Were Charlie Black’s terrorist comments that God-awful?
WASHINGTON _ Maybe not, since John McCain has said similar things himself.
If you tuned into talking heads today, you’re probably hearing lots of teeth-gnashing over the remarks of Charlie Black, McCain’s veteran political strategist.
In an interview with Fortune Magazine, Black noted that the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was an “unfortunate event. … But (McCain’s) knowledge and ability to talk about it re-emphasized that this is the guy who’s ready to be commander-in-chief. And it helped us.”
Asked if a terrorist strike on American soil would help McCain, Black replied that “certainly it would be a big advantage to him.”
Black apologized and his remarks have been widely condemned as insensitive and impolitic. McCain said: “I cannot imagine why he would say it. It’s not true. I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America.”
This afternoon, the Obama campaign dug up some of McCain’s remarks after Osama bin Laden released one of his menacing video tapes just before the ’04 presidential election, saying that terrorists might attack America again.
“I think it’s very helpful to President Bush,” McCain said of the tape. ”It focuses America’s attention on the war on terrorism. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but I think it does have an effect.”
So what are we to think?
First of all, given the lightning quick pace this general election campaign is unfolding, it’s likely that this issue will be replaced by some new verbal ruckus by tomorrow. Or tonight.
Secondly, everybody knows that it’s to the Republicans’ advantage to invoke the specter of terrorism. Unfortunately for the GOP, concerns about terrorism have dimmed on the radar screen of public opinion.
Lastly, Charlie Black is a skilled Washington operator, an insider who also is known for candor. He no doubt revealed what many people are thinking. And he was successful in re-injecting an issue favorable to Republicans back into the campaign.
But given the rebuke by his boss and the heat he he enduring already for being a Washington lobbyist who has represented foreign clients, Black probably wishes that he would have ducked the question – or chosen his words more carefully.
While I listened to some of the “conventional wisdom” about Black’s comments regarding McCain receiving a “bump in the polls” if there were another terrorist attack, the thought came to me — “Is this really true?”
Might not the opposite effect be equally possible — that another “terrorist attack” might show how bankrupt the Bush-McCain strategy is and a new approach is needed.
Of course Black’s comments presume that the American public will “run to daddy” when frightened.