John McCain’s daughter’s comeback from illegitimate black child to symbol of compassion
“Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?”
This push poll question from the 2000 presidential election marked the low or high point - however you look at it - of the infamous Karl Rove style of campaigning – also known as gutter politics.
George W. Bush’s chief strategist and his minions used the “poll” to suggest that the little, dark skinned girl next to McCain on the campaign trail was not his adopted daughter from Bangladesh, but a black child he fathered out of wedlock.
The poll struck a chord with South Carolina voters, effectively ending McCain’s first presidential run and handing the nomination to Bush. The rest is history.
But see, in the twisted world of Rove politics, that was then and this is now. Today, in 2008, John McCain is the Republican nominee and Karl Rove is out there pitching the story of McCain’s daughter with a “slightly” different angle.
Luckily, he can count on guys like Sean Hannity, the Republican machine’s chief Cool-Aid drinker, to sell out his radio audience of 12.5 million weekly listeners.
Listen to this nauseating clip of Karl Rove on the Sean Hannity Show (MP3)