When Arizona GOP Senator John McCain shows up in Manhattan later this week to speak at the New School graduation to reportedly defend the U.S. involvement in Iraq, the throngs of protesters sure to show up will simply end up as press fodder for McCain’s ongoing courtship of the conservative GOP base.
McCain, speaking on Saturday to graduates of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, said of Iraq, “”If an American feels the decision was unwise, then they should state their opposition and argue for another course — it is your right and obligation. But I ask that you consider the possibility that I, too, am trying to meet my responsibilities, to follow my conscience, to do my duty as best as I can, as God has given me light to see that duty.”
McCain is scheduled to deliver virtually the same speech at the New School as he did at Liberty, and the protest coverage — “counter-programming” as it’s known to campaign folks — will surely aid his political fence-mending efforts.
In the big press build-up to McCain’s Liberty University speech, there was a general expectation of a McCain apology to Falwell, and a new courtship of evangelicals after having attacked them as “agents of intolerance” during the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary.
But that never happened — and despite the fact the press wanted to write the story of McCain sucking up to Falwell, Falwell was barely even mentioned. The national print and TV stories were about McCain defending the war, not apologizing to evangelicals.
As far as McCain’s New School press coverage is concerned, the more protesters the better as far as McCain’s people are concerned.