antics and say so.