The American Spectator

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McCain Isn't the Original Maverick

By Philip Klein on 8.5.08 @ 11:56AM

John McCain just launched a new ad , clearly aimed at independents, in which he casts himself as the anti-Washington reform candidate who "has taken on big tobacco, drug companies, fought corruption in both parties" and who will "reform Wall Street" and "battle Big Oil." It also borrows from Mitt Romney by declaring that "Washington's broken," (is McCain giving us a hint?) and creates distance between McCain and President Bush by declaring "we're worse off than we were four years ago." It also includes a factual error. The ad refers to McCain as the "original Maverick," but the original Maverick was actually a man named, Sam Maverick , a 19th-century Texan who refused to brand his cattle.

topics:
John McCain, Oil