Break out the Pulitzers. This week some serious investigative reporting revealed that
Bill Bradley comes across as an arrogant oddball on the campaign trail.
The Washington
Post uncovered Bradley's difficulty connecting with voters and
concluded that his "biggest problem. . . may be an awkward campaign style.
. ." MAY be? Bradley has been on the public stage for decades and only now reporters
are bothering to notice a basic fact about his personality. His testy superiority makes
Al Gore appear almost likeable. Unlike Hillary Clinton, who seemed almost human with
David Letterman, Bradley is not enough of a phony even to fake a pleasing personality.
Meanwhile, John McCain's criticisms from the left — on
taxes, education, and campaign finance reform — have helpfully allowed
George Bush to define himself as the champion of conservative positions. And that
wasn’t the only bad news: Al Hunt wrote yet another column singing the Senator's
praises.
The recent controversy over McCain's letters to the FCC on behalf of
a campaign donor, which he defends as ordinary business undertaken in the course of his
oversight responsibilities as chairman of the Commerce Committee, illustrates the
weakness of his case for campaign finance reform. Either John McCain is the only
thoroughly
honest politician on Capitol Hill, or members of Congress are able to act
on legislation and perform oversight without being poisoned by donors' influence.
The unwelcome revelation doesn't appear to have hurt McCain in New Hampshire
where he still maintains a narrow lead over Bush in most of the polls. Forbes campaign
staffers speculate that McCain is benefiting from the Forbes ads accusing Bush of
breaking a tax pledge; N.H. voters, they argue, regard the broken pledge a character
issue, playing into a McCain strength.
But McCain still joins Bill Bradley as one of this week’s losers. Maybe the two of them
can shake hands on it.