McCain's 'Manchurian Candidate' Attack

At around 3:30 p.m. Monday, CNN provided a perfect illustration for the current moment in this presidential race. When John McCain took the stage in Albuquerque, N.M., about two thirds of the screen was consumed by a tight zoom of the big board above the trading floor on Wall Street--giant numbers showing a dramatic collapse in stock values and retirement funds across the country. On the other side of the screen, there was John McCain, his head dwarfed in size by the big green numbers. The image was so alarming--the financial collapse now overshadows the presidential campaign--that one could easily overlook the importance of the words McCain spoke. The Albuquerque speech represented a dramatic pivot in the McCain campaign's strategy, to what Republican strategists have called the "Manchurian Candidate" attack. The Manchurian... [read full story]