Issue date: 11/16/07 Section: News and Opinion

One of my favorite campaign strategies thus far from any of the Republican frontrunners is John McCain's "If you won't vote for me on my platform… vote for me on my MOMMY'S platform.", which, incidentally, could work out favorably for him. A change of strategy is clearly overdue in the McCain camp. What better way to slow the pace of your steady decline in the polls than by putting a camera on your 95-year-old Mormon-bashing mother? This is certainly not to say that the elderly Mrs. McCain didn't make a valid point in her MSNBC Hardball debut. As a matter of fact, I don't know that I disagreed with the old girl. What's wrong with saying of Mitt Romney, "As far as the Salt Lake City thing, he's a Mormon and the Mormons of Salt Lake City had caused that scandal. And to clean that up, again, it's not a subject."

The notion that Mormons had something to do with the Salt Lake City Olympic scandal in 2002 isn't really even anything that outlandish. The individuals who were members of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee probably were Mormons.

Roberta McCain's dear son John, however, left her out to dry. "The views of my mother's are not necessarily the views of mine," he quickly said in response.

First of all, that's not even grammatically correct. Second, John McCain has little to no room to talk.

Perhaps instead of disclaiming his poor old mother's batty opinions, little Jonny should consider disclaiming his own. Personally, I'd feel a mite better if he'd qualified his support of the illegal alien amnesty plan that he sponsored jointly with one Teddy Kennedy with something along the lines of, "Ted Kennedy's views do not represent sanity; nor do my own." It would be the most reasonable thing he's said in years.

As a matter of fact, it may have aided his campaign dramatically if McCain had taken Ted Kennedy onto Hardball with Chris Matthews instead of his mother. Why, Ted Kennedy adores Mormons. As long as they've entered and are residing in the country illegally, that is.

In all seriousness, John McCain should probably consider doing some soul-searching (if he has one, that is) concerning his stance on what I'll broadly term as "the issues". If his potential lack of a soul inhibits his being able to do so, a good alternative might be poll-searching, as it were.

Virtually since he first hit the campaign trail, McCain's poll numbers have been in a steady decline. I've also lost count of precisely how many times now he's gone broke. For McCain, it seems, slow and steady (decline in the polls) will lose the race.

Continued...

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