When I saw the headline “McCain Adviser Won’t Fight Obama,” I surmised that a challenge to duel was being declined. The real story is actually even more bizarre.
A top adviser to John McCain said Wednesday that he will step down from the Arizona senator’s presidential campaign if the presumed GOP nominee faces Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the general election.
“I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama,” said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon in an interview with NPR’s “All Things Considered.” “I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.”
McKinnon, who was a Democrat before serving as President Bush’s ad maker in 2000 and 2004, said that he plans to be behind McCain “100 percent” no matter who the Democratic nominee is. He explained, however, that if the Democrats nominate Obama, he will be supporting McCain “from the sidelines.”
It turns out, though, that McKinnon had gone on the record with this position repeatedly, giving interviews to this effec at least as early as last June so, presumably, McCain knew this already. Which, really, makes it even more strange.
The obvious explanation, of course, is that McKinnon presumed Hillary Clinton would be the nominee. That’s much, much less certain than it once was.
